SYCAMORE (Crawford County Now) — Looking at their respective numbers on paper, the Division VII Region 26 quarterfinal game with Mohawk (10-1) at North Baltimore (9-1) Friday has the potential to keep the scoreboard operator (and statisticians) quite busy.
Let’s start with the familiar, as the Warriors have put up 404 yards and 39 points per game. Their 8-0 record put them in a tie with Hopewell-Loudon for first place in the Northern 10 Athletic Conference.
Strong passing game
Leading the offensive attack is senior quarterback Andon Clouse, who’s thrown for 2,189 yards and 28 touchdowns and 5 interceptions.
His arsenal of receivers starts with Levi Tiell. Tiell put on a clinic last week catching 3 touchdown passes covering 36, 30 and 30 yards. He has 1,085 receiving yards and 17 TDs.
Jagger Ekleberry also had 3 receptions for 109 yards, including a 63-yard score. Through 11 games he has 23 catches for 696 yards and 7 touchdowns.
Tiell has had a remarkable career thus far, breaking the N10 single-season receiving record with 18 touchdowns and a career mark of 27.
The 6-foot 1, 175-pound junior has already topped 2,000 career reception yards.
Complemented by the run
But Mohawk is far from one dimensional.
Bruising running back Kaden Bish has rushed for 1,018 yards with 12 touchdowns, including 168 yards and a pair of 1-yard runs last Friday night in the 42-13 win over Wayne Trace.
Clouse also can tote the pigskin, running for 718 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Defensively, the Warriors have given up an average of just 188 yards and 10.6 points per game.
Linebacker Aden Patrizi tops the unit with 76 tackles, 43 of them solo, and 13.5 tackles for loss.
Clouse has 62 tackles, 8.5 TFL and a pair of picks. Chance Collene has four INTs and 2 fumble recoveries.
Tiell also has four interceptions. Connor Eader 4.5 sacks and 12 tackles for loss.
Patrizi is 52-of-56 on extra-point kicks and 2-of-4 on field goal tries.
A winning culture
Mohawk head coach Eric Daniel, in his eighth season, attributed his team’s recent success to a culture that is both tough-minded and player led.
“These guys love each other, play for each other and our younger kids look up to our seniors to be leaders,” he said.
The Warriors were N10 champions in 2024 going 10-3 and made it to the regional semifinals. Last season they went 9-3 before falling to Leipsic, 36-7, in the second round.
Mohawk may have surprised some, Daniel said, with 7 returning letterwinners.
“There were some question marks. I don’t think anybody guessed that we’d be where we are. That’s a credit to a lot of great young men who are in our program.”
Daniel’s roots in Sycamore run deep, having played for Mohawk from 2003-2006. He began as the team’s defensive coordinator before taking the head coaching reigns in 2019.
About North Baltimore
The Tigers are no slouches, either. They are averaging 501.7 yards and 47.2 points per game.
A balanced attack is led by quarterback Luke Long. He has passed for 2,765 yards with 36 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions.
Head coach Greg Bishop has relied on his senior signal caller, who was chosen Northwest Central Conference Player of the Year for the second straight season.
“Luke has developed as a leader. He is very easy to communicate with schematically because he understands our offense so well. We can make in-game adjustments very easily,” Bishop told The Toledo Blade.
Zander South is the top receiving threat having caught 23 touchdown passes and a total of 1,680 yards. Isaiah Hyden has contributed 596 yards and 9 TDs.
“Zander has stepped into the role of being a playmaker on both sides of the ball. Zander is a great athlete and plays at 100 miles per hour.”
On the ground Trevor Walter has rushed for 1,469 yards and 13 TDs. Long has added 459 yards and 9 scores.
The Tigers tied with Elgin for first place with both teams posting 7-1 records. They defeated the Comets, who wound up 8-3, by a 46-36 score in Week 5.
Friday marks the program’s fifth playoff appearance.
Last fall, North Baltimore went 10-0 in the regular season and won the league title with an 8-0 record.
The Tigers fell 63-42 to Pandora-Gilboa.
The lone blemish this season was a 56-52 defeat to Waynesfield-Goshen (7-4) in Week 7.
“Our biggest thing is we’ve gotta get back to playing our standard of football,” Bishop told The (Findlay) Courier after that loss.
“We slipped up last week, we didn’t play our best ball at all, and that happens. We wanted to come out and make a statement right from the get-go that we’re ready to go.”
And boy did they, topping Cory-Rawson, 66-21. Long passed for 347 yards, going 21-for-25 with 4 touchdowns to get his team back on the winning track.
But the following week the Tigers eked out a 16-14 win over Crestline (4-6), followed by a 50-42 victory over Upper Scioto Valley (5-6).
North Baltimore is tough against the run as evidenced by defensive linemen Eli Mockensturm and Jayce South both earning first-team honors for their dominant trench play.
Middle linebacker Emmitt Heldberg averages 10 solo tackles per game. Junior Quintin Contreras has 9 stops and South 5.6 and a total of 9 sacks.
It’s been a nice turnaround from a 4-7 season two years ago. Prior to this season, Bishop was candid in his expectations telling MaxPreps:
“We want to take that next step. We want to control our destiny through the league and everything,” he said. “We don’t want to be complacent. We want to take that next step and make a playoff run.”
PLAYOFF PAIRINGS
Division VII
Region 25
No. 9 Lowellville (6-5) at No. 1 McDonald (9-1)
No. 7 Dalton (5-6) at No. 2 Cuyahoga Heights (9-1)
No. 6 Ashtabula St. John (9-2) at No. 3 Mogadore (8-2)
No. 12 Norwalk St. Paul (6-4) at No. 4 New Middletown Springfield (7-3)
Region 26
No. 8 Pandora-Gilboa (7-4) at No. 1 Leipsic (10-0)
No. 7 Gibsonburg (6-5) at No. 2 Bascom Hopewell-Loudon (10-0)
No. 6 Edon (10-1) at No. 3 McComb (9-1)
No. 5 Sycamore Mohawk (10-1) at No. 4 North Baltimore (9-1)
Region 27
No. 9 Steubenville Catholic Central (8-3) at No. 1 Willow Wood Symmes Valley (10-0)
No. 10 Lucas (6-5) at No. 2 Danville (10-0)
No. 6 Strasburg-Franklin (8-3) at No. 3 Toronto (9-1)
No. 5 Shadyside (9-2) at No. 4 Reedsville Eastern (8-2)
Region 28
No. 8 Fort Loramie (6-5) at No. 1 Maria Stein Marion Local (10-0)
No. 7 New Bremen (6-5) at No. 2 Ansonia (9-1)
No. 6 Cincinnati Country Day (6-5) at No. 3 DeGraff Riverside (8-2)
No. 12 Fort Recovery (4-7) at No. 4 Minster (7-3)
Regional tickets: Adults $12, students $5.
More information: https://www.ohsaa.org/sports/football