Prep Tracker: A Look at Sonny Styles’ and Luke Montgomery’s Season-Opening Wins, Cormani McClain Snags Three Interceptions

By Garrick Hodge and Dan Hope on August 22, 2021 at 11:10 am
Sonny Styles
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As high school football season begins around the country, Prep Tracker will serve as our weekly look at how some of Ohio State's commits and top recruiting targets are performing on the field.

For the opening Friday night of the Ohio high school football season, we went to see two of Ohio State's top targets in the recruiting class of 2023: Sonny Styles and Luke Montgomery. Meanwhile, numerous other Ohio State targets in the 2022 and 2023 classes had standout performances in their season openers, and we've rounded up some of the best highlights below.

Styles starts junior year with big win

MASSILLON – Sonny Styles had a relatively quiet night Friday. 

That may be one of the best compliments a defensive back can receive. 

Styles, roaming around at free safety on defense for the majority of the evening, was thrown at just twice in Pickerington Central’s 26-7 road win over Ohio powerhouse Massillon. Both passes were incomplete. 

“I thought I did pretty good in coverage today,” Styles said after the game. “I want to do a little bit better in (the) open-field because I feel like I got caught on my heels a little bit.”

In fairness, one of those two incompletions was a completely overthrown pass that looked like this.

Styles and Pickerington Central’s defense didn’t stay on the field long in the first half, as the offense dominated the time of possession 17:32 to 6:28. 

But Massillon’s one scoring drive will stand out to Styles as he keeps looking to make improvements to his craft for the remainder of the season. Junior running back Willtrell Hartson, who finished with 59 rushing yards Friday, challenged Ohio’s No. 1 rated prospect in 2023 on three consecutive carries. On an outside run, Styles chased down Hartson starting at midfield, but was too aggressive and drew a personal foul penalty after a late hit on the sidelines. 

“He’s a good running back,” Styles said. “And again, he caught me on my heels a little bit. He was just running at me and I was kind of on my heels playing free safety, but I’ll get better at that. It’s the first game. First-game jitters.”

That was the only drive Styles was caught off guard. He was in much better position to make a play, one of his three tackles on the evening, on a key third-down play in the second half.  

Pickerington Central outgained Massillon 343-135 on the evening, mostly due to the stout play of the Tigers’ defensive line that shined brightest when it forced a safety when the game was tied at seven in the second quarter. Styles didn’t mind letting his teammates have the spotlight for a night. 

“I like seeing my guys eat,” he said with a smile.  

After Friday’s contest, Styles told a group of reporters he’ll visit plenty of schools this fall, including Ohio State, Notre Dame and Clemson. He didn’t commit to a specific date, but Styles said his OSU visit may be the home opener against Oregon on Sept. 11.

– Garrick Hodge

Montgomery shines at left tackle

FINDLAY – While Garrick watched the state of Ohio’s top prospect in the 2023 class on Friday night, I was watching the state’s third-best prospect, Luke Montgomery, make his first-ever start for Findlay High School on the offensive line – the position he’s being recruited to play by Ohio State and many of college football’s other top programs even though he’s primarily played defensive line before this year.

If I hadn’t known that going in, I wouldn’t have guessed that Montgomery was playing his first game at left tackle. He looked like a natural at the position in Findlay’s 24-14 win over Anthony Wayne, starting right off the bat with the game’s very first play, when Montgomery drove a defender about 10 yards downfield and pancaked him into the ground. And that was just one example of Montgomery putting his opponent in the ground on Friday night.

Montgomery was both impactful as a run blocker and effective as a pass protector on Friday, and he should only get better in both areas as he gains more experience playing the position. His quick feet, natural power and high motor all stood out Friday as he played on both sides of the ball. Anthony Wayne rarely ran the ball in his direction when he was in the game at defensive end, but he did make one strong run stop at the line of scrimmage and also showed he could bring pressure as a third-down pass-rusher – though he’s unlikely to play on defense in college, at least if he goes to Ohio State.

His energy and love for his team was also apparent on Friday. He was quick to go celebrate with his teammates any time they made a big play, and he was a hype man for the student section too, running over after Findlay scored a go-ahead touchdown to take a 21-14 lead in the third quarter and firing them up with a scream of “Let’s fucking go!”

I wrote more extensively about Montgomery and the recruiting process, which he’s taking his time with, in a full article on the four-star junior published Sunday morning. Ohio State remains at the forefront of his recruitment, but so are other top programs like Penn State, Notre Dame, Michigan, Clemson, Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma – and the first game of his junior season was further validation that he should be a top target for Greg Studrawa and the Buckeyes in the 2023 class.

– Dan Hope

McClain has 3-INT game 

While Styles wasn't challenged much Friday, someone apparently missed the memo that Cormani McClain is the No. 1 rated cornerback in the class of 2023. 

Some defensive backs are lucky enough to get three interceptions in a season. McClain matched that total in one game en route to leading Lake Gibson (Lakeland, Florida) to a 56-24 win over Plant City. 

McClain released a top five earlier this month that included Ohio State, Florida, Alabama, Miami and Florida State. The 6-foot-1, 165-pound five-star playmaker is the No. 10 rated recruit in the 2023 cycle. 

The best of the rest

  • One of OSU's top running back targets in 2023, Justice Haynes, did quite nicely for himself in Blessed Trinity Catholic's 34-6 victory. 
  • Top 2022 defensive line target Caden Curry was chasing runners down in the fourth quarter of Center Grove's 38-14 season-opening win over Warren Central.
  • Troy Bowles didn't make many friends on the opposing team Friday. But what the four-star linebacker did do was make a few highlight-worthy, bone-crunching plays in Jesuit's 35-0 win over Largo.
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