Alter fell behind by two scores at halftime before Taft closed out a 26-12 victory in the Division IV, Regionl 16 final at Monroe’s Hornet Stadium.
The Senators (12-2) play Indian Valley (14-0) — a 48-7 winner over St. Clairsville — in the state semifinals next Friday at a site to be determined. The Division IV state championship game is on Saturday, Dec. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in Canton.
“They’ve got a heck of a football team over there,” said Alter coach Ed Domsitz, whose Knights finished the season 8-6. “There aren’t many weaknesses on their offense or their defense. They’ve got a dual-threat quarterback. He does throw the ball. But what I’ve seen that’s more impressive is his ability to run and make people miss — and not just miss, but break tackles.”
Taft won the first Cincinnati Public Schools football regional championship since 1992, according to CPS athletics.
“This means so much,” Senators coach Tyler Williams said. “We’ve been here before, and we couldn’t finish. We didn’t have the manpower to finish. We didn’t have the discipline. We critiqued that this whole offseason.
“I didn’t care about the plays. I said, ‘Let’s test them mentally.’ Because we know that we were able to get them ready scheme-wise and everything. But testing them mentally and making sure they’re ready for the cold — for a disciplined Alter team — we had to play. They had to push through.”
Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education (CAPE) won the last of its three state championships in 1992 (Division IV), and CAPE also won state in 1986 (Division III) and 1985 (Division IV).
Alter reached the 2023 state championship game and fell to Glenville 38-3. Taft knocked Alter out of the 2022 postseason.
Friday was a rematch of a Week 3 game in which Taft won 36-7 over visiting Alter. The Knights reeled off five straight victories to reach the regional finals.
“I think we hung in there as best as we could,” Domsitz said. “I told the seniors that without the job they’ve done, we wouldn’t have been here. They’ve held it together. They kept coming back every day thinking that things will get better.
“It’s one of those years that we will talk about for a while. I thought we played better than we did in Week 3. I think we played with more considerable amount of intensity. They’re still the same team they were in Week 3. That’s an excellent football team. It was going to take a near-perfect effort.”
Taft sophomore quarterback Monsanna Torbert had two first-half touchdown runs, and Najia Hill added another.
Alter sophomore Drew Cripps scampered for a 65-yard touchdown run in the first half.
“We were not able to block them at times, and we weren’t able to tackle them,” Domsitz said. “Our defense dug in the second half and made some big plays to stop them. But you’ve got to be able to move the football.”
Aaron Dowdell capped off an eight-minute drive with a 1-yard TD plunge that gave Taft a 26-6 lead with 9:18 remaining.
Alter freshman quarterback Finn Freshwater connected with Chimdi Eze on a 12-yard touchdown pass that cut Taft’s lead to 26-12 with 4:21 left to play.
The Senators took the ensuing drive and ran out the clock.
“It’s unbelievable,” Williams said. “It gives us chills, and our kids, it’s hard to get them to suit up every week to get them to play their hardest and not overlook people.
“We knew that we could do this. But we didn’t know that it was going to kind of rain. We didn’t know that we were going to have to run the ball 60 times to beat Alter. So, those small things that we were able to do to make a switch and adjustments to finish the game is amazing.”
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