This Week in Benedictine Football History

 Week 2

August 29, 1997

Benedictine 14, Midpark 0   

Coach Al Hodakievic returned only four starters on defense and three on offense.

            While the faces may have changed, the 1997 Bengals team continued to feature a very tough defensive unit, which was very efficient in the early part of the season.

            In the season opener at Baldwin-Wallace College’s Finnie Stadium, Benedictine played a new opponent, Midpark.           

Although it was the Bengals team that left with a 14-0 victory, coach Al Hodakievic was not entirely pleased with his team’s performance.

The win also extended a string of 37 straight seasons of at least one defensive shutout by the Bengals.

            And defense was the name of the game in this opener…. by both teams.

            The Plain Dealer’s Don Friedman wrote, “Be it Division III or Division IV, Benedictine has another excellent football team this season. The Bengals won the Division III state championship last fall. Because of a drop in enrollment, Benedictine is playing in Division IV this year. But the Bengals, as always, play like a Division I football team.”

            You would be hard-pressed to convince Coach Hodakievic that his team played like a team in Ohio’s largest football division.

            He did begrudgingly admit, “We came out with a win,” he said to the Plain Dealer. “The defense did a heck of a job. We just couldn’t get the job done when we were in the red zone in the second half.”

            He continued with the same thoughts to the Berea News Sun.

            “When we get into the scoring zone as we did tonight, we’ve got to do more than smell the end zone, we’ve got to taste it,” said Hodakievic.

            “Every time we got close in the second half, we killed ourselves with penalties,” Hodakievic added.

            The fourth-year coach was referring to the nine penalties drawn by the Bengals for a total of 94 yards.

            Benedictine did all of its scoring in the first half. Neither team seriously threatened in the second half.

            In the first quarter, sophomore running back Justin Fraley broke through on a handoff and headed straight for the right sidelines on a 68-yard scoring run with 8:51 left.   

Then, in the second, Fraley scored from the 12 with 7:32 before halftime.

            Senior kicker Errol Senel kicked the extra point after each touchdown.

            The 14-0 win also extended the Bengals winning streak to eight games going back to midway through the 1996 season.

            Midpark coach Ray Hradek said, “Benedictine is a good football team. It has speedy running backs and their quarterback (Tom Fejes) played very well. He made the big plays for them. We had the right coverage at times, but he was athletic enough to complete the play.”

            Hradek continued, “We knew we couldn’t run on them  - especially with their two big tackles (seniors Gene Mruczkowski, 6-3, 295 and Ivan Douglas, 6-7, 295).”

            Fejes finished the game with seven completions in 13 attempts. Adam Szweda, a junior wide receiver, caught three Fejes passes for 82 yards.

NOTES:

Gene Mruczkowski and Ivan Douglas went on to have stellar careers in college. Douglas was an offensive line starter on the Ohio State 2002 national championship team.

Mruczkowski played at Purdue, following a line of former Bengals who played there.  After a redshirt season, Mruczkowski started all the games he played in with the Boilermakers. He was a member of the offensive line that blocked for quarterback Drew Brees, who would later lead the New Orleans Saints to the Super Bowl XLIV title.

Mruczkowski would earn two Super Bowl rings as a member of the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXVIII and Super Bowl XXXIX. Mruczkowski was an undrafted free agent guard who was signed by New England.  He was with the Patriots from 2003-06, the Miami Dolphins in 2007 and resigned and retired from the NFL with New England in 2008.