There were a lot of dynamic players in the Great Lakes Conference this year, but GLC West champion Rocky River claimed most of them.
Westlake running back Matthew Porcelli was named as a Division II third-team All-Ohioan, and Rocky River had five All-Ohio honorees in Division III.
The Pirates were led by first-team All-Ohioans, quarterback Julian Patti and wide receiver Ryan Ricketti. Running back Nick DiSalvo, defensive lineman Trent Delventhal and defensive back Josh Mommers were all named to the third team. On top of all the individual player accolades, Rocky River coach Josh Wells was named Division III Coach of the Year alongside Madison’s Mike Gilligan and Aurora’s Bob Mihalik.
The 2022 season didn’t go how Rocky River wanted with a 4-7 record, but the Pirates righted the ship with a 10-2 season in 2023. The seniors worked for it and have made a long-standing impact on the program.
“It always means a lot when you have a season like we did,” Wells said. “I think it’s a testament to where our program is at and the culture that a setback didn’t knock us off course. Our kids took upon themselves to fix that and that’s what meant the most. … It’s such a unique group of kids, it was the whole senior class. They loved playing with each other and for each other.”
The Pirates were a run-first football team last season and the coaching staff made adjustments to use the passing attack as the year went on. Heading into this year, the offense was full air-raid. With the play-calling and weapons at his disposal to get the ball to, Patti was the biggest beneficiary. The senior signal caller threw for 3,358 yards and 44 touchdowns for the season.
Patti’s biggest receiving threat was Ricketti, who caught 80 passes for 1,268 yards and 18 touchdowns. Rocky River had a big three with DiSalvo in the backfield rushing for 1,507 yards, receiving for 599 more and tallying 25 total touchdowns.
“It means a lot, I’m really thankful to receive (All-Ohio),” Patti said. “Shoutout to my coaches, my teammates, everyone. It means a lot because of all the hard work in the offseason to step up from my junior year to senior year.”
“(My teammates) were 100% deserving. It was really nice to have a great running back to complement our passing game. Nick was also huge in the pass game with little dump-off passes that he took for 40 yards. Ryan made crazy catches with some 50/50 balls that he was going to come down with.”
The offensive side rightfully got most of the recognition for Rocky River, but the defense had some solid athletes to build around in Delventhal and Mommers. Delventhal had 62 tackles for the season along with 5.5 sacks. Mommers was the only junior player to receive All-Ohioan honors for the Pirates. He led the team with 67 tackles and four interceptions.
Rocky River was not only a complementary team with a strong running and passing game, but with players like these two on defense. Mommers will be one of the players counted on for next year’s success, along with some other guys that weren’t named All-Ohioan, but Wells thought were deserving.
“It’s a collective program,” Wells said. “The awards that our kids get, yes the individual kids are getting All-Ohio, but they couldn’t do it without the other teammates. This group was willing to put the team before themselves.”
The All-Ohioan accolades were just the cherry on top for what was a big season for Rocky River football. The Pirates turned the tide for what the future of the program was going to look like. After all is said and done, there has certainly been a foundation left by this group.
Wins racked up and the yards and touchdowns followed. The players bought in to doing everything for the team and it paid off. There are players who think about themselves and their awards first, but Wells brought up a good point about team players ending up being rewarded anyway as individuals for fighting for the person next to them.
“It’s honestly a blessing having the opportunity to play with such good teammates and such good coaches,” Ricketti said. “It was just really fun to play how I did and get the results that we wanted as a team. It goes to show much of a team-effort this season was and how great of a team we really had.”
High school football: 2023 OPSWA Division II, Division III All-Ohio teams
