Photo

Photo by: MICHAEL TAYLOR

Cardinal Mooney football coach P.J. Fecko, left, and former two-way lineman Jon Italiano hold the Cardinals’ 2004 Division IV state championship trophy. Winning that title was the end of an emotional run by Cardinal Mooney’s players and coaching staff .

By Joe Scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Students at two high schools today were mourning three teenagers who died when their speeding Chevrolet Lumina jumped a curb in Mill Creek Park and rammed into huge boulders alongside the road.

The crash, which occurred at 11:40 p.m. Saturday, claimed the lives of:

Anthony Childs, 18, of East Dewey Avenue, a student at Cardinal Mooney High School. He was sitting behind the driver.

Isiah Thomas, 16, of St. Louis Avenue, a student at Mooney. He was seated in the front closest to the passenger door.

Amanda M. Ferraro, 16, of New Road, Austintown, a student at Fitch High School. She was seated in the middle front.

— Excerpt from The Vindicator, March 29, 2004

When the Cardinal Mooney football team began training camp in 2004, it was 17 years removed from its last state championship and just three from a winless season in which the Cardinals were outscored 330-57.

The 2004 seniors were freshmen during that 2001 season and they were driven by two things: bringing Mooney back to prominence and honoring the memory of Childs, an All-Ohioan on the 2003 team, and Thomas, who would have been a senior in the fall of 2004.

Over the next five months, they did both.

Senior OL/DL Jon Italiano: We felt like we had two obstacles to overcome as seniors. First, when we were freshmen, [Mooney] went 0-10 and the feeling was, ‘Hey, we’ve got to turn this around.’ The other was the tragic accident that had happened the [school] year before. When Isiah passed, it gave us more incentive because now we had somebody to fight and win this for, and not just ourselves.

Mooney had gone 8-3 in 2003, making the playoffs for the first time under Don Bucci’s successor, P.J. Fecko, who wasn’t sure if he had a state championship team, but felt confident he at least had a playoff team.

The Cardinals opened the season with a 26-0 win over East Liverpool, a game that was suspended by thunderstorms at the midway point and continued the next morning in scorching heat.

Italiano: I remember driving into East Liverpool because the fans there hated us. We called them the River Rats. They were throwing rocks at our bus and we got off the bus they were booing us.

Fecko: That was not an ideal situation, having to travel over the course of two days, but you did see the leadership and the team chemistry. Nobody really seemed fazed by it. It was our first adversity and everybody was able to overcome it.

Mooney then posted home victories over St. Thomas Aquinas (24-3) and East Cleveland Shaw (35-0) before traveling to play at nationally-ranked Warren Harding. Trailing 22-14, Mooney QB Kyle McCarthy ran for a 5-yard touchdown with 43 seconds left but was buried on the two-point conversion attempt. The Cardinals recovered the onside kick but time ran out before they could attempt a game-winning 43-yard field goal.

McCarthy: I remember Josh Moffie, an upback for us, was so fired up before the game that he started crying. He’ll never live that down. And I remember being extremely sore the next day. That was a heartbreaker. It still stings.

Italiano: We were all [ticked] off that we lost that game. I remember laying down on the field after that game almost in tears. We were starting to understand we were pretty good, but it also made us realize we were beatable.

Fecko: They [Harding] were pretty darn good. [Head coach Thom] McDaniels was there at the time and he had it rolling. We were angry that we let one slip away but we started to see even then that we had a group that could compete at a high level.

After rolling past Painesville Riverside to improve to 4-1, the Cardinals got hammered by eventual Division III state champion Cleveland Benedictine, 49-25 at YSU.

Italiano: They were just ridiculous. They reminded me of college athletes. It was almost like, “Where did these people come from? They aren’t normal.”

