Coach leads Mooney to 3rd straight final

YOUNGSTOWN — A few months after leading the Cardinals to their second straight state championship game, Mooney High football coach P.J. Fecko was at a banquet when someone asked him the difference between going 0-10 (which he did in 2001) and winning a state title.

“I told him the biggest difference is the adjectives people use in front of my name,” Fecko said, chuckling.

At a school like Mooney, where the expectations are enormous every season, Fecko has done something not even his predecessor, Don Bucci, could do: lead a team to three straight state finals.

“It’s not easy to do this once, let alone three times in a row,” said Fecko, who is 56-27 in seven years at the school. “It’s a whole lot of hard work. And to be here again is just a tremendous tribute to the players and the coaching staff and the program.”

The Cardinals (13-0) will meet Plain City Jonathan Alder (13-1) in the Division IV championship game at 11 a.m. Saturday at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in Massillon.