By Phil Keren

Correspondent

A balanced offensive attack and a stout defense combined to give Mogadore a season-opening 31-8 victory over Crestwood.

The seeds for the solid victory were planted a week earlier after the Wildcats were, according to their head coach Matt Adorni, “absolutely outclassed and embarrassed by Garrettsville in our second scrimmage.”

At the next practice, Adorni said he and his staff had the team put on pads and go through a “really hard, tough practice.”

“This night started last Friday when we decided to put pads on,” Adorni said. “I haven’t done that in decades: Put pads on Friday night and get after each other.”

The result?

One week later, Mogadore defeated Crestwood decisively thanks in large part to a strong effort from the defense. The Wildcat D stopped Crestwood on downs on the Red Devils’ first four offensive possessions.

“Landen Williams moved back to linebacker tonight and played great in the middle,” Adorni said. “We didn’t let anything beat us deep and over the top. They like to take some shots. We knew they were good enough to make some runs here and there, and they had the ability to break runs… (I) just love the effort upfront. We have six sophomores on our defense that start and some of these guys were flying around in there tonight and I’m super proud of them.”

Fittingly, it was a defensive play that set up the Wildcats’ first touchdown of the 2026 season.

Late in the first quarter, Mogadore senior linebacker Kade Thomas intercepted a Crestwood pass and returned it 28 yards to the Crestwood 34-yard line. A 12-yard run by Thomas and a personal foul on the Crestwood defense moved the ball to the 9-yard line. After senior quarterback Maddox Smith picked up 6 yards on first and goal, Thomas darted into the end zone from three yards out to give the Wildcats a 6-0 lead 32 seconds into the second quarter.

On Mogadore’s next offensive possession, facing third down and 10, Smith connected on a 49-yard pass to junior Collin Hendrickson along the sideline to move the ball to the Crestwood 18-yard line. The Wildcats then returned to the ground attack as three runs from Thomas and one by Smith moved the ball to the Red Devils’ 3-yard line. This time, senior running back Jake Hopkins powered into the end zone to give his team a 12-0 advantage with just under four minutes left in the first half.

The long throw to Hendrickson was “real big,” Adorni said. “That’s kind of an all-or-nothing play and Maddox did a great job setting it up.”

Mogadore closed out the first half with a 10-play, 41-yard scoring drive. After a touchdown pass from Smith to Thomas was negated by a holding penalty, the Wildcats faced third down and 20 from the Crestwood 27-yard line. Smith dropped back and threaded the needle to Thomas, who secured the ball in the corner of the end zone in double coverage. The score put Mogadore ahead 18-0 with seven seconds left in the first half.

The Wildcats carried that momentum into the opening drive of the second half. On third down and 14 from the Mogadore 39-yard line, Smith rolled to his left and then threw a long pass to

Hendrickson for a 41-yard gain to the Crestwood 20-yard line. Three plays later, Thomas scored on a 10-yard run down the sideline to give Mogadore a 25-0 lead at 8:40 of the third quarter.

Adorni noted the second long pass to Hendrickson came out of a different formation.

“Collin’s a big body, he can run and he had a couple in traffic he almost caught. Maddox did a nice job not forcing anything tonight. (I’m) really seeing some maturity out of him. His feet are so good… and he did a good job getting himself out-of-bounds and not taking big hits.”

Smith completed 7-of-13 passes for 143 yards and rushed for 49 yards on 15 attempts. Adorni said the coaching staff agreed that Thomas, who is a wide receiver, needed to run the ball more this season.

“He’s got great balance,” Adorni said. “He’s just going to get better. Hats off to the guys blocking for him. Jake Hopkins and Landen did a lot of blocking for him in there tonight.”

Thomas rushed for 73 yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns. He also caught 5 passes for 53 yards and a score.

While Thomas will get more touches, Adorni noted, “I think we are going to be some nights where we’re going to have to muddy it up and be more (running back) by committee, but obviously Maddox (Smith) hitting some passes and doing some things with his feet as well. He’s just such a different dimension.”

While noting there are some plays to clean up, Adorni said he was “proud of our offensive performance and we truly believe we can get better.”

About midway through the fourth quarter, Crestwood junior quarterback Michael Kalista found a seam in the Mogadore defense and broke away for a 79-yard touchdown run.

Mogadore junior running back Quarviyon Siggers-Grace closed out the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run with three minutes left to play.

Adorni noted he was proud of the way his team responded after the coaching staff challenged them in the aftermath of their struggle in the scrimmage against Garrettsville.

“Garrettsville’s a really good team,” Adorni said. “They’ve won a lot of football games, but we measure ourselves against that. If we want to go where we want to go we’re going to have play teams like that and beat teams like that…we knew Crestwood was going to be physical and they were and have some kids who could fly around and hit, and they did, but (I’m) just really proud the way our kids responded to a big challenge this week from us as a staff.”