The Akron Holy War – the name itself shows how big this rivalry is, not only in the city of Akron, but the state of Ohio. For years, these two small, private, catholic schools have faced off. Since 1959 the Fighting Irish and the Knights have faced each other on forty different occasions, with St. Vincent – St. Mary holding a lead of 21 wins and 19 losses.

MVP

Danny Clark

Archbishop Hoban

SCHOLAR ATHLETES

Tannous Barakat

St. Vincent St. Mary

Tannous is a lettermen for the Fighting Irish football team and has accumulated a 3.99 Grade Point Average throughout his career at St. Vincent-St. Mary. This is the highest academic standing for any senior on the team, which is a tribute to Tannous’ hard work not only on the field, but off the field as well. Tannous plans on attending college after graduation.

Conner Maloy

Archbishop Hoban

Conner is a 4 year member of the Hoban Football program and a member of the 2015 state championship team. He also participated in track & field, boy’s volleyball, and basketball at Hoban. Conner also serves as a peer mentor and a student ambassador. He has been the recipient of both a Math and Spanish award. Conner has been on the honor roll all 4 years and is recognized as an Academic Knight. Conner plans to go to college to study Aeronautical Engineering or Mathematics.

HALL OF FAME

Tyler Bischof

St. Vincent St. Mary

Tyler Bischof played in the Akron Holy War during his junior and senior football seasons. As a captain on the 2011 St. Vincent-St. Mary Fighting Irish, he led the team to victory over Hoban for the 5th straight year, a 3rd consecutive playoff birth and a regional final. In the 2011 Akron Holy War, Tyler made 10 tackles, 2 for loss and sacked the QB once. Tyler went on to be named First Team All-Ohio and played at Walsh University after graduating from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School. Tyler recently graduated Pre-Med from Walsh University and studying to be a doctor at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Chris DiMauro

Archbishop Hoban

Chris was an integral part of two Shillelagh Stick victories. The first a 24-0 victory in 1996, the first game after the 20 year break in the rivalry. In the second, Chris found the end zone twice including the game-winning touchdown in 1998’s 21-20 victory. That win started a 9-year streak for Hoban over St. Vincent-St. Mary. After graduating from Hoban in 1999, Chris went on to play football collegiately at Youngstown State University where he was a linebacker and fullback. Chris is the Director of Human Resources at Stow-Munroe Falls City Schools. With him this evening are his wife, daughter, and parents.

GAME SUMMARY

The game started off very slow, and it gave the impression that it would be a defensive battle, and whoever could make the “big play” at the end of the game would be victorious. At the end of the 1st quarter, with the score tied up at 0-0, all implications were pointing toward a close and tight hard fought battle. But then, on the very first play of the 2nd quarter, Hoban blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown. There was no looking back from there for the Knights, who were led but Ohio State University commit, Danny Clark, who scored two touchdowns and sparked the offense for Hoban, resulting in a huge 24-0 shutout of the Fighting Irish.