Lake County Sentinel
Perry Out-Physicals NDCL for 26-6 playoff victory
BY KEN KRIZNER
STAFF
(PERRY, OH) - Two physical football teams – mirror images of each other in many ways, according to Perry Head Coach Bob Gecewich –went at it for 48 minutes Friday night at Alumni Stadium, taking turns thumping each other.
While the Perry offense struggled for much of the second and third quarters, their defense never wavered, creating havoc for Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin junior quarterback Brady Capel and leading the Pirates to a 26-6 Division IV Region 13 playoff victory.
“Our defense played phenomenally tonight,” Gecewich said. “We put a lot of pressure on Capel tonight. This was a great playoff game.”
Playoff-tested Perry (9-2 and winners of six straight), the No 1 seed in Region 13, gets one more home game next week against No 4 Beloit West Branch (11-1), which advanced with a 35-14 victory over Norton. The Pirates are looking for their fourth consecutive appearance in the Regional championship game.
The Pirates offense can be summed up as starting fast and finishing fast. In between, they went without a first down in the second and third quarters as junior Nate Trefzger was making his first playoff start.
On Perry’s first play from scrimmage, junior running back Carter Hopkins took a handoff and went 80 yards for a touchdown. Then, on NDCL’s first offensive play from scrimmage, junior cornerback Greg Mechenbier intercepted a Capel pass, giving the Pirates the ball inside Lions’ territory. Six plays later, Hopkins scored another touchdown, although the extra point was no good.
After two possessions and in less than three minutes, Carter had 104 yards rushing, two touchdowns and the Pirates had a 13-point lead.
But the Lions defense rebounded, playing physical football and doing a good job of controlling Trefzger and the running combination of Hopkins and sophomore Traxton Richards. The Pirates could manage little offensively for the remainder of the first half, including being stopped twice going for it on fourth down.
“Unfortunately, we gave up a touchdown on the first play of the game and another touchdown on the second series,” said NDCL Head Coach Andre Griffin, whose team ends the season at 8-4. “But to our defense’s credit, they did a great job and fought to the end.”
Meanwhile, NDCL’s offense began to make some positive gains led by the passing and running of Capel, as well as the running of senior Dylan Hoenigman and receiving of junior Casey McInnerney.
Hoenigman had a 23-yard run on NDCL’s second series and junior Joey Velota added a 16-yard run as the Lions were able to get to the Perry 10 yard line before the drive stalled. Senior Ryan Cvitkovic hit a 27-yard field goal from the right hashmark to get NDCL on the board. Capel passed for 28 yards on the drive and picked up a first down on a 10-yard run on fourth down.
On Perry’s next drive, Richards ran 63 yards to get the ball to the NDCL 8 yard line, and it appeared the Pirates were heading for their third touchdown of the first quarter. But the Lions defense stiffened, highlighted by a 12-yard sack of Trefzger, who was attempting a bootleg, by senior Brendan Hernan. On fourth and goal from the 20 yard line, Trefzger’s pass over the middle fell incomplete.
The Richards run was Perry’s last substantial gain until the fourth quarter.
In the second quarter, Capel fumbled as he was sacked by sophomore Mason Bilicic, recovered by Perry’s freshman Adam Steverding. The Pirates had the ball deep in NDCL territory but the drive went nowhere.
A holding penalty on Perry put the ball back to the 20 yard line. Going for it on fourth down, the Pirates got a break when NDCL was flagged for pass interference in the endzone. But Perry could not capitalize as Trefzger’s pass to junior Brody Krantz’s back shoulder fell incomplete and the Lions took over on downs.
Taking over at its own 9 yard line, NDCL methodically worked its way down the field taking most of the remaining 7 minutes of the second quarter off the clock.
Capel made two key plays to keep the Lions drive alive. On a fourth-down play, he hit junior Casey McInnerney on an out pattern to pick up 9 yards and a first down. Later in the drive, Caple picked up a first down when he avoided a sack on third down, scrambled up the middle for 22 yards to the Perry 4 yard line, avoiding two tacklers along the way.
But Perry’s defense held firm and held the Lions on second and third down from the two yard line. Cvitkovic kicked his second field goal of the night from 19 yards to pull the Lions to within a touchdown at halftime.
Even though the Lions scored points on the drive, Gecewich believed holding them to a field goal was an important point of the game.
“Our kids line up and play the next snap and you saw that when [NDCL] had two plays from the 2 yard line,” he said. “They wind up kicking a field goal.”
Griffin lamented not being able to score a touchdown in that situation. “We just didn’t do what we needed to do to get into the end zone,” he said.
The third quarter turned into a physical, defensive game where both offenses had trouble moving the ball. The Pirates defense began to get to Capel, forcing him to move out of the pocket and throw on the run. The Lions defense bottled up Trefzger and the Perry running game.
The Perry defense continued to dominate as the game went into the fourth quarter as the Lions could not cash in on good field position at midfield and had to punt.
From there, Trefzger and the Pirates offense took command and put the game out of reach. A 56-yard pass to Mechenbier gave Perry a first down, its first since the opening quarter. That led to a 21-yard touchdown on fourth down as Trefzger completed a pass to senior Justin Costello who got behind the NDCL secondary in the end zone.
With time beginning to run short, NDCL was forced to go for it on fourth down from its own 20. Capel kept the Lions season alive, at least for one more set of downs, when he scrambled from one side of the field to the other and found Hoenigman for a completion at the 50 yard line. Hoenigman’s 30-yard catch came off of a deflection of another NDCL receiver. But the Lions weren’t so lucky on their next fourth down play as Capel’s completed pass to McInnerney was one yard short of a first down.
A 29-yard touchdown pass from Trefzger to Krantz with less than six minutes remaining completed the night’s scoring.
After a shaky first half, Gecewich said Trefzger’s play improved immensely in the second half.
“The plays were there, but [Trefzger] was a little hesitant at the start,” Gecewich said. “In [playoff] games, a split second late is the difference between a touchdown and turning the ball over. But he got better after halftime. Nate has done a great job this season and continues to grow.”
While the Pirates’ next opponent was not known immediately after the game ended, Gecewich says there are issues to clean up if Perry wants to continue playing in the playoffs.
“We can’t trade punts, we can’t trade three-and-outs and put our defense in difficult situations,” he said. “At times, NDCL was more physical than us. At other times, we didn’t execute. So, we have to clean that up. Those are fixable mistakes.”.
POSTED 11/08/2025 01:49
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Perry Pirates Carter Hopkins (23) carries the ball in the Pirates 26-6 win over NDCL on Friday night. Photo by Ken Krizner
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