This Week in Benedictine History

October 11, 1985

Lights Out: Benedictine defeats Akron Hoban 32-7

When the Plain Dealer rankings came out on October 10, there was a new Number One team: Benedictine.

The 28-6 Bengals win at Mansfield on October 5 also kept Benedictine in fifth place in the state-wide Associated Press poll.

On the same evening as the Bengals were defeating Mansfield, 28-6, St. Edward (the Plain Dealer’s Number One team at the time) was being upset by St. Joseph 6-0. That opened the door for the Bengals to walk through as the top-ranked team in the area.

Another road trip beckoned, as the Bengals faced Akron Hoban.

Benedictine defeated Akron Hoban 32-7 and it was “Lights Out” that had nothing to do with the score of the game.

It was the Bengals seventh straight win of the season and they won convincingly despite an unusually heavy amount of penalties. Benedictine was flagged 17 times for a total of 195 yards. Meanwhile Hoban was penalized 12 times for 105 yards.

Coach Augie Bossu was not pleased with the penalty situations.

“I don’t feel good because we didn’t execute the way we can and the way we should,” he told the Plain Dealer.

Quarterback Larry Wanke was lighting up the field with his passing. It was necessary since the lights at Dowed Field were slow to turn on since a car hit a light pole a few blocks away from the school.

There was even some doubt that the game could be played.

Only two of the six light standards operated at the start of the game. Shortly after the opening kickoff, two more light standards came on. It wasn’t until 3:23 of the first quarter that all the light standards were completely operational.

That did not hinder the Bengals passing attack as two of the three touchdowns scored in the first were through the air.

The first touchdown came on a Ron Grosel four-yard run with Mike Garred’s extra point kick.

Hoban tied the game on a 41-yard scoring run by Keith Reynolds and conversion kick.

Then Larry Wanke fired two touchdown passes both to Bob Clark before the first quarter was over covering 60 and 15 yards. Those scores gave the Bengals a 19-7 first quarter lead.

In the third, Ken Redd helped the Bengals increase the lead when he caught a two-yard Wanke pass to make the score 25-7.

Adding one more score in the final quarter, Benedictine’s Ron Grosel scored from the two and Garred’s kick made it 32-7.

The last touchdown was set up when linebacker Tony DeJohn recovered a fumble on the Hoban 18.

Earlier in the game, DeJohn had a 65-yard pass interception called back because of a holding penalty.

Wanke had another good night passing the ball as he finished the game with 298 yards on 21 completions in 44 attempts. He was slowed down in the second half after hitting 14 of 23 for 199 yards in the first half but the Bengals were in control of the game.

After three straight weeks on the road, the Bengals finally played another home game. This time Niles McKinley visited the natural grass field at Cleveland Heights Field.

By the time the Red Dragons came to the Cleveland area, Benedictine had moved from fifth place in the Class AAA Associated Press poll to the Number Two ranked team in the state.

                NOTES: Larry Wanke earned some notoriety in his college career. He started at the University of Pittsburgh and after the Panthers moved to a different style of offensive system that led to a quarterback controversy, Wanke left.  His greatest moment at Pitt occurred in a 32-27 loss to Texas in the 1987 Bluebonnet Bowl. Shortly after halftime, when the starter was injured, Wanke stepped in and threw three touchdown passes. After an unhappy experience at Pitt, Wanke transferred to John Carroll, where he set 16 school records. He was selected in the 12^th round by the Super Bowl champion New York Giants in the 1991 NFL draft. Wanke was the 334th player- and last player -chosen. By doing so, he earned the title of “Mr. Irrelevant” and was feted by organizers of “Irrelevant Week” held annually in Newport Beach, California for the last player selected in the NFL draft.  Wanke did make it a good part of the way through training camp with the Giants, but was eventually cut.

                Hall of Famers – Larry Wanke ’86 and wide receiver Bob Clark ’87 are members of the Benedictine Athletic Hall of Fame.

by Wally Mieskoski ’71

Benedictine Football Historian

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