Perkins 'ready to go' against defending champ Glenville

PERKINS TWP. — It's here. Perkins has spoken about the idea of playing Glenville in a regional football final since the immediate days after last season ended. There's been little doubt in their minds that they could be good enough to make it to this point. Now that the moment has arrived, all that's left to do is win. "We've been speaking this into existence for about a year now that we're gonna play Glenville," junior Weston Sturzinger said. "Friday, it's gonna have nerves, but we'll be ready to go." The Pirates (12-0) and Tarblooders (10-3) meet Friday night in Elyria to send one team to the Division IV state final four. Glenville is the defending state champion. Perkins hasn't played this far into the season since its 1999 state title. "It's exciting," Perkins coach Jalen Santoro said. "It's a regional finals game. You're playing the defending state champs, a really good football team, and you finally get to really see what you're made of." Glenville is far from a standard three-loss team. One defeat was 28-16 to Archbishop Hoban (11-1), which plays in a D-II regional final this week. Another was 24-16 to Avon (13-0), another D-II regional finalist. And the third was 28-6 to Florida's IMG Academy, one of the best high school-age football teams in the country. "There's a lot of teams that play Glenville that come out with a shock factor," Santoro said. "It's a double-edged sword of what we did speaking it into existence… You've talked about it for so long. There's not a shock to it. You could've looked past stuff, but you're here now and you've been waiting for it for so long and now you've got to capitalize on it." The Tarblooders are coached by Ted Ginn Sr. and feature a host of Division I commits. Two Glenville players will head to Ohio State after this season — tight end/linebacker Damarion Witten and cornerback Bryce West. They've got lots of size, including 235-pound running back D'Shawntae Jones, who was All-Ohio First Team last season and has offers from the likes of Kentucky, Syracuse and Army. Offensive tackle Fred Johnson Jr., at 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds, is bound for Louisville. Defensive ends Jameil Hamm (6-4, 235) and Kareem Jennings (6-3, 250) hold MAC offers. Safety Jermaine Agee is committed to Army. "They're fast and they're big," Santoro said. "They have players all over the field." Glenville's quarterback is senior Ruel Tomlinson Jr., who missed a chunk of the season with injury after transferring from Walsh Jesuit. "They have guys that are big-time recruits, going to Ohio State," Santoro said. "Then they have guys that aren't mentioned as much that'll probably be playing college football still… guys that people don't even know their name that'll be playing at Tiffin or Grand Valley or a MAC school. Across the board, they have really good players." The Pirates aren't fazed by the scope of the matchup, because they've had their minds pointed in this direction for months. They didn't look too far ahead, escaping highly competitive playoff matchups with St. Marys Memorial and West Holmes to get to this point. Perkins has a small senior class, with officially 10 on the roster, but it's a strong one. Logan Lesch, a third-year starter at quarterback, has thrown 35 touchdowns this season and rushed for seven. His 96 career passing TDs ranks 13th in state history. Right tackle Jacob Ziegler, finally back to full health, helps protect Lesch. The likes of tight end Kaiden Nixon, defensive back Wyatt Nemitz, defensive lineman Cam Fosco and kicker Noah Normington-Slay make up the sturdy group that doesn't want their careers to end yet. "Kind of going back to sophomore year, the first taste of playoff football, there's nothing like playoff football in Ohio," Lesch said. "Moving through my career, it's all been leading toward this senior year." The Pirates have a ton of talented juniors who look ready for this stage and could make their way back next year, too. Isaac Bunts has 1,645 rushing yards and 27 rushing touchdowns. Braylon Collier has totaled 1,073 receiving yards and 16 TDs, with Weston Sturzinger right behind at 924 yards and 10 scores. "It's about being as dialed in as possible right now," Santoro said. "... It really just comes down to trying to be perfect in every aspect of what you do this week." Haiden Bollini, left tackle and defensive end, was just named the Northwest District co-lineman of the year. Reagan Kaufman has 84 tackles and 11 sacks from defensive end. Dylan Crabtree and Mikey Young have combined for 170 tackles at linebacker. Sophomore Braxden Martin leads the Pirates with 106 tackles. John McGlashen, another sophomore, has seven sacks. "They've got a well-coached team and their offense is pretty explosive," Ginn said. "They're not undefeated for nothing." Perkins is as healthy as it could be at this juncture of the season. The Pirates are averaging 45.1 points per game and allowing 11.7 per game. They know Glenville will be the best team they've faced. But that's part of what makes the challenge a fun one. "This was the year everybody talked about," Lesch said. "We've been talking about this for five, six, seven years, but especially this offseason, we really talked this into existence playing Glenville in Week 14. It's amazing to be at the spot we are." ----- GLENVILLE (10-3) Dinwiddie, Va. (neutral) W 36-13 At Olentangy Liberty W 34-10 At Avon L 24-16 John Adams W 38-0 At IMG Academy L 28-6 John Hay W 54-7 Rhodes W 42-6 At Akron Hoban L 28-16 John F. Kennedy W 41-0 At John Marshall W 42-7 Playoffs Lima Bath W 44-0 Napoleon W 44-7 Shelby W 50-14 PERKINS (12-0) At Toledo Woodward W 81-0 At Elyria Catholic W 62-19 Rocky River W 59-28 Bellevue W 49-0 At Clyde W 31-7 Edison W 49-14 Norwalk W 52-3 At Sandusky W 31-14 At Columbian W 55-28 Playoffs Vermilion W 44-6 St. Marys Memorial W 28-21 West HolmesW38-21