Warriors and Bulldogs to tangle in regional semifinal

It's been since 2002 since Mohawk and Columbus Grove squared off against each other on the football field. But 22 years later, at the same stage of the playoffs, the two will meet again in a Division VII regional semifinal at Fostoria Memorial Stadium Friday.Columbus Grove, who is unbeaten at 12-0, is used to being in this position. The Bulldogs are coming off of two-straight state runner-up appearances and they've been the playoffs every year since 2019, when they missed the postseason with a 7-3 record. Columbus Grove, like many teams locally who make a state playoff run eventually run into a MAC school. They will want to change that recent history this season.For Mohawk (10-2), it's a little different.Last season, the Warriors were 2-8. But after a turnaround season led by a strong senior class and three-year starting quarterback Ben Bogner, they're back where they belong. Before this season, it had been since 2021 that the Warriors played in Week 11."It takes a lot of work for teams to get into this position and it starts in the offseason and the guys did everything right," Mohawk coach Eric Daniel said. "Some of our best players were our top workers, but they also did bring along other guys. "We knew we had something this summer, we thought we'd be pretty solid, but there are a lot of similarities between a good and a bad team in the offseason and it's when you get into a season and it's how you handle or respond to adversity, how good of teammates do you have and that team chemistry really shows up when that rubber meets the road with those adverse situations during a game. That Calvert game showed us a lot. I knew we'd be in a good position after that game. I've never seen a group less selfish in my life and they're still doing it today."Even though the Bulldogs are unbeaten, they know adversity quite well facing some injuries – two at quarterback nonetheless."It's the first time in my career where I had multiple injuries at the same position. We've dealt with injuries before obviously, but not at the same position and certainly not at quarterback," Bulldogs coach Andy Schafer said. "I think the biggest thing was to keep the focus and keep that next-man-up mentality. That's what we've established here at Grove. If you look at the last few years, we've lost some really incredible players, but that's high school sports. They graduate and you move on with that next-man-up mentality. "You don't really want to do that in the middle of a season, but in our case that's what we had to do. It just doesn't matter who you are, and we've embedded it into our program that we're Columbus Grove and we're just gonna keep moving no matter who we have."While Grove has had to overcome some challenges with injuries this season, it still has some fantastic players, mostly starting up front at the line of scrimmage and senior running back Trent Barraza. Barraza is the two-time NWC player of the year and was first-team all-Ohio a year ago for the Bulldogs. During the regular season, he tallied 210 carries for 1,911 yards and 28 touchdowns.A couple more top skill guys are wideout Trevon Baxter with 31 catches for 478 yards and eight touchdowns in the regular season and tight end Brady Basinger with 13 catches for 201 yards and four scores.When asked for a few things that stand out about the Bulldogs, Daniel responded with: "Everything.""You put me behind that offensive line I'd be able to chuck it a few times and they're great up front," he said. "They have an all-state back back there and one of the best small-school backs I've ever seen in Barraza, he's unbelievable. They've got weapons everywhere and their tight end of H-back blocks better than anyone I've seen all year. When you're built like that you can overcome quarterback injuries, but when you look at them 1-11 on the field, it's the best teams we've seen all year. They pop out on film that way. "That Barraza kid is really good, but the other 2-11 kids are extremely good. They're fundamentally sound, well-coached and come off the ball … offensively they just smack you in the teeth. You can be one-on-one with Barraza in the hole, but then he'll make you miss or break a tackle and he's gone for 80 (yards). I mean he does that like twice a game. This week it comes down to can we cut that 60-yard run down to a 12-yard run? We've kind of hung our hat on that this year doing a really good job being able to contain the big play, which has been huge. That's critical this week. We can't make anything easy for them."Bogner has led the Warriors to its first N10 title since the 2018 season. Through 12 games this season, he is 119 of 211 passing for 2,173 yards with 26 touchdowns and only five interceptions. He also has 180 carries for 1,263 yards rushing with 10 more scores. Sophomore running back Kaden Bish has 71 carries for 460 yards and eight TDs and the top wideouts are seniors Kahne Hayman with 55 grabs for 1,047 yards and 11 touchdowns and Kaleb Bish with 33 catches for 644 yards and eight more scores."I know a little bit about Mohawk and I know they play in the N10, which we played Carey in the same round last year, so that conference is filled with tough, hard-nosed kids," Schafer said. "I know where Mohawk is located, it's a tough town and that's what they build their identity on and that's great because that's ours too, so we respect that."They certainly runs the quarterback quite a bit and he's good at running the ball, but the thing that he offers is his ability to throw it and I'm talking like 40, 50 or 60 yards down the field … he's got a cannon. It's almost like watching a dog chase a frisbee as their receivers go hunt them down, they really do, so with that any given moment can be a momentum swing for them. To get our defensive backs to come up and challenge the run, but also be ready for the deep passes, it'll be a challenge this week." Junior linebacker Owen Patrizi leads the Mohawk defense with 129 tackles, 15 tackles for a loss, three sacks with two picks and one forced fumble.