Elyria Sports Hall of Fame: P.J. Mahone made his mark for Pioneers

P.J. Mahone was once described as being "better than sliced bread" during his senior season at Elyria High. One thing was certain: Mahone was going to impact a football game one way or another. With Mahone, every week was a highlight reel it seemed. Consider: After sitting out the first quarter for disciplinary reasons, he touched the ball four times against Parma and scored four touchdowns on runs of 29, 69 and 62 yards and on an 18-yard reception in a 62-14 romp. In a memorable shootout against unbeaten and playoff tested Brunswick, he scored on plays of 5, 79, 55 yards and then had the game-clinching 3-yard run in a 49-42 win. "At the end of that game, I was exhausted," Mahone said. "I was really dehydrated and cramping up." He scored on a dazzling 78-yard pass play and added touchdown runs of 24 and 65 yards in a 51-13 win over North Royalton. After Normandy fired up the Pioneers by jumping all over the midfield "E" prior to kickoff, he returned a fumble 35 yards for a touchdown to spark the Pioneers to a 55-15 romp in which he scored four times. When Medina stunned the Pioneers by jumping out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter, he led a huge comeback, scoring three second-half touchdowns capped by a 57-yard run in a 44-21 win."Coach warned us before the game we weren't ready," Mahone said. "We were looking ahead to the playoffs. They came out and hit us in the mouth. We wanted the playoffs. We knew we weren't out of it." In Elyria's first playoff game in school history, his 56-yard touchdown run sealed a 21-9 victory at favored Toledo St. John."I fumbled twice," he said. "We had seven fumbles. It turned out to be a good game. (St. John) had some big boys on the line." Mahone, along with Ricky Lewis, Alexis McCall, Emily Taylor and Ron Trout will be inducted into the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame on May 4. Elyria High's 2009 state champion softball team will also be inducted and longtime Elyria trainer, Ann Hamker, will receive the Distinguished Service Award. Elyria had never qualified for the playoffs prior to Mahone bursting on the scene in 2005. The Pioneers had an impressive football history but most of the glory years happened prior to the playoffs being established in 1972. All that changed when Mahone and his teammates took the field under its young and brash second-year coach, Mark Solis. In 2005, Elyria won the Pioneer Conference for its first conference title or co-title since tying North Ridgeville for the Erie Shore championship in 1996. They haven't won a league title or a playoff game since. "We had a couple issues off the field that we had to deal with," Solis said of his first impressions of Mahone. "P.J. wasn't a bad kid. He was just a high school kid. I'll never forget, he skipped school one day and then came to practice. I don't know whether he thought I didn't check attendance but he showed up. "I said, 'What are you doing?' He said 'I'm here to practice.' I said, 'No you're not. You need to go home.' I don't know whether you're going to play Friday." That Friday, Elyria played Parma and Mahone and quarterback Roger Smith sat out the first quarter due to skipping school. It was a disciplinary lesson they both learned from Solis. Smith was Mahone's cousin and had transferred in from Clearview to start the season. Solis arrived in 2004 to replace Dick Kerschbaum, who had retired. Solis had previously coached at Ashland Crestview, a Division V school, where he fashioned an impressive 42-11 record over five seasons. He was 31 years old and left Elyria for Twinsburg after three seasons. He also spent time at Lorain and Olentangy high schools. "Obviously, he was extremely talented," Solis said of Mahone. "Unbelievable personality. Just a great, fun kid to be around. That talent allowed him to earn a full scholarship to Bowling Green. He's definitely one of the top five football players I've ever coached in my whole career. He was our Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders so to speak. There was not one thing on the football field he couldn't do. "It's not hard to be a good coach when you have P.J. Mahone. Trust me." Mahone was Lorain County's Golden Helmet winner and earned All-Ohio accolades his senior season. It helped that Elyria had a good and experienced offensive line with senior tackle Brad Miller and junior center Ryan "Tank" Morgan as the anchors. Junior Nick McGreevy and senior Jon Spurling were the guards with junior Justen Brooks the other tackle. Junior Mitch Tulk was the tight end. Morgan, now the baseball coach at Midview, knew how good Mahone was. "P.J.'s senior year was absolutely incredible," Morgan said. "He was a difference-maker in everything he did whether it was catching (passes) on a short route and taking it 70 (yards) or getting hand-offs. He even kicked extra points as a junior. It just speaks volumes about the type of athlete he was. It was insane." Mahone, who also played baseball and basketball and ran track at Elyria, had injured his collarbone and played sparingly his sophomore season but he started to show his value as a junior. He finished with 607 yards rushing and 460 yards receiving with nine touchdowns. The Pioneers featured three runners in 2004. Orlando Jones was a senior and had 933 yards. Sophomore Jaa'Rome Williams had 892. Mahone also returned a kick and an interception for scores. Against Berea, Mahone outraced the Braves secondary for a 90-yard touchdown pass from Jack Sito, the longest scoring pass in Pioneers history at the time. Elyria won a 42-34 shootout. The Pioneers closed the season with three straight wins. They upset Strongsville 32-18 with Mahone returning a kick 88 yards. They romped over Parma 48-20 with Mahone scoring three times and they closed the year with a 42-14 rout of Medina with Mahone returning an interception 57 yards and adding TD runs of 45 and 58 yards. No one could wait for the 2005 season. Elyria had two excellent backs in Mahone and Williams. Mahone did it with finesse and finished with 1,374 yards on only 132 carries — a 10.4 average. He scored 30 touchdowns, still the single-season school record. Williams wanted to just run over people and finished with 1,167 yards on 176 attempts. Mahone also had 34 pass receptions for 758 yards and six touchdowns, piling up a school-record 184 points. Playing in the defensive backfield, Mahone was the second on the team with 81 total tackles, 35 solo. He picked off three passes, returning one for a touchdown. "A lot of people weren't expecting us to go into that Toledo game and handle our business," Morgan said of the playoff win. "I'll never forget walking out to the game and not knowing what fans are out there. They open up these two big gates and there's just a sea of red. It was truly special." Mahone started all 12 games at defensive back as a junior at Bowling Green in 2008, leading the Falcons in tackles with 95. He also had three interceptions. He was second-team All-Mid-American Conference in 2007, leading the conference in interceptions with seven. He made his first start as a freshman against Wisconsin at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Sept. 2, 2006, and racked up an impressive eight solo tackles and 11 overall. Bowling Green lost 35-14 to the Badgers. He was suspended his senior year in September for a violation of team rules. Why didn't Bowling Green coach Greg Brandon ever consider using Mahone on offense? "I don't know," Mahone said. "I wish I had told him I wanted to play offense. I was trying to be a team player. I said whichever side of the ball you want me on, I'll be on. "I liked BG. It was a good time. I didn't graduate but I got my four years in. We got a new coach (Dave Clawson) my senior year and he didn't give me my fifth year of my scholarship. My grades could have been better but it was a good experience." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.