No Lake Erie League championship or playoff spots are on the line.

Only the pride of the two Lorain High Schools — Admiral King and Southview — is at stake. And according to some, it can even be billed as — Lorain’s Super Bowl.

The two teams, who have combined for just three wins, including one by a forfeit, have had their share of struggles.

So when both teams enter George Daniel Field on Saturday afternoon, something will have to give as the winner claims the city’s “bragging rights”.

Admiral King rules the series, 28-9 in the 37 games the schools have met. Southview hasn’t defeated Admiral King since 2004 when they won 23-8. The Admirals have won eight of the last 10 games, but before that, Southview had a string of four wins in a row (1995-‘98).

Both teams had different situations heading into the season.

Southview

The Saints had high hopes heading into the season. The Saints returned 25 seniors, who won the Lake Erie League as freshmen.

After they snapped a 31-game losing streak to Sandusky to begin the 2008 season, they repeated the feat and beat the Blue Streaks, 14-6 in Week 1.

But it was mostly downhill from there. Beside a forfeit win handed to them by the OHSAA when Cleveland Heights was forced to forfeit its 34-3 win over the Saints in Week 4, Southview hasn’t had another win to show for.

Though there were plenty of improvements this season, the Saints lost 20 players — due to injuries, ineligibility issues and other issues.

Head coach Todd Auvil has endured another rough season at Southview, but he hasn’t given up on the kids who are proud to stick it out this season. He looks at the positive side, such as his special teams unit, who allowed just one touchdown all season or young players like Demea Edwards and Jimmy Gyorfi, who have combined for over 120 tackles. He is also proud of the play from his seniors Aaron Serrano, Ricky Earl, Matt Andujar.

Ricky Earl, who made his return to quarterback last week and will start Saturday, has 859 offensive yards (572 rushing, 287 receiving, 13 receptions). He has eight touchdowns, which also includes a kick return for a TD.

Serrano has been a force on both sides of the ball. He leads the defense with 111 tackles, while also totaling 323 yards (182 rushing, 141 receiving, 16 receptions).

Andujar, who has completed 52 of 111 passes for 637 yards and five touchdowns on the season, wants to help break the five-year losing streak.

“I’m very excited, but sad at the same time that this is our last high school football game,” Andujar said. “This game is very important. We haven’t beat them in the last five years. We’re going to go out there and give it our all.”

Earl said he is going to be more vocal than he’s ever been and make his teammates realize how important this game is.

“Everyone wants to go out on top as a winner in their last football game,” Earl said. “Whoever wins this game has bragging rights for the whole year. This game means a lot to me. This year, we gotta get it done. This is our last game ever being together.”

Serrano wants to put on a good show for the future of Southview football. He also said he wants to go out with a win.

“If we set the tone and stay hype the whole game, we’ll show people and the underclassmen, it’ll be something great,“ Serrano said. “It’ll show that even though we lost a lot of games, we came together to win that game together. It’ll be a great honor to show those kids that you can do all things no matter how things are going in your season.”

Admiral King

Admiral King was coming off a 7-3 season — the school’s best in 21 years. Anthony Harrison led the area with 1,871 yards and 22 touchdowns, while All-Ohio cornerback Chris Kimbro led the Admirals’ defense and snatched four interceptions.

But losing 24 seniors, including Harrison and Kimbro, plus their head coach Mark Campo, was something the Admirals haven’t been able to shake off.

A 58-0 blowout win at Toledo Scott in Week 2 gave the Admirals and new coach Mike Akers high hopes, but they haven’t won a game since and have clinched their worst record since 2004 when Campo went 0-10 in his first year at the helm.

Seniors Luis Mendez (763 yards rushing, seven TDs) and Rayshawn Morgan (421 yards, five TDs) have helped lead the Admirals’ offense, which has gained 1,971 rushing yards. On defense, juniors Justin Linder (105 tackles, 8.5 sacks) and Amon Willis (74 tackles), along with senior Brandon Medina (67 tackles, three sacks) have anchored the Admirals.

“We basically had to start from ground zero,” Akers said. “We only had three players that played a lot of varsity football last year. We basically put in 21 new starters. When you do that, it’s tough. That hit us early.”

Akers has since made several moves to get his younger players playing, including a move at quarterback, putting sophomore Colin Bryant in to replace senior William Silos.

“He got us a spark,” Akers said. “He came in with a smile on his face. And we’ve taken off since then. We played Maple Heights tough and we’ve been in every game since. We’re playing our best football right now and hopefully it’ll carry into this game and it’ll show.”

For Morgan, the game will be the biggest game of his four-year career.

“Beating Southview for the fourth year straight, it’ll be like we’re on top of the world, like we were undefeated,” Morgan said. “It’ll feel great to beat them. It’s like the Lorain Super Bowl.”

Darius Smith also knows the significance to the game.

“We gotta win this game,” Smith said. “This game means everything to everybody from the freshmen level to the seniors, everybody wants to win. We just wanna punch these guys in the mouth. Everyone is ready to play some smash-mouth football. This is all we got right now.”

Medina realizes this is the last game of his high school career.

“This game is it,” Medina said. “This means everything right now. To come off a dismal season, it would make the world right. It means the world to us. This is as intense as it gets.”

Mendez wants to make an impression, but most importantly come out with a win.

“Everyone remembers you by your last game,” Mendez said. “It doesn’t matter what you did during the season, when the lights turn on, this is what everyone’s going to be watching. We want this to be a friendly rival game where no one gets hurt and there’ll be no fights. We just wanna to keep it on the field and come out with a W.”

Importance of game

Since both teams have had their struggles, it can all be forgotten on Saturday, when one team can claim victory — and Lorain pride.

“We’ll be the only show in town,” Akers said. “It should be a full house. It’ll be almost like a playoff game.

“The winner of this game will have bragging rights. It’ll make a hard year a lot better to win and even can work as a springboard for next year for either team. Taking care of Southview would be a good win and can spring us into next season.”

Auvil knows how big this game is for both programs.

“Anytime that you can finish out the season with a win, it makes the offseason go better,” Auvil said. “You can always hang your hat on the fact that you won your last game, especially being Admiral King, our crosstown rivals.

“The kids know what it is, on both sides. There shouldn’t be a whole lot you have to say to a kid prior to an Admiral King-Southview game.”

Auvil remembers when he played at Lorain High and the Steelmen would take on Admiral King and Southview.

“We knew what it meant,” Auvil said. “The coaches really didn’t have to say a whole lot. We knew that if we ran the table, we were able to walk around town with your head a little bit higher and talk a little smack at times.”

This could be one of the last All-Lorain football games in the years to come. Two weeks ago, at a school board meeting, members approved 3-0 a memorandum of understanding with the Ohio School Facilities Commission to build a new school big enough to hold all high school students in Lorain. Until that day comes, the Southview-Admiral King rivalry may soon be the last Lorain rivalry that began in 1969.