Cardinals football rides Callahan's late surge to stay undefeated in conference play

PAINESVILLE — Mentor was in a five-point, one-possession fight deep into the third quarter at Riverside on Friday, September 18. Then Braylon Callahan broke loose for a 60-yard touchdown run, and a physical, grind-it-out game became a 35-14 Greater Cleveland Conference win that moved the Cardinals to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

Callahan, a junior running back, rushed for three touchdowns and 113 yards. His 60-yard score answered Riverside's third-quarter push and restored a two-score cushion. He added an 11-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to complete the scoring, and Mentor's defense sealed the win with an interception and a forced fumble.

Mentor led 9-0 after the first quarter on a safety and a 3-yard Callahan touchdown run, then stretched the lead to 16-0 in the second quarter on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Brogan Jones to Jeremiah Claridy. Riverside answered with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Bo Brandehoff to David Seibert to make it 16-8, and a Mentor field goal just before halftime made it 19-8 at the break.

Riverside pulled within 19-14 in the third quarter on a 10-yard touchdown run by Jaxon Moore, and for a stretch the game was exactly what head coach Matt Gray expected when he called it a battle in a tough road environment. "I am really proud of our guys showing up and battling," Gray said. "I knew this was not going to be an easy environment. We have tremendous respect in their program. They play hard and physical and we had to match their intensity. I think we did that today. It was not pretty and we still have a lot of improvement (to make)."

The late answer

The Riverside win was Callahan's second straight strong performance since returning from an injury that kept him out of Mentor's first two games. In the previous week's 63-18 win over Brunswick, he carried 12 times for 154 yards and four touchdowns.

Room to improve

The Cardinals' only 2026 loss came in Week 3, a 51-7 road defeat at St. Ignatius on September 4 that ended Mentor's 27-game regular-season winning streak. Since then, the Cardinals have beaten Brunswick and Riverside to climb to 2-0 in the GCC.

The program's recent postseason history shows the standard this team is chasing: in the 2025 OHSAA playoffs, Mentor beat Massillon Jackson 52-6 in a Division I Region 1 quarterfinal before losing 27-7 to St. Edward in the regional final, finishing 12-1.

Built for November

Mentor's next game is on the road against Cleveland Heights on Friday, September 25, with a 7 p.m. kickoff.

The question the Cardinals carry into that game is whether a team that still has room to improve can keep finding late answers — the way Callahan did at Riverside — as the physical GCC grind continues toward the postseason.