On September 9, 2022, Mentor Cardinals faced off against Football North, a Canadian team from Ontario. The theme for the audience was red, white and blue. Many students were showing pride for not only their country, but for their team as well. After both national anthems and the Mentor alumni theme, the game had started.

Quarter One

The game started with an exciting interception by Mentor, but sadly their drive to the goal ended in a fumble. At 7:16 left on the clock, Caleb Pohto intercepted the ball. With 6:03 left on the clock, Mentor got a 4th down conversion. After 10 mins had passed, at 5:11 left on the clock, the first touchdown of the game was scored by Mitchell Waite, Mentor was up 7-0. Unfortunately for Mentor, Football North with 1:53 left scored their first touchdown. At the end of the first quarter, the teams were tied.

Quarter Two

The first play of the 2nd quarter led to a touchdown by Jacob Snow. Mentor had regained the lead, score was now 14-7. However with 7:23 left on the clock, Football North had regained momentum and scored another touchdown, the teams were tied once more, 14-14. At 7:17 left, Caleb Pohto fumbled the ball, but was able to recover it in time. At 4:30, Mentor turned over on downs, this led to Football North getting a touch down with 3:13 left in the quarter, leaving the score 14-21. At 2:05 a Football North player got injured and was taken off the field. With only 16 seconds to spare Mitchell Waite scored a touchdown, which tied two teams before halftime.

Halftime

Starting off halftime was our own Fighting Cardinal Marching Band. During halftime FCMB preformed “Times like These” by Foo Fighters and “Holiday” by Greenday. Then the middle school bands joined in to play “Land of 1000 Dances” and “The Imperial March.” Lastly, FCMB took center stage again and preformed “Driving with the Top Down” and our very own Mentor Fight Song. Coming up soon are Ohio Music Educator’s Association contests on September 24th at the University of Akron.

However, FCMB wasn’t the only performance at halftime. After FCMB was finished, our cheerleaders had entered the scene. They did a performance called “Fight Job”.

Quarter Three

In the third quarter, both teams had their first punt of the game. In the middle of the third quarter Football North scored another touchdown, taking the score to 21-28. After a lot of back and forth, the quarter ended. However this didn’t break the team’s, audience’s, and the Sparkle Cheerleader’s spirits.

Quarter Four

With 11:09 left on the clock, Football North does the first punt of the fourth quarter. After an interception with 10:39 left in the game, Football North gets a touchdown, bringing the score 21-35. However, with 7:05 Mitchell Waite scores a touchdown, bringing the score up to 28-35. After this Football North gained back the ball, with 3:30 left, Football North scored another touchdown, bringing the score to 28-41 since Mentor blocked the extra point. However, Football North was able to regain the ball again and score a final touchdown with 48 seconds to spare, ending the game with a score of 28-48. Football North won the contest.

Today, Mentor faced a tough opponent, fought tough, and had a tough lost. Hopefully our luck at Brunswick in two weeks will lead us to victory. To watch the full game, head onto this Video.