The Canton McKinley Bulldogs travel to Mentor on Friday, Nov. 13, for a Division I, Region 1 regional semifinal that is a rematch of last year’s third-round game at the same stadium and the same stage of the playoffs, The Repository reported. No. 7 seed McKinley (9-3) faces No. 3 seed Mentor (9-2) at Jerome T. Osborne Senior Stadium, where the Cardinals stunned the Bulldogs 25-24 a year ago on a touchdown and 2-point conversion with 20 seconds left.
Mentor has ended McKinley’s season in the playoffs in each of the previous two years and in five of the past eight, according to The Repository. The Cardinals have won eight straight games in the series, dating to a run of four straight McKinley wins from 1994 through 1997, and McKinley has not advanced past the third round of the playoffs since 2006 — when it lost to Mentor in a state semifinal.
Second-year McKinley head coach Renzy Parnell told The Repository that Friday’s game is not about a mental hurdle against the Cardinals. “I don’t hear it from our kids,” Parnell said, in comments reported by The Repository. “I don’t sense it from our team. What I sense is last year. It’s all about, hey, they stopped us last year. We’ve got to get this one back.”…