Washington at Circleville
The Washington Blue Lions opened the 2015 season last week with a 14-7 loss at home to Johnstown Northridge.
The Blue Lions are spending this week getting ready for the Circleville Tigers. Kickoff in Roundtown is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday.
“It’s pretty obvious that we have to get better offensively,” Washington head coach Corey Dye said. “We were able to put together some really good drives, including the opening drive. We got all the way down to the red zone (inside the 20-yard line) and we ended up not being able to score. That hurt us.
“Defensively, I thought our kids did really well. Whenever you can hold a team to 14 points or less, you give yourself a chance to win the game. Unfortunately, our defense was on the field way too long. It showed there later in the fourth quarter; our guys were pretty tired.”
Circleville began the 2015 season with a 41-21 win over Miami Trace.
Dye believes there is enough good from the loss to Northridge to make for a bright future.
“We did have some good things happen,” Dye said. “There are things we can build off of. I was really pleased with our defense. We only gave up a couple of long plays. You can’t give up big plays. If you give up big plays, it’s going to be tough to win.”
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Carlisle at Miami Trace
The Miami Trace Panthers, coming off a 41-21 loss at Circleville, are getting ready for their 2015 home opener against Carlisle.
The Indians, a Div. V team, lost their opener to Div. III Franklin last week, 31-21.
Taking a look at some of the statistics from the Panthers’ opening game, Circleville had 14 first downs to 11 for the Panthers.
The Tigers had 314 yards of total offense (163 through the air and 151 on the ground). The Panthers gained all 207 of their yards on the ground on 51 carries.
Senior quarterback Austin Lovett was 0 of 4 passing for the Panthers. Michael Camp completed 14 of 26 passes for three touchdowns for the Tigers.
Eight Panthers carried the ball, with junior Drake Litteral carrying 14 times for 83 yards. Senior Baley Allen carried 12 times for 48 yards. Senior Devin Bainter carried 10 times for 27 yards and senior Larry Jackson carried eight times for 40 yards.
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Chillicothe at Jackson
Unable to hold a 14-0 lead, Chillicothe lost its season opener Friday to Johnstown Monroe, a rare loss on their home turf.
Chillicothe will travel to Jackson this week for another non-league contest. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
The Cavaliers are a young team, according to coach Ron Hinton. Quarterback Caleb Price had his moments but will need to find some consistency for the Cavs to improve offensively.
Jackson opened its season with a 41-20 win over Wellston.
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McClain at Unioto
Unable to hold a 14-point lead, the McClain Tigers lost to Adena 41-34 last week to open the 2015 season.
The Tigers are coached by former Wilmington coach Jeremey Andrews.
This week, McClain will travel to Unioto High School. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
The Tigers led 27-13 in the third quarter. The game was tied at 34-34 in the waning seconds when Adena fumbled the ball into the end zone but recovered for the winning score.
Tristen Pitzer had three touchdown passes and one rushing touchdown for McClain. Randall Mischal caught two of Pitzer’s scoring aerials. Alex Hollar had a touchdown receiving and a touchdown rushing for the purple and gold.
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Goshen at Hillsboro
Things will surely get better for Hillsboro this week. The Indians opened the season with a 40-0 loss to Western Brown at Richards Memorial Field.
Granted, the Broncos were a playoff team in 2014 but coach Matt Hodge had to hope for a better outcome in the lidlifter.
Hunter Chain of Hillsboro had three interceptions on defense but was unable to generate any points as the Indians signal caller.
This week, the Indians face the Goshen Warriors, a member of the Southern Buckeye Conference. Goshen kicked off its season with a 28-20 win over a solid Ross squad.
Kickoff is 7:30 p.m.
