JEROMESVILLE — From here on out, everything is a “first” for the Hillsdale football team.
It’s just a reality for the Falcons (12-1), who have set the program record for wins in a season and this Friday will play a 14th game for the first time in team history at Orrville High School.
The last area team to compete in four playoff games was the 2007 Ashland Arrows, who advanced to the Division II Final Four before the postseason expanded to the six-week format it now features.
Hillsdale, ranked fifth in Division VII in the season’s final AP state poll and seeded No. 2 in Region 25, takes on one of Ohio’s Cinderella stories in unranked, ninth-seeded Cuyahoga Heights (8-4) for the regional championship.
The Red Wolves have been the lower seed in all three of their wins, knocking off No. 8 Norwalk St. Paul (37-20), No. 1 Western Reserve (7-6) and No. 5 Warren JFK (21-19).
They are one of just four teams left in the playoffs seeded No. 9 or lower in their region. The rest of that group includes Kettering Alter (No. 10 in Division IV, Region 16), Wheelersburg (No. 14 in Division V, Region 19) and Delphos St. John’s (No. 15 in Division VII, Region 26).
“They’re just a fundamentally sound football team,” Hillsdale head coach Trevor Cline said. “They don’t have any spectacular, gaudy stats on the stat sheet, but they know how to win and they’ve won for many years.”
This is definitely not new territory for Cuyahoga Heights. The team is led by one of the most legendary coaches in Ohio high school sports history, Al Martin.
The Red Wolves were state runners-up in both 2016 and 2017 under Martin, who not only has a 262-70 record in 28 seasons on the football field at Cuyahoga Heights, but has collected more than 300 wins leading the school’s girls basketball team.
During their 2017 run to the Division VII state championship game, the Red Wolves beat Wayne County Athletic League power Dalton 42-41 for the regional crown.
In Division VI one year earlier, Cuyahoga Heights beat Hillsdale in the first round, 24-7 – the only meeting between the programs until now – on its way to an eventual title-game loss to Marion Local, 21-17.
Unbelievably, CHHS beat Ohio juggernaut Kirtland twice that season – both shutouts. That was the last time the Hornets didn’t make the Final Four.
While Hillsdale is riding an Ashland-area-record streak of nine straight seasons in the playoffs, the Red Wolves have made it in each of the last 10. They have a 38-26 all-time record in the postseason, almost all of that under Martin’s leadership.
Cuyahoga Heights graduated four All-Ohioans from its 10-2 team last season, which was eliminated in the Division VI regional semifinals by eventual state champ Kirtland.
The Red Wolves compete in the Chagrin Valley Conference and feature five players who recently were selected to the All-Northeast Lakes District first-team. Those include sophomore quarterback Zach Shafer (6-2, 210), junior running back Gavin Chamberlain (5-9, 147), senior receiver Devon Dzik (5-9, 165), junior center Aiden Flynn (6-1, 282) and junior kicker Bryce Rusch (6-1, 150).
At the end of the regular season, Shafer had 1,114 yards passing with 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
Cline, though, said they prefer to run things through Chamberlain (155 carries, 782 yards, 12 TDs through Week 10) when they can, adding he thinks the Falcons and Red Wolves will have very evenly matched lines on both sides of the ball.
Cuyahoga Heights is more run-focused in its option offense – the same offense Hillsdale used to deploy.
Shafer can throw it when needed and has the necessary weapons. Seniors Dzik (14 catches, 372 yards, 7 TDs through Week 10) and Zach Unger (21-234-3) were both All-Ohioans a year ago.
Skill players were a strength of the team when the season opened, and after a 2-4 start, Cuyahoga Heights has won its last six games.
The squad has shown the ability to make a comeback as well.
In the first round against St. Paul, the Red Wolves quickly trailed 14-0 before outscoring the Flyers 37-6 the rest of the way.
Then last week, CHHS was behind 13-7 at half to Warren JFK before pulling out its 21-19 win, getting a stop of the Eagles on a 2-point conversion attempt inside the final minute to hold on.
Hillsdale has more offensive firepower when looking at the numbers. The Falcons have shattered their program scoring record (505 points) and are averaging 38.8 points per game.
Sophomore quarterback Kael Lewis has expanded on his record-breaking totals, now 149-of-232 passing for 2,591 yards and 30 touchdowns.
Junior running back Owen Sloan (195-1,456-29 rushing) broke the Hillsdale record for single-game rushing yards last week in the Falcons’ win over Malvern with 287, adding four touchdowns in the process.
Meanwhile, senior receiver Holland Young set a new Hillsdale mark for single-season receptions (51-794-4 receiving), while junior receiver Hayden McFadden (50-1,223-16) is one catch behind him and continues to improve on his history-making season for the Falcons as well.
On defense, Hillsdale has seven different players with at least 50 tackles, including Brady Heller (120 tackles, team-high 3 forced fumbles), Aiden Hoffman (114 tackles), Jesse Trevathan (87 tackles), Sloan (67 tackles), Bradey Krichbaum (56 tackles, team-high 7 sacks), Lincoln Jones (54 tackles) and Jake Haven (51 tackles, team-high 7 sacks).
The Falcons have totaled 16 interceptions as well, led by Kyle Turk (4). Trevathan, McFadden and Brock Bower each have three picks.
Another key weapon is kicker A.J. Brown. The junior is statistically the best kicker Hillsdale has had, going 59-of-62 on PAT kicks this season and scoring 152 points in his career. In three seasons, he is 137-of-148 on PATs and 5-of-7 on field-goal tries.
Cline said the Falcons got a serious wake-up call during their epic, 50-48 win over Malvern last week. Hillsdale had a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter before needing a Hail Mary touchdown pass to win it at the end.
“I think our players understand that we’re very fortunate that we’re playing this week,” he said. “For the last eight or nine minutes, it was one of those situations where everything that could go wrong went wrong until the very last drive.”
Cline felt his squad was playing its best football during the middle portion of that game, when it built a 37-20 advantage. He said that replicating that will be the goal.
The stunning victory marked the first time since Week 6 that Hillsdale played a game decided by fewer than 20 points.
“Being able to gut out a win like we did last week is only going to help us,” Cline said. “Our players learned a lot from that game and they proved a lot of things that we thought of them.
“Not too many teams with their back against the wall with 30 seconds to go would be mentally tough enough to know that the game is far from over and be able to go down and get a game-winning drive like they did.”
Of all things this Friday, the weather might play the most critical role. Forecasts are calling for temperatures in the low-40s with a constant rain at Red Rider Stadium.
That reality could keep the Falcons explosive offense reined in some, but Cline said his team will be prepared.
“Playing this late in the year, the chances of having good weather are next to none,” he said. “If you want to make it to the (Final Four), you know you’re going to have to win a game (in weather) like this.”
The winner of the Hillsdale vs. Cuyahoga Heights game will pair up in the Final Four with the winner of Region 27’s showdown between Beaver Eastern (13-0) and Danville (11-2).