You'll have to excuse the coaching staff at Genoa for not knowing the exact location of the Celestial Ball trophy.

Genoa senior running back Seth Dufendock celebrates after scoring on a 13-yard run with 2:06 left in the first half in the Comets 15-7 win over Oak Harbor. (Press photo by Harold Hamilton/HEHPhotos. lifepics.com).

That is, the one the Comets “retired” after beating Oak Harbor in football for the third straight season – 36 years ago.

“The old trophy, from 1974, was in our superintendent's office,” Genoa coach Mike Vicars said. “We were trying to show it around the school, but no one knew where it was.”

Superintendent Dennis Mock said the gold, 16-inch-tall trophy was moved to the school district's new administration office six years ago.

“We put in two display cases and one is for memorabilia that people have brought in, such as yearbooks and programs,” Mock said. “They were cleaning out a trophy case at the high school and they said, hey, this would be good for the memorabilia trophy case. One of them was the Celestial Ball.

“Mike (Vicars), not being here at that time, they were looking all over for it. Mike Thomas, our co-athletic director, walked over to ask me if I knew where the trophy was and he says, 'Here's the trophy!' He said, 'We've been looking all over the high school for that.' It's still in good shape.”

The Celestial Ball trophy, first introduced in 1965, is given to the Genoa-Oak Harbor winner each year. Any team winning three straight games in the Ottawa County rivalry retires the trophy, and a new trophy is awarded the following season.

Heading into last Friday's showdown at Genoa, the Comets hadn't beaten Oak Harbor three years in a row since coach Jim Firestone's squads won five straight over the Rockets from 1972-76. Genoa retired the trophy in 1974, following a 21-20 win.

“We had just that one trophy,” Vicars said. “We talked about it a little bit going in (last week). We kind of low

Genoa senior tackle/defensive end Luke Sutter holds the Celestial Ball trophy high after the Comets 15-7 win over Oak Harbor. (Press photo by Harold Hamilton/HEHPhotos. lifepics.com)

-keyed it because we knew there was going to be a lot of pressure to begin with. We have a young team and we just tried to take it as business as usual and not get carried away.”

Oak Harbor has retired the Celestial Ball trophy seven times. It retired its first trophy in 1971 and then in 1982, '85, '95, 2001, '04 and '07.

The Rockets and Comets became charter members of the Suburban Lakes League in 1972, but Oak Harbor joined the Sandusky Bay Conference in 1986 and did not play Genoa again until 1993. When the rivalry resumed, the Rockets beat the Comets 13 out of the next 15 years.

When Vicars became Genoa's head coach in 2007, the Comets lost to Oak Harbor 14-7 and haven't lost a regular-season game since. Last week's 15-7 win was Genoa's 31st straight regular-season victory, which is one of the longest streaks in Ohio.

Bucyrus Wynford currently has the state's longest winning streak. The Royals won their 40th straight regular-season game last week with a 7-0 win over Sycamore Mohawk.

“Yeah, we mention it,” Vicars said of his team's streak. “A lot of people say things about it. This week I told the guys, hey, the reality of the whole thing is some day that's going to end. If it ends this year, it will be a major celebration by the team that beats us. Congratulate them because it is a big thing, but I'd really like for you to embrace it because you're something special. But, don't put all your eggs in one basket and make that all you play for.”

The Comets' previous two wins over Oak Harbor were lopsided affairs. They beat the Rockets 61-0 in 2008 en route to reaching the Division IV state semifinals, and 51-0 last season. This year, however, Oak Harbor gave Genoa all it could handle.

“I was proud of our effort Friday night,” Oak Harbor coach Mike May said. “To go into Genoa with them riding a 30-game win streak, our kids didn't back down. They hit and they were flying around on both sides of the ball and on special teams. Our overall execution is getting better. Defensively we're doing a fairly decent job of pursuing and tackling and we're getting a little healthier.”

Genoa, which was outgained by Oak Harbor, secured last week's victory when junior cornerback Brandon Roberts intercepted a pass with less than a minute left in the game.

A 3-yard touchdown run by senior Kyle Mincheff gave the Rockets an early 7-0 lead, but the Comets responded with a 13-yard scoring run by senior Seth Dufendock and a 1-yard run by junior quarterback Josh Bryer. The Rockets reached Genoa's 6-yard line late in the fourth quarter but couldn't capitalize.

May said his players were aware that the Comets could retire the Celestial Ball trophy with a victory.

“The way we looked at it, we had to go out and focus on what we had to do to win the game and the trophy took care of itself,” May said. “They were disappointed in the loss overall, and obviously the trophy is a part of that. The kids were hurting after the game. We had a great week of practice and it was a tough loss for us.”

Vicars said retiring the Celestial Ball trophy after a 36-year drought “meant a lot” to the Genoa players.

“It kind of immortalizes them a little bit,” he said. “We talked about their opportunity as a group for immortality because of the fact that they could retire that trophy that so many groups before them had not done. I think that was a big deal for them. Who knows when you can string three of those together and get another trophy.”

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