McCarthy: That was, without a doubt, the best team we played all year. After that, we knew if we lost another game, we probably wouldn’t get in the playoffs and I remember having a meeting with the seniors because there were some people on message boards questioning our toughness. That got us all fired up. I remember guys like Jonathan Italiano, [senior RB/LB] Michael Rich and [senior LB] Eric Mariotti really took it personally. And in high school, the only thing we could do to respond was to beat up on the team in front of us.

Mooney finished the regular season with home wins over Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary (19-13), Ursuline (55-27) and Columbus Watterson (14-10) to earn the third seed in Division IV, Region 13. After rolling past Garrettsville Garfield 42-21 in the first round, the Cardinals played a Chagrin Falls team that featured future Ohio State and NFL wide receiver Brian Robiskie.

Mooney won 42-13.

Fecko: I think Chagrin Falls was totally shocked by how good we were. We got after those guys and they had a pretty good football team.

That set up a memorable showdown with Liberty in the regional final. The Leopards had upset Ursuline 6-0 the week before and were loaded with Division I recruits. Mooney won 14-6 on a wet, muddy grass field at Austintown Fitch. Both Cardinal touchdowns came off poor punt snaps by Liberty in the third quarter.

Fecko: We knew how good they [Liberty] were, but I’m not sure the general public knew.

Italiano: Nobody knew Liberty was that good. I think everyone underestimated them. They were athletes. Big, tough and disciplined.

McCarthy: Liberty had a heck of a team that year. It was an ugly, sloppy game and sometimes when you have a special season, you need the ball to bounce your way every now and then. Luckily, it did for us.

Fecko: Some people may say we got a little lucky, but hey, long-snapping is part of the game. Our guy was able to get the ball back to the punter when we were punting. Looking back, we don’t put an asterisk next to that W.

Mooney beat Martins Ferry 28-6 in the state semifinal to advance to its first state championship game since 1987. The Cardinals, who had won four state titles under Bucci, were matched against Versailles, a six-time champ, in a 3 p.m. game at Canton’s Fawcett Stadium.

Italiano: Before the game, all the captains got in the locker room and gathered everyone together. It was just us. All the coaches had said what needed to be said. And we just talked about our memories, what got us to that level and how this group of guys and coaches really turned around the whole football program over the past few years. And one last thing — we talked about how our friend (Thomas) wasn’t there to share these awesome feelings.

The game served as a showcase for McCarthy, who ran for 98 yards and a touchdown, passed for a 47-yard TD to Dan Buccino (his only completion of the day) and returned an interception for a 93-yard touchdown. Nate Burney added 118 yards rushing as the Cardinals won 28-6.

Fecko: The thing with Kyle is, he had made plays like that all year. Not just good plays, but really good plays. Even the little stuff that people don’t normally understand or see, we’d look at it on tape and say, ‘Wow, that kid had an angle on him and he just ran away from him.’ The nice thing was the team was really grounded and very tight, so nobody really cared if Kyle was getting all the attention.

McCarthy: I’m still best friends with a lot of those guys. We still talk daily. That’s why high school football is so different. It’s just the most pure form of the sport. Everybody is out there because they want to be out there. There’s no scholarship on the line or money on the line. You’re just playing with your buddies. That’s why that game is so special to me. I’ve played in the Sugar Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, won an AFC West championship [with the Broncos] but winning a state championship with your friends is just different.

At the ring ceremony, Mooney presented Thomas’ father with a state championship ring. Italiano’s best memory came during a Mooney tradition called the “Last Lap,” where the seniors take a final lap around the practice field.

Italiano: We all held hands and we were telling jokes and reminiscing, but by the time the lap was over, half of us were in tears. We walked up the steps to the locker room and the parents were all clapping us in. And I remember I didn’t understand what happens next. Do we still go to football practice? Do we still have film tomorrow? That’s when I realized it was over. That senior class is kind of scattered across the country, in California, Indiana, Florida, and I’m seriously the only one still in Youngstown. But we’ve had a group text going for three years. We still talk about that season to this day. I couldn’t have asked for anything different or anything better.