“We’re excited that we get the chance to play in the state championship game and especially excited that we get to play the team that beat us the last two years,” said Springfield coach Maurice Douglass.
Lakewood St. Edward is seeking its seventh state title in program history. The Eagles have won back-to-back state championships, beating Springfield 23-13 in 2021 and 28-14 last season.
“There’s some familiarity with the other team, kind of like a league game,” said Eagles coach Tom Lombardo. “When you play them each year, you kind of get a sense of them.”
Only two other teams in OHSAA history have competed for the state championship in the same division three years in a row. Coldwater and Canton Central Catholic advanced to the D-V state title game three years in a row between 2014 and 2016. Coldwater won the first two matchups 62-21 in 2014 and 35-18 in 2015. Canton Central Catholic won 16-13 in 2016.
Springfield, the No. 12 seed in Region 2, beat Region 4 champion Cincinnati Moeller 26-19 in overtime in the state semifinals last week in Piqua to return to Canton for the third straight season. Region 1 champion St. Edward beat Region 3 champion Hilliard Bradley 26-3 in the other state semifinal at Arlin Field in Mansfield.
Springfield is seeking Clark County’s first state football championship since the OHSAA playoff era began in 1972. Only three programs in Clark County history have advanced to the state championship game — Catholic Central (1991), Shawnee (2011) and Springfield (2021, 2022, 2023).
The Eagles have won 10 straight games since falling to D-II state finalist Massillon Washington 15-13 in Week 5. Despite Springfield’s tough start, Lombardo wasn’t surprised to be playing the Wildcats for a third straight season.
“They were always dangerous,” Lombardo said. “(Springfield coach Maurice Douglass) does such a nice job. I think once they got their confidence, they realized they could beat anyone. … Sometimes it just takes playing to get better. If you make the playoffs and you get on a roll, you have a chance to play a lot of games. You’re a different team in Week 16 than you are in Week 4 or Week 5.”
Springfield, the highest seeded team to ever advance to a state championship game, has won seven straight games. With a victory, the Wildcats would become the first 11-5 team to win the state championship since the playoffs expanded three years ago. The last D-I team to win the state championship after a 5-5 start was Cincinnati St. Xavier in 2016.
After starting 3-5, the program never wavered from its belief that they could return to Canton, Douglass said.
“I know the things we’ve tried to instill in them as far as belief,” he said. “They’ve pretty much bought into it. Sometimes you have to keep refreshing the vision that you have for them.”
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