Perkins, Van Wert bring similarities to regional quarterfinal

PERKINS TWP. — Perkins has watched Van Wert from afar. Not just this season, but the past couple. The Cougars won the Division IV state championship in 2020, then reached a regional final last fall. The Pirates have felt Van Wert provides plenty of lessons to learn. "It's a team we've been sitting home watching the last two years saying hey, that's a team we want to play like," Perkins coach Jalen Santoro said, "a team we want to mimic a little bit, and a team that I feel has a lot of similar traits that we do as far as athletes and the size they have up front and the quarterback." Perkins will get a first-hand look at Van Wert on Friday night when the 3-seed Pirates (10-1) welcome the 6-seed Cougars (10-1) in a Division IV Region 14 quarterfinal. Both advanced with running-clock victories in the first round, setting up the area's potential game of the week. "They're good," Santoro said. "Very good, very sound, a very disciplined team. A very well-coached team, you can tell. It'll be fun." Santoro expects Friday's matchup to have a mirror effect for onlookers. Perkins and Van Wert do many of the same things, both offensively and defensively. "To the naked eye, to people that don't know football that well, we are very similar teams," Santoro said. "They run a 4-2 and a lot of the same coverages we run, same deal. They run a lot of empty trey/quad type stuff, empty sets." Van Wert was knocked out of the 2021 postseason by Port Clinton in a 49-21 loss. The Redskins scored the final 28 points of that game after it had been tied 21-all. The Cougars bring back a lot of talent from that bunch, and basically the entire Van Wert lineup has benefited from two long playoff runs' worth of extra practices. "A lot of those guys have experience from playing in the state title two years ago, so they got the extra five or six weeks," Santoro said. "A couple extra weeks last year, too. So they've got a bunch of guys who basically got an extra season of practice in the last two years that are now starting for them. All in all, they're a really good football team." The main difference in the two offenses will be pace. Van Wert likes to snap the ball 10 seconds after its previous play ended, whereas the Pirates often get to the line and then look to the sideline for a play. Quarterback Aidan Pratt makes it all work for the Cougars. In his second year as a starter, Pratt has thrown for 2,962 yards and 35 touchdowns while running for 664 yards and 10 TDs. "They've got a big quarterback," Perkins senior linebacker Zach Oprzadek said. "He plays defensive end, so he's a big kid... We've just got to play our game, really. We've shut down great quarterbacks throughout the whole year." Van Wert has standout receiver Maddix Crutchfield back from last year, too. He's got 52 catches for 810 yards and 11 TDs. Garett Gunter, another senior, is the possession guy with 53 catches for 732 yards and five TDs. Brylen Parker is the leading rusher for the Cougars with 135 totes for 753 yards and 17 touchdowns. "They're very efficient," Santoro said. "They don't make mistakes. They keep the ball moving down the field. It's very rare for them to get behind the sticks on first and second down. That's tough, too, because you're facing a team that's constantly third and five or six or better. That's very favorable for an offense." Perkins advanced past the regional quarterfinal a season ago, but that was a slightly different test with 16-seed Edison on the other side coming off its historic upset of top-seeded Bellevue. Now it's a Van Wert program that has won 14 of the 19 playoff games it has played, including 10 playoff wins in the last three years. The winner of Friday's game would likely take on 2-seed West Holmes, and then that victor could get top-seeded Glenville. Region 14 is a buzzsaw. The challenge starts this week for Perkins, which to become the program it wants to be will have to topple one of the programs it has followed closely in the hopes of an opportunity like this one.