By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

The 2025 high school football season is now officially over.

The last Portage County team standing, Mogadore, was eliminated on Friday in a Division VII regional final to McDonald, 42-21.

The Wildcats’ senior class went 38-12 in their four-year careers, including three league championships and nine playoff victories.

Those nine postseason wins runs Mogadore’s all-time playoffs win total to 76 — easily the most in county history.

Aurora is second in playoff wins with 29.

Mogadore’s overall playoff record is 76-36, while Aurora’s is 29-20.

No other Portage County school has a winning record in postseason play.

Here is a look at the all-time playoff history for the county.

WINS RECORD FOR THOMPSON

Streetsboro High School football coach Pete Thompson became the school’s career wins leader during the 2025 season, which was his ninth leading the Rockets.

Thompson set the school record with the team’s 56-14 victory at Woodridge in Week 7 on Oct. 3, and he now has 73 career wins with Streetsboro (116 career wins overall).

John Arlesic, who coached the Rockets from 2004-2016, had the previous school record with 68 wins.

AURORA IN THE CLASSROOM

The fall season was one of the greatest overall single seasons in Aurora school history.

The boys soccer team won the Suburban League championship before advancing all the way to the state championship game.

The volleyball team also won a league title and the program’s first-ever district crown.

Boys cross country runner Nathan Eminian finished seventh at the state championships.

Along the way, all of the school’s other fall sports celebrated successes, milestones and records.

The school’s excellence was not limited to the field or the court, however.

Aurora excelled in the classroom, too.

Athletic director Paul Powers shared these grade-point averages for all of the school’s programs. For the 10 fall programs, the Aurora average GPA was an astonishing 3.70.

• Girls cross country: 3.95
• Girls tennis: 4.10
• Boys cross country: 3.64
• Volleyball: 3.52
• Boys soccer: 3.71
• Girls soccer: 3.78
• Boys golf: 3.32
• Cheerleading: 3.50
• Girls golf: 3.89
• Football: 3.50

ALL-OHIO SOCCER

Four soccer players recently earned All-Ohio honors from the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association.

BOYS SOCCER

   • Callaghan Knapp, Kent Roosevelt, sophomore, Division III

   • Zach Pastor, Rootstown, junior, Division V

GIRLS SOCCER

   • Abby Dalessandro, Aurora, senior, Division III

   • Addison Mrakovich, Streetsboro, senior, Division IV

WRESTLING PHOTOSHOOT

Wrestling was in the spotlight last Wednesday!

We hosted our boys and girls wrestling photoshoot for the upcoming 2025-26 High School Wrestling magazine, which will publish next month to highlight the upcoming season.

Preorders are NOW OPEN by emailing tomnader@portagesports.com. Each magazine is $5/each.

The photoshoot was quite the production and hosted at East Trailers in Randolph. A special thank you to Mark Sable for helping coordinate everything and for all of the support for the project!

The wrestlers who attended the photoshoot were:

   • Aurora’s Nick Turba and Giulia Zayas

   • Crestwood’s Michael Berquist and Hannah Huffman

   • Field’s Dan Hudson, Carly Eldreth and Raegan Slusser

   • Garfield’s Landon Andel

   • Kent Roosevelt’s Gavin Edwards and Penny Edwards

   • Mogadore’s MJ Shellenbarger

   • Ravenna’s Ryder Denning

   • Rootstown’s Alex Ely, Reise Thomas and Morgan Giebel

   • Southeast’s Dominic Kemble and Riley Diehl

   • Streetsboro’s Cam Rogowski

   • Waterloo’s Sam Russell and Abigail Roberts

Portage Sports contributor Shannon Eldreth coordinated and captured all of the photos.

These photoshoots help create the art that leads the print product, but they serve as so much more than just that. The photoshoots are an opportunity to create a special memory for each of the student-athletes, their families, teams and communities. It is fun to see them interact with each other, and we wish them the best this season!

THE GOLDEN BASKETBALL IS BACK

We are proud to announce that…

The Portage Sports Golden Basketball Trophy will return for its fourth season for the 2025-26 high school basketball season!

This trophy is awarded to the school which has the student section with the best overall:

   • Theme creativity

   • Theme participation

   • Attendance

   • Chant volume

   • Chant creativity (something different than “you can’t do that!”)

   • Spirit signs throughout the gym

   • Sportsmanship

   • Game environment

The previous season winners were:

   • 2022-23: Mogadore

   • 2023-24: Crestwood

   • 2024-25: Kent Roosevelt

This season’s winner will need to consistently take their student section to the next level to be noticed and win the Golden Basketball Trophy.

COLLEGE SIGNINGS

   • Karm Warnke, Aurora boys soccer, University of Akron

   • Drake Brasiel, Aurora wrestling, Newberry College

   • Emerson Spiesz, Aurora volleyball, University of South Carolina-Upstate

   • Lailah Bohanan, Aurora softball, Youngstown State University

   • Charlotte Somma, Aurora softball, Lake Erie College

   • Abby Dalessandro, Aurora girls soccer, Murray State University