It won’t be the same Blanchester High School football team that defeated Goshen last week when it travels to Owensville this week to open SBAAC National Division play against Clermont Northeastern.
“With the injuries we have from Friday, we’ll definitely have to refocus this week,” BHS coach Jon Mulvihill said. “We have some holes to fill.”
Mulvihill didn’t elaborate on the players injured. In addition, there’s a question of who will serve this week’s suspension from being ejected last week in a 41-27 win over the Warriors. On the field, Brody Rice was ejected. Mulvihill said in the officials’ report from the game, Rice should not have been ejected and Blanchester is appealling.
“We’re waiting on word from the OHSAA on Brody’s ejection,” Mulvihill said. “We plan to appeal as the report the official filed said that Brody was the player (in question) and that is not the case. Hopefully Brody does not miss any games.”
Mulvihill was confident going in to last week’s game, despite playing a team BHS lost to 37-0 in 2019 and having not won a season-opener since 2006.
“I had a really good feeling about the outcome going into Friday,” said Mulvihill. “I knew what they had and I was confident we could stop them. I was also confident they would underestimate what we had and that we could score.”
The second-year BHS head coach said his defense was not fundamentally sound and gave up some big plays.
Those lapses could play a role in this week’s game as CNE passed for 244 yards and four touchdowns in a 32-0 win over Summit Country Day.
“CNE has a couple deep threats at wide receiver that scored four times against Summit Country Day,” Mulvihill said. “We will need to improve our discipline at corner this week to keep them in check. Defensively, CNE is aggressive and fast. They play hard and they will hit you.”
Mulvihill said he was just happy to get on the field to begin another football season.
“Friday night was different from any other Friday night I’ve experienced, but it was as close to normal as we have felt in a long while,”he said. “On the field, it was the game we know and love and I’m ecstatic that our boys are having a season.
