Submitted photo / Mahoning Valley Sports The 2024 Canfield football team and cheerleaders.

CANFIELD — Former Canfield coach Mike Pavlansky led the Cardinals program to historic heights before retiring at the end of last season.

In his 23 years at the helm, Pavlansky won 183 games, leading Canfield to seven league titles, 13 playoff appearances, five regional championship games and a pair of state title game appearances, which all culminated in the program’s first state championship in 2022.

New head coach Joe Ignazio was part of those final three seasons under Pavlansky as a defensive line coach, and now he’s hoping to continue to build on the Cardinals’ tradition and success.

“(Pavlansky) was just a tremendous leader, he always was,” Ignazio said. “He was meticulous in details in every phase of our football program and demanding of our staff. I always say he was extremely firm, but always fair and always willing to listen and talk about opinions and get input into what we see on offense, defense or special teams. But the expectation was set very high for the staff and our student-athletes and they know that.”

In addition to his three years on Pavlansky’s staff, Ignazio also brings plenty of head coaching experience to Canfield. After 10 years on three different staffs at Boardman, Ignazio was elevated to be the Spartans’ head coach in 2013, leading the program for eight seasons.

Canfield’s coaching staff has played a crucial role in the program’s success, and one of the most important things for Ignazio was keeping it intact as much as possible to help with the coaching transition.

“We have a tremendous staff here and want to keep those guys together,” Ignazio said. “We thought that was probably the easiest way to transition into the new era.”

Ignazio’s own coaching philosophy aligns with what has long been the Cardinals’ identity.

Just like Canfield did under Pavlansky, Ignazio wants the Cardinals to continue to be a run-oriented team with a physical style of play.

“Pav and I laugh because I was on the other side of the ball against him for years,” Ignazio said. “Very similarly, we want to be run-oriented first — not saying we won’t throw it, but we want to be high-efficiency in our passing game. You want to develop mental toughness, and I think you can do that through a physical style of football play. We’ve been pretty dominant against most opponents up front in establishing the run. That’s something that I tried to do at Boardman, as well.

Canfield went 7-4 last year, but that included a slow start against a demanding schedule. The Cardinals won their season opener against West Branch, handing the Warriors their only loss of the regular season. But then proceeded to lose three straight to Mansfield Senior, Olmsted Falls and rival Poland.

Still, despite the 1-3 start, Canfield won five straight games to end the regular season before losing to Ursuline in the playoffs.

This season’s schedule is almost identical to last year. Canfield will play all the same opponents in the same order it did last season, but instead of hosting Holy Name, the Cardinals will host Louisville.

Two years removed from its state title run, gone are the two senior classes that helped pave the way for the Cardinals’ success the past couple seasons.

With a senior class of just 13 players this year, Canfield will be young, but Ignazio likes what he’s seen so far.

“The state championship year, you lose Broc Lowry and probably the biggest senior class ever to go though Canfield. The next year, I’m sure expectations weren’t high, but our kids know that we’re not going to settle and take a step back. I feel similarly about this year’s group,” Ignazio said. “But guys like Broc Lowry, Danny Inglis, Scottie Eaton, Vince Luce, they set the expectations for the next senior class. So our senior class knows that coming in. I’m not going to ask them to be Broc or Danny or Scottie, just to be them and they’re good enough. They know the tradition and expectations here and that’s not going to change.”

OFFENSE

While the setup may be similar, the faces on offense for Canfield will look very different this season with just four starters returning.

With last year’s quarterback Paul Bindas off to Ohio Dominican, three players are vying for the Cardinals’ starting position under center, including senior Tyler Scharrer, junior Enzo Cocca and Tyler Rappach.

With how Canfield runs its offense, the quarterback needs to be someone who can run the ball, while also being able to distribute the ball to the skill position players in the passing game.

“We’ll figure out who’s going to be that No. 1 guy and No. 2 guy,” Ignazio said. “Getting closer to the season, we’ve got to cut down some reps for those guys further down the depth chart.”

In the backfield, Canfield will lean on junior Sean Bolling and Ashton Albrecht, but Ignazio added that Scharrer may get some reps at running back as well.

The Cardinals will lean on their returning experience up front, especially with the likes of senior Angelo DeLucia back to help anchor things for Canfield on the offensive line.

“Angelo is one that the kids look up to,” Ignazio said. “We had a combine back in the spring and we had close to 60 (college) coaches show up and our kids noticed right away that every college coach was rotating to wherever Angelo was, so they see that.”

DeLucia will play in the trenches on both sides of the ball, while also occasionally lining up at tight end to catch passes for the Cardinals. He has already garnered several scholarship offers during his junior season, including Kent State, Akron, Toledo, Ohio, Western Michigan, Youngstown State, Lehigh and UMass.

“He’s got scholarship offers from all over the place,” Ignazio said. “He’s a big, physical kid — probably 6-foot-5, 255 pounds and can move and jump. He can be that physical, set-the-tone type guy up front, but obviously also get out in space and present some issues, as well.”

Landon Shina is another returning name on the offensive line, who like DeLucia, can also line up at tight end. At guard, the Cardinals have AJ Hewko and DJ Erickson. Then at tackle, Geno Pacella is back.

But Ignazio said Canfield will have to develop some additional depth behind that core group with the experience it graduated on the line.

DEFENSE

Canfield has a little more experience returning on the defensive side of the ball that gave up 15.3 points per game last season.

In the secondary, Scharrer and Cocca each return to reprise their roles at safety. Scharrer led the team with four interceptions.

“We’re going to look to their leadership with their experience coming back,” Ignazio said. “Tyler Scharrer was a state qualifier in wrestling and is going to be a three-year starter for us, at least in the secondary. Our kids look up to him because they know he’s a hard-nosed kid.”

Ezra Stahl, MJ Pompoco and Erickson each saw time at linebacker last season and are back to continue to play in the middle level of the defense. Ignazio also noted sophomore Gabe Miller is a young player that has done well so far during the summer at linebacker.

“(Pompoco) is a quick, physical kid up front, he’s a tough, hard-nosed kid and DJ’s the same type that can run downhill and play smash mouth football,” Ignazio said.

At the front of the unit, DeLucia and Hewko will continue to play both ways and lead the Cardinals at the point of attack on the defensive line. Ignazio also added that Shina and Adam Christie will continue to be an important part of Canfield’s front-seven. DeLucia had 31 tackles, three tackles-for-loss and a sack last season.

SPECIAL TEAMS

As for the specialists, Canfield soccer senior Ethan Rittenour returns as the Cardinals placekicker and will handle kickoff duties, as well. Junior Luke Goodrich will continue to back him up.

But, Ignazio said the team will be looking long and hard for its new punter. He added that he likes what he’s seen from Adam Christie so far, but another Cardinals soccer player reached out to the coaches expressing an interest in punting.

“We’ll see how that plays out through the beginning parts of doubles (practices),” Ignazio said.

Have an interesting story? Contact Neel Madhavan by email at nmadhavan@tribtoday.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @NeelMadhavan.