The 15-1 Crusaders, who have not lost to a team from Ohio this season, led 49-7 at halftime as junior quarterback Matt Ponatoski completed 13 of 17 passes for 431 yards and six touchdowns. He went 0-1 in the second half before being removed from the game.
Moeller blew the game open in the second quarter with four consecutive one-play touchdown drives as the Elks struggled to tackle the Crusaders in the open field.
“To be honest, I was just making easy throws our guys and letting our guys work,” said Ponatoski, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound junior who is a finalist for the Ohio Mr. Football Award. “We have the best receivers in the country, so get the passes out to them and make (the defense) tackle. So my job is easy at that point.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Moeller forced a punt on the first Centerville possession then went right to work. Ponatoski faked a handoff on the first play then tossed a rainbow to junior tight end Cooper McCutchen, who was free behind the defense for a 66-yard touchdown.
The Crusaders nearly had a quick-strike touchdown again on their next possession, but Landen Adams’ 60-yard jet sweep was called back for holding.
Centerville’s Jacob Taylor intercepted a middle screen on the next play to give the Elks the ball at the Moeller 27-yard line.
They took advantage with a 10-yard pass from Shane Cole to Parker Johnson, who took a fake handoff then snuck out of the backfield for a throwback pass. He was wide open in the end zone and bobbled the ball momentarily before securing the catch with 5:31 left in the first quarter.
The Crusaders added seven more with 1:01 left in the first quarter when Tyler Josleyn slithered up the middle for a 9-yard touchdown to make it 21-7.
That capped a 62-yard drive that featured a handful of precise passes from Ponatoski and was kept alive by a pass interference flag against the Elks on a third-and-10 near midfield.
Then things went from bad to worse for Centerville as Griffin Daley intercepted a Cole pass at the Centerville 42 and returned it to the 11.
Ponatoski made them pay on the next play with a touchdown toss to Adams.
Centerville’s next possession also ended in disaster when a punt snap went off an upback and was recovered by the Crusaders at the Centerville 40. The Crusaders again need only one play to score as Ponatoski floated a pass down the left sideline for a wide-open Josleyn for a 40-yard touchdown.
That made it 35-7 with 8:00 left in the second quarter.
The next Centerville possession went nowhere, but it did end on a high note as Leland Gantz recovered another bad snap and kicked a line drive that went by the return man and was downed at the Moeller 1-yard line.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
But even that 75-yard punt could not slow down the Crusaders.
Ponatoski threw a quick out to Jovan Love, who made a man miss then slipped loose down the sideline for a 99-yard touchdown that gave Moeller a 42-7 lead with 5:43 left in the second quarter.
The Crusaders pushed it to 49-7 with four minutes left when Ponatoski hit Fogler along the sideline, he broke a tackle and raced 79 yards to the end zone for yet another one-play touchdown drive, the fourth in a row for Moeller.
“You know, the defense picked us up because we had an interception – bad play by me – and they held them to seven points in the first half, and you can’t really ask for much more,” said Ponatoski, who has a half-dozen scholarship offers and said he planned to visit Ohio State for the game against Michigan on Saturday.
With a running clock in the second half, Gantz made a 50-yard field goal in the third quarter for the Elks to account for the only scoring.
“We are tremendously proud of this team,” said Centerville head coach Brent Ullery, whose team won a share of the GWOC championship and shook off a slow start to the season to finish 11-4. “They played a tough Moeller team and hats off to them for doing a great job.
“To be able to represent Centerville, our school, our families, and our alumni in the state semifinals was a great honor. We owe a lot to those that support us and those that came before us.
“We hate that our season has ended, but we know we will look back and be proud of what this team and these coaches and this community has accomplished this fall.”
Moeller will be playing for its 10th state championship next Saturday in Canton against Olentangy Liberty, who knocked out three-time defending state champion Lakewood St. Edward 21-7 on Friday night.
Second-year Moeller coach Bert Bathiany said the win was extra special because the Crusaders fell short each of the last three years at this point in the playoffs, all with losses to Springfield.
The Wildcats triumphed in overtime 26-19 last season, 28-24 in 2022 and 22-21 in 2021.
“Last year was just absolutely gut-wrenching,” an emotional Bathiany said. “Just the way everything ended, and for them to be able to get to Canton their senior year, that’s really something special.”
He said his quarterback, who entered the night with 50 touchdown passes and two interceptions on the season, left him speechless.
“I mean, he’s just unbelievable,” Bathiany said. “I get to see that every day in practice. He’s unbelievable. I mean, he’s the best player in Ohio in my mind. I mean, he absolutely is. I’ll just leave it at that.”
The Crusaders last won the state title in 2013 when they won the second of back-to-back championships. They also won in 1975, ‘76, ‘77, ‘79, ‘80, ‘82 and ‘85.
Centerville missed out on making its second state title game appearance (1991) and fell to 1-2 in state semifinals.
“This group of seniors and this team definitely left their mark on Centerville football,” Ullery said. “We define tradition by paying it forward and leaving it better than you found it. This team definitely did that. They are a great group of men that embraced the process and are better for having gone through it.”
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