By JOE SCALZO

By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
CANTON -- Orrville High football coach Doug Davault didn't have an answer for Mooney on Friday night. He's not sure anyone else will in the next two weeks, either.
"That's an outstanding football team," Davault said of the Cardinals, following a 50-21 loss in a Division IV regional final at Canton Central Catholic. "I'll be surprised if they even get a scare in the next two weeks. I don't know if there's anybody even close to them."
How loaded is Mooney? After losing starting senior tackle Ishmaai'ly Kitchen (who stands 6-3, 317 and just happens to be the district defensive player of the year), the Cardinals plugged in senior Mike Robinson (6-4, 319).
That's right. They actually got bigger.
"Even trade, huh?" said Mooney coach P.J. Fecko, breaking into a slight grin.
Need more evidence? How about this. Mooney faced a third-and-10 on its opening series, which is a passing down for every other team in the state. The Cardinals, however, went with a fullback counter play and Michael Zordich picked up 12 yards.
Or this. For the game, Mooney junior quarterback Dan McCarthy was 0-for-2 passing. Yet the Cardinals had 298 yards -- at the half. McCarthy had 175 of those yards (thanks to some second-half losses, he finished with 159) which included a 55-yard TD run in the second quarter.
Basically, the Cardinals are loaded. And they know it. At the end of every team huddle this season, the Cardinals have broke the huddle saying "One-two-three ... state champs!"
"We've still got another tough game next week before we can start thinking about that," said McCarthy who had two rushing touchdowns.
The Cardinals (12-0), who finished the regular season with the top ranking in the Associated Press poll, will face Oak Harbor in Friday's state semifinal at a site to be determined.
Win that, and Mooney can start thinking about state championship No. 6. In case you're wondering, only one Mooney championship team has gone undefeated -- the 1987 team.
A couple more first halves like Friday's and that 1987 team will soon have some company.
"Our guys did a great job this week in practice and we had tremendous respect for Orrville; they're an outstanding football team," said Fecko, whose team held a 387-24 edge in rushing yards for the game. "I think we definitely had some success running the ball and we were content to keep doing that."
Orrville senior quarterback Kyle Simmons, who shared district offensive player of the year honors with McCarthy, did the best he could in a tough situation.
He ran 19 times for 15 yards and a TD (the numbers were skewed because of four sacks) and completed 18 of 38 passes for 188 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. In the process, he broke school single-season records for passing yards and touchdowns.
Although the stats weren't great, he was forced to run for his life all game as Mooney brought one or two linebackers on blitzes and challenged Orrville's receivers one-on-one.
The Cardinals' corners, particularly Jason Hehr and Dom Scarnecchia (one interception each), were up to the challenge, while Mike McGlone (two tackles for loss and a sack) and John Simon (two sacks and two tackles for loss) wreaked havoc up front.
"We mixed up a lot of different things, trying to give [Simmons] some different looks," Fecko said. "We just tried to disrupt his timing."
It worked. At one point in the first half, a coach went up to Simmons and asked if he was trying to get the ball to his hot routes (i.e. his quick, dump-off routes). He said yes.
"Well, are they open?" the coach asked.
"I don't know," he said. With the pressure, he couldn't see.
The only bad thing about Mooney's performance, aside from a couple turnovers and the fact that it gave up more points than in any game this season (Mentor Lake Catholic had the previous high with 16) was the ankle injury to Kitchen. Fecko expected him to be OK. (Kitchen was in street clothes after the game.)
McCarthy, meanwhile, will join a few of his teammates today in Columbus as a guest recruit for the Buckeyes. (McCarthy has already been offered a scholarship by Ohio State.)
No matter how the game goes, he should get a good look at a championship team up close.
Not that he needs one.
He probably already knows what it looks like.
scalzo@vindy.com