Brandon Beachum had two touchdowns and 175 yards rushing in the opener.

By JOE SCALZO

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

YOUNGSTOWN — When the football world last saw Mentor High quarterback Bart Tanski, he was a junior phenom who brought his team to the verge of the Division I state championship, only to fall by one point in double overtime of the state final.

Eight months later, Tanski was standing near the Stambaugh Stadium end zone with a stunned look on his face, the result of being sacked four times and held to 10 points by a Cardinal Mooney team ranked 25th in the nation by USA Today.

Final score: Mooney 21, Mentor 10.

Welcome to Youngstown, kid.

“We’ve played a lot of good teams,” said Tanski. “They’re one of the best teams we’ve seen.”

Minutes earlier, Mooney senior Brandon Beachum, one of four Division I recruits in his class, was bemoaning his team’s mistakes. If you didn’t know better, you might think his team had lost.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” said Beachum, who’s headed to Penn State. “We had a lot of busted plays on defense and a lot of them were my own fault.

“I got winded. I’d lose my breath and concentration.”

Game’s biggest play

Some perspective is needed. Beachum had game-highs in carries (28), touchdowns (two) and yards (175) as a running back. As a linebacker, he joined teammate Tim Marlowe on arguably the game’s biggest play, stuffing Mentor running back John Harasyn on fourth and goal at the 1 early in the first half. Mentor had driven 71 yards in 14 plays on its opening drive and was left with nothing.

“That was definitely the biggest play of the game, by far,” Beachum said. “To stop their offense right there says a lot about their defense.”

Mentor returned a ton of talent from last season’s team, which averaged nearly 31 points per game and never scored fewer than 15. But on Friday, it needed the second-longest field goal in Ohio high school history just to get on the scoreboard in the first half — senior Kevin Harper nailed a 58-yarder with five minutes left in the second quarter — and Mentor’s lone touchdown drive was kept alive by two costly Mooney pass interference penalties late in the third quarter.

Tanski finished 14 of 28 passing for 186 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He added 48 yards rushing.

“We’re looking at this as a wake-up call,” Tanski said.

When told the win wasn’t exactly going to downplay the expectations surrounding his team, Mooney coach P.J. Fecko shrugged and said, “We don’t have time to celebrate. We’ve got to worry about Game 2. Everyone else can do their job, from the media to the fans to the guys on the Internet.”

McCarthy adds clincher

Mooney quarterback Dan McCarthy, a Notre Dame recruit, added 134 yards on 14 carries, including the game-clinching 70-yard touchdown run with four minutes left. Mooney finished with 364 yards rushing and managed to beat the biggest school in Ohio despite throwing just one pass.

It was complete, by the way. McCarthy hit Marlowe for a 46-yarder.

Much of the credit on offense should go to a Mooney line that not only has five new starters from last season, but was missing two other players that were expected to start in the preseason. (One of them, junior John Simon, has a strained back and played solely on the defensive line.)

“Especially for how inexperienced they are, they did a great job,” said Fecko. “They were able to jell pretty quickly.”

Harper’s kick broke Nick Terracina’s Stambaugh Stadium record by 2 yards. Former Ohio State kicker B.J. Sander holds the Ohio high school record for a 60-yarder he made with Cincinnati Roger Bacon in 1998.

Harper’s response?

“I had no idea,” he said. “I thought it was 52 yards. I think if I had known, I would have kicked it differently.”

scalzo@vindy.com