Mentor Cardinals Football Opens 2026 Season Friday Against Olmsted Falls

Mentor's young Cardinals will open the season Friday night at Jerome T. Osborne Stadium carrying a champion's standard — and far fewer proven players than the team that set it.

The defending Greater Cleveland Conference champions host Olmsted Falls at 7 p.m., riding an 18-game conference winning streak. The 2025 Cardinals went 12-1 overall and 6-0 in conference play before St. Edward ended their run with a 27-7 playoff victory.

That success is both the backdrop and the pressure for this year's group, which returns only three offensive starters: senior quarterback Brogan Jones, wide receiver Logan Berwald and center Nick Grano, who has moved over from guard. Jones provides a proven leader after throwing for 1,978 yards and 21 touchdowns as a junior. Around them, however, are players with limited varsity experience, now being asked to make decisions at full speed when missed assignments and turnovers carry consequences.

Mentor coach Matt Gray has not spent August chasing scrimmage scores. He has been looking for evidence that his new contributors can learn from live repetitions.

Mentor opened its preseason against St. Edward on Aug. 7. After both teams ran a series of 10-play segments, the Eagles won the game-situation half 28-14. Gray's focus was not the final score but whether the Cardinals could recognize and correct mistakes before the games count.

"We're very deliberate with who we scrimmage," Gray said. His message after the St. Edward outing was blunt: "0-0 walking out of here today." He urged his players to follow a simple principle: "Every single day, get 1% better … get a little bit better every single day."

The Cardinals got another round of live repetitions in their final preseason matchup with Chardon on Aug. 13. Mentor leaned heavily on its running game, beginning with a 50-yard opening run by Jackson Farley. The scrimmage ended in a 14-14 draw after a timed varsity half. Defensively, Mentor had to handle Chardon's run-heavy Wing-T, gaining experience against triple-option elements and misdirection-based schemes. Gray described both scrimmages as huge opportunities for his young players to improve before the opener.

That work could matter immediately against an Olmsted Falls team that still plans to emphasize the run, even as the Bulldogs move away from their traditional triple-option wing attack and incorporate more spread concepts.

Mentor defeated Olmsted Falls 35-28 in a non-league Week 1 matchup on Aug. 22, 2025. The Bulldogs finished 2025 with a 7-5 overall record and went 4-3 in Southwestern Conference play. They return 21 letterwinners, including senior quarterback Cameron Pesch, receivers Adam Smith and Keagan Smith, and senior linebacker Mason Cerovac, who has committed to West Virginia University.

Olmsted Falls also has significant openings to fill. The Bulldogs must replace all five offensive-line starters, including top lineman Nathan Scheffler, who graduated, along with leading rusher Owen Singleton.

"We're getting a new-look offense a little bit for us," Olmsted Falls coach Tom DeLuca said.

That wrinkle gives the matchup its edge. Mentor's defense must be prepared for a run-oriented opponent using changing formations. On the other side, Jones, Berwald and Grano will need to provide calm and direction for an offense still taking shape around them. The returning talent on both teams could produce an offensive shootout, but the more revealing moments may come in the quieter parts of the game: whether new linemen hold up, whether first-time contributors settle in and whether either team can avoid the mistakes that are easier to absorb during an August scrimmage.

Friday will not decide the GCC race, but it will offer the first indication of whether Mentor's next group can begin carrying the standard left by a conference champion. Strongsville and new conference member Riverside loom as leading threats, and the Cardinals' 18-game GCC winning streak will mean little if this roster cannot find the consistency that defined the last one.

Gray's preseason message — improve every day, learn from difficult competition and do not overreact to a scrimmage score — has guided Mentor through August. Against Olmsted Falls, the Cardinals will finally learn how much that progress is worth when the scoreboard counts.