CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — We asked, you answered, and now we'll have a dandy for you to begin Northeast Ohio's 2021 high school football season.
Benedictine vs. Walsh Jesuit will be the WKYC.com High School Football Game of the Week this Friday night. Our coverage will feature live audio play-by-play as well as video highlights that will be shown on "What's Next" and our social media platforms.
The matchup between the Bengals and the Warriors won the the year's inaugural poll with 45.7% of the vote, barely edging out Euclid vs. Aurora (44.2%) with Avon vs. Brunswick coming in a distant third (10.2%).
You might say it's a bit of a redemption story for both teams, as this same showdown was supposed to be one of our games of the week during last year's playoffs. Unfortunately, the game was postponed due to bad weather in the area, and we were forced to miss what ended up being a 27-20 Benedictine win in overtime.
The upset loss still stings for the Warriors, who emerged as one of the highest seeds in Division II and could have been a formidable foe for eventual state champion Archbishop Hoban. Despite losing star offensive tackle David Wohlabaugh Jr. to Kentucky, Nick Alexander's squad is looking to build off 2020's 5-2 record with plenty of experience, notably quarterback Matt Natale and linebacker Kasey Kish.
The Bengals are coming off a bit of a down year, going just 2-4 in the regular season thanks to an injury to then-quarterback Ronnie Schultz. However, it provided a major opportunity for CeeJay Yarboro to gain reps as the team caught fire in the playoffs, and the young signal caller will hope to only improve while linebacker Derrell Bedingfield Jr. (Toledo commit) leads a formidable defense.
3News' Dave "Dino" DeNatale will broadcast the game live Friday at 7 p.m. on WKYC.com, the WKYC app, and the WKYC YouTube page. Tyler Carey will also join him throughout the night to discuss the matchup as well as other scores from around the area.
WATCH: Dino & Tyler look at our Week 1 matchup and the rest of the action around Northeast Ohio in our WKYC.com Game of the Week preview show: