Battle of Winless Teams Goes to Padua and Drops Stronsgville to 0-3 on the Year

The Srongsville High football team is entering uncharted waters after a 21-7 loss on Friday at Padua that dropped the Mustangs to 0-3.

"I don't recall having scored only two touchdowns in three  games but that is what we have done," said Strongsville head coach Russ Jacques, whose team will look for that elusive win when it hosts a Friday game against unbeaten Elyria in a Northeast Ohio Conference crossover game. it is the first meeting between first year Elyria coach Kevin Fell and Jacques who have both taken a number of their teams to the state playoffs in the past.

Strongsville scored one touchdown in a 20-15 loss to Lake Catholic and was shut out the next week, 31-0 at Gahanna Lincoln.

"But I still feel that if we win our (NOC) division we will make the playoffs because of who we will have to beat to win the division," added Jacques after the loss to Padua.

 Padua, while moving to 1-2 with the win, took a 13-0 lead at the half after a scoreless first quarter.

Matt Bahnij hit a 35-yard field goal for the Bruins on the second play of the second quarter and that was followed by a 52-yard screen pass from quarterback Jim Solano to running back Will Hughes with 5:51 left in the half.

The Bruins made it 13-0 when Bahnij connected on a 32-yard field goal with only 19 seconds left in the half but it could have been worse for the Mustangs. The Bruins looked to go up 17-0 but a 3-yard touchdown run by Solano was called back on a holding call and Bahnij hit his second field goal of the game two plays later.

Strongsville tried to answer with a 60-yard kickoff return by Corey Dohar only to have a 43-yard field goal fall short on the final play before intermission.

The Mustangs did get on the board when Dohar capped a 79-yard drive with an 10 yard run to the left corner of the end zone with 5:04 left in the third to cut the Padua lead to 13-7. Strongsville had its next drive stall at the Padua 39 and it ended much worse than the Mustangs would have wished.

Instead of pinning the Bruins deep in their territory with a punt, the long snap by Strongsville went over the head of the punter and wound up with Padua taking over at the Mustang 25. It set up Padua for an insurance score when Hughes scored from the 10 on the second play of the fourth quarter.

Two Strongsville drives in the fourth quarter ended with quarterback Austin Pritchard missing connections on a fourth and 12 pass to turn the ball over on downs with 5:37 left and the second ended with Pritchard getting intercepted with just 1:40 left in the game.