NORWOOD, Ohio — Tickets for Friday night's Moeller versus St. Xavier Division I regional quarterfinal football game sold out in less than 10 minutes late Monday afternoon, according to Moeller interim athletic director Frank Russo.
The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff Friday at Shea Stadium in Norwood, which is Moeller's designated home venue this season. Shea Stadium is expected to have an estimated 5,000 fans Friday night, according to school officials.
Tickets, priced at $10 for adults and $8 for students, were put on sale online through the Ohio High School Athletic Association starting at 5 p.m. Monday. It didn't take long for all the available tickets to be bought by fans of both schools and those who didn't designate a school of interest.
Friday night's game is the WCPO 9 Game of the Week and will be televised live by Spectrum in Southwest Ohio.
This will be the second meeting for the Greater Catholic League South division rivals this season. Moeller rallied to defeat host St. Xavier 20-17 Sept. 16.
Moeller (10-1) is the No. 1 seed in Division I, Region 4 while St. Xavier (5-6) is the No. 9 seed. Friday will be the third time in eight seasons the teams have met in the postseason. It is the first playoff game between the rivals since 2020 after the teams previously met in 2014.
St. X defeated Fairfield 42-28 in the first round Oct. 28 while Moeller defeated Hamilton 39-14.
"Hey, everybody is 0-0 right?" St. X coach Steve Specht said after the Oct. 28 win at Fairfield."We're excited about moving on. I know our kids are excited about the opportunity and what the heck, let's make it round two."
The winner of Friday's game will advance to the regional semifinals against either Mason (9-2) or Springboro (8-3) Nov. 11 at a neutral location to be determined later.
A significant amount of interest in the Moeller versus St. X game occurred this past weekend when both teams won first-round contests. There was some thought by school officials that the game would be sold out by Wednesday. Instead, it took only a few minutes Monday.
The stakes are even higher in the postseason for Moeller and St. X this time around.
"Look it's a rival game and all that stuff. Does it matter? I guess," Moeller coach Mark Elder said. "But the other reality is this is playoff time. And so whether it's a rival game or you've never played the team ever in your life - you're assuming both sides of the ball - this is everybody's haymaker. Why? Because it's win or go home."
