AURORA, Ohio — After nine wins to start last season, Aurora ran into injuries and another unbeaten team in Week 10 of the high school football season.
The Greenmen finished short of their goals, falling to Highland in the regular-season finale for the Suburban League American Conference championship. They won two playoff games before their season ended in the OHSAA Division III regional finals.
Only two starters are back on each side of the ball to start the 2025 season. Coach Bob Mihalik acknowledged Wednesday during a 7-on-7 passing scrimmage with Solon and Lake Catholic that expectations outside of Aurora are not high. His inexperienced team can feed off that.
“I don’t think people are expecting much out of us this year,” he said. “We’ve lost two really good senior classes from the last two years and two starters back on both sides of the ball. We’ve had good JV seasons the last couple of years as well. They’ve just got to carry it over to Friday night.”
Those injuries late last season led to the emergence of running back Xavier Board, who gained 900 yards in the process.
“We’re hungry,” Board said. “Last year, we had a lot of high expectations. Coach said we were cautiously optimistic because of the amount of talent we had. This year, it’s the opposite. We lost a lot of great seniors, but because of that playing time we had last year and because of the new guys, we’re hungry.”
To catch up with the Greenmen ahead of the 2025 football season, watch the video at the top of this post from cleveland.com’s football camp tour. Their schedule and players to watch are listed below:
Aurora Greenmen
2024 record: 11-2, regional semifinalist
Coach: Bob Mihalik (25th season)
League: Suburban League, American Conference
Players to watch
Ryan Zielger, QB, 5-11, 175, jr.
Xavier Board, RB, 5-9, 180, sr.
Quincy John, WR/CB, 5-11, 170, sr.
Luke McGovern, WR/CB, 5-9, 155, jr.
Luke Hilditch, WR/S, 5-10, 170, jr.
Ryan Slisz, WR/S, 5-11, 165, sr.
Luke Bonnette, TE/DE, 6-3, 235, sr.
Drew Scott, TE/DT, 6-2, 255, jr.
Grant Courtnage, OT, 6-2, 265, sr.
Josh Harrell, OLB, 5-11, 175, sr.
Benjy Nemet, LB/WR, 5-11, 175, sr.
Schedule
Aug. 22 vs. Brecksville
Aug. 29 at Lutheran West
Sept. 5 vs. Twinsburg
Sept. 12 at Highland
Sept. 19 vs. Revere
Sept. 26 vs. Copley
Oct. 3 at Cuyahoga Falls
Oct. 10 at Tallmadge
Oct. 17 vs. Kent Roosevelt
Oct. 24 at Barberton
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