By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

It may have only been Week 4 of the regular season on Friday, but you could have fooled Mogadore head coach Matt Adorni.

“Tonight’s game had a playoff atmosphere,” he said. “It was like a playoff war.”

The Wildcats were victorious, topping Liberty-Benton 33-28 in a game that was played at a neutral site at Ashland University.

In the back-and-forth game, Mogadore struck first with a first-quarter touchdown and 7-0 lead. Liberty-Benton tied things up, 7-7, in the second quarter before the Cats took a 14-7 lead into halftime.

The Eagles knotted it again, 14-14 in the third quarter.

Mogadore took a 21-14 lead in the third quarter and the Eagles tied it a third time 21-21 in the third.

The Cats took a 27-21 lead with 7:11 to play in the fourth quarter, but missed the extra point, which proved costly — at the time — when Liberty-Benton took a 28-27 lead with 5:58 to play.

The go-ahead score by Mogadore occurred with just 1:20 to play, and the failed 2-point conversion, gave the team a 33-28 lead on a touchdown pass from Zeke Cameron to Devin Graham.

To get there, the Wildcats had two big fourth-down conversions.

The game was sealed with a goal-line interception by Mogadore with 23 seconds left to play.

Mogadore improves to 4-0 with the triumph and will play at Lucas next Friday in Week 5.

It is Mogadore’s second win this year with a game-saving defensive play to win the game. Back in Week 1, the Cats stopped the Falcons just inches off the goal line on a 2-point conversion run that preserved a 27-26 Mogadore win.

As for Friday’s win, Adorni was quick to point to his team’s work at the line of scrimmage.

“It was a really good game and the offensive line was fantastic,” he said. “Mason Williams and the Lehner brothers were solid on the ground. (Quarterback) Zeke (Cameron) played on elf his best games.”

Cameron finished the game with a pair of touchdown passes and now leads Portage County passers with nine.