Monroeville-St. Paul rivalry adds another chapter

For the 12th time in their long history, Firelands Conference rivals Monroeville and St. Paul will meet in an OHSAA sectional tournament game Thursday night. The Eagles (17-5), who were a No. 1 seed in their Northwest District group, host the No. 5 Flyers (12-10) in a Division VII game at 6 p.m. Thursday on Steve Moore Court inside the Monroeville Athletic Complex. Each team won at home during the regular season. The Eagles led 47-43 with under four minutes to go before closing out a 57-47 win on Dec. 12. In the rematch, the Flyers grabbed the lead midway through the second quarter and turned away the Eagles down the stretch of a 44-38 win on Jan. 17 in Norwalk. Monroeville enters the game on a 10-game winning streak that resulted in the program's first FC championship since the 1983-84 season. When the Eagles visited Plymouth on Jan. 30, they were 7-5 overall and 6-3 in the FC. The Big Red are 12-2 overall and 8-0 in the FC, ahead three games in the loss column with five games left for the Eagles. Monroeville then beat the Big Red, 60-57, and also held off South Central, 60-59, as Plymouth lost games to Crestview, St. Paul, and Western Reserve twice down the stretch. Monroeville averages 62 points and allows 51.5 points per contest. The Eagles are averaging 36.4 rebounds, 12.5 assists, 8.2 steals, and 13.7 turnovers per game. The Eagles are led by the senior duo of Cole Perry (6-foot-6) and Maverick Myers (6-2). Perry averages 12.8 points and 10 rebounds per game. Myers averages 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.6 steals per game. Those two are followed by senior Derek Ackerman (6-1), who averages 10.1 points and 5.1 rebounds in 14 games. He missed the first eight games, including the first meeting against the Flyers, with a broken fibula and dislocated ankle suffered in football. Senior Ethan Pomerich (6-2), who missed the second St. Paul game with a hand injury, adds 8.6 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game. The Eagles also get seven points and 3.5 assists from junior guard Link Schaffer-Paull (5-8), and six points and 3.4 rebounds from senior guard Colton Koch (6-1). After winning the FC the past two seasons while winning a district title last season, the Flyers have had a streaky season. St. Paul started 4-0, then lost nine of its next 12 games to sit at 7-9 with six games remaining. The Flyers then won five straight games before losing at Crestview by 10 last week in the regular season finale. In 13 of its 22 games, St. Paul has either led or trailed by two possessions or less midway through the fourth quarter. The Flyers went 6-7 in those games. St. Paul averages 55.9 points and allows 52.5 per game. The Flyers average 27.4 rebounds, 13.4 assists, 8.5 steals, and 12.7 turnovers per contest. St. Paul is led in scoring by Landon Fries (5-11). The senior guard averages 17.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. Junior guard Nate Griffin (6-2) closely follows with 14.1 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.9 steals per game. Also for St. Paul, junior forward Isaac Kalizewski (6-0) averages 8.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.8 steals. Senior Brady Fritz (6-3) adds 6.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.5 assists, while senior Connor Lindenberger (6-5) averages 5.4 points and 6.3 rebounds. Tournament history St. Paul has won eight of the previous 11 tournament games, which have all come in the sectional round. The tournament head-to-head series starts with three Monroeville wins, followed by eight St. Paul wins. Of the 12 meetings, however, Thursday's game is just the third matchup where both teams are .500 or better entering the game. In 1964-65, the Eagles were 17-4 under head coach Jerry Everhart and leading scorer Dean Schneider and faced the Flyers (10-10) in a Class A sectional semifinal on March 1, 1965, at Willard High School. St. Paul was coached by Ralph Shoemaker and led in scoring by Mike Meesig. The Eagles won the game, 65-59, before falling to Bucyrus Wynford in the sectional final at Mansfield Madison. Monroeville also won both regular season games in competitive fashion, 65-60 and 66-56. The most famous tournament matchup between the two programs came 50 years ago in the 1975-76 season. The Eagles were 17-1 under head coach Harry Garverick and leading scorer Paul Roeder, who later coached the Eagles from 2019 to 2024. As outright FC champions with a 14-0 mark, Monroeville had edged the 15-5 Flyers by scores of 53-49 and 51-50 during the regular season. St. Paul, coached by Roger Holman and led in scoring by Duane Trares, had also lost their third FC game to New London by just two points, 66-64. The teams then met for a third time in a sectional title game on March 5, 1976, back at Willard, and the Eagles again prevailed by one point, 60-59. Monroeville won the three games by a combined six points. The Eagles proceeded to go all the way to a Class A regional championship game, where they fell by a point, 63-62, against Windham, at the Canton Fieldhouse. Four of Monroeville's five tournament wins came by a combined 18 points. This Thursday's game is also just the third of the 12 meetings that comes in the title round of the sectional tournament. Along with the 1975-76 game, the Flyers defeated the 5-15 Eagles under coach Don Farmer and leading scorer Anthony Myers in a sectional title game, 75-58, on March 6, 1998, at Port Clinton. St. Paul also went on to a Div. IV regional title game, where it lost to Grandview Heights as part of a 23-3 season under head coach Mike Smith and leading scorer Aaron Fries, the father of current senior and leading scorer Landon Fries. Overall, the cumulative difference between the Eagles and Flyers in the previous 11 tournament games is just 74 points. The total score has averaged out to St. Paul, 64-57.