North Drives Over South.

Would Tri-County North have emotion enough left in their gas tank after their big win over Miami East for this week’s game against rival Twin Valley South? It can be tough to keep a team focused and driven over the course of a two and half month long season. And even though the two teams records were opposite of each other, North at 5-2 and South at 2-5 there have been times over the years where the underdog has upset the favored team. So it had the potential of being a trap game for North if they overlooked South. With a wet field and sporadic rain, you had to wonder if turnovers would a factor and that would be a way for South to hang with North – if they could force some fumbles and get good field position.

North put the game into the hands of fullback Michael Olinger and his raging bull running style. They ran in between the tackles into the teeth of the South defense. And South could not find an answer. At least not in the first quarter as Olinger rampaged thru the South defense for 3 touchdowns in the first quarter. In the game he had 2 more touchdowns called back for penalties or he would have done even more damage. As it was he had 198 yards for the night.

There were plenty of turnovers – but it was the North defense causing South to cough up the ball. Unofficially I had South tossing up 5 interceptions and giving up two fumbles. And the first fumble was a heart breaker in two different ways. South did a fake punt and Dillon Ashley carried the ball for a first down. But as he went for extra yardage, he took a hard shot to the helmet and crumpled in a heap as the ball squirted away and was fallen upon by a North player. So that stopped the drive and senior Ashley – who missed the first few games of the season due to injury, continued his hard luck season having to watch the remainder of the game from the bench.

Rounding out the scoring for North was JJ MacPherson -14 yard run, Austin Hutchins – interception returned for a TD, and Caleb Lawson – 90 yard TD. South got on the board as a gritty Zane Cottingim caught a pass for a nice 25 yard gain to put South in the redzone. Then he finished the job a few plays later when he scampered into the endzone from 5 yards out. South came close to scoring a second time but a fumble on the North three yard line ended that threat. That was the theme all night for the South offense – when it looked like they would put together a drive, a turnover or penalty would kill it. At the last whistle the score was 41-6 in favor of North.

“When you have 7 turnovers in a game you are not going to win that game,” stated South Coach Engleka after the game. “North’s Olinger scored pretty easily on their opening drive, and we wanted to answer. We put together a nice 17 play drive but then threw an interception in the endzone. Then when we did the fake punt we gained 16 yards on that play and fumbled. Turnovers hit us at the worst possible times.”

Zane Cottingim had a good night for South though – “On defense he has a nose for the ball and is in on every tackle. He has good instincts but knows his defensive keys, he is a real leader us on defense. And when Ashley was hurt we had to use him on offense – he played running back and slot receiver. Also Darin Brown had a good night with 8 tackles at cornerback and 3 receptions for 38 yards at receiver. Dylan Steffey, on offensive line performed well for us. We talk to kids about going from whistle to whistle – well he went from whistle to the echo of the whistle in my opinion it was his best night of the year. “

On South’s game against Miami East, “Miami East and North have similar offense’s and defense’s so we are going to see the same schemes as we did against North. I think they are the biggest team physically in the league and we are going to have to prepare to be ready for that. Last I looked they were number 9 in the playoffs –a bubble team and we want to take that from them.”

I asked Coach Derringer if North had any concerns going into the game, “We were more worried about the spread offense – we just don’t see that in this league. And we were worried about getting our linebackers set up correctly. We ran them a little wider and then came up with blitz packages against different formations. And we were worried about their running game, Cole Cottingim can be dangerous.”

On the game, “We wanted to establish the running game as we had seen how they had problems with Ansonia and a few other teams. Michael Olinger had a great game for us. But the penalties really hurt, he should have had two more scores. We will work on eliminating penalties this week. And the defense was just exceptional. Billy Derringer had 2 interceptions, Austin Hutchins had one interception for a TD, and Sam Judd had a big interception to stop a TVS drive in the endzone. Josh Daughtery and JJ MacPherson had 14 tackles and Jake Schlater had 2 sacks. On the offensive side of the ball Caleb Lawson had 7 carries for 134 yards and Austin Hutchins was 4-13 with just 49 yards. So our passing was not successful as it has been in the past. But we counted 6 dropped balls – if we could have caught those we would have had over 100 yards passing. Right now Austin stands at about 850 yards, with two games left in the season – we are thinking that he will break 1000 yards passing.“

Next week North goes against Trail - another school using the spread offense. Coach Derringer plans to switch up his defenses and give them a different look in the secondary. Offensively things shouldn’t change much – maybe a few less penalties...


The picture - North's Sam Judd gets cartwheeled by South's Zane Cottingim.

Dixie Defeats Northridge.

In the words of Coach Tarpley, Dixie has a brutal schedule this season. And they have played several teams in the SWBL that look to be play off bound with maybe 1 or two more ahead. It makes it doubly tough to make it back to .500 when you are the smallest team in the league. So when winless Northridge came up next on schedule, Dixie wanted to take another step in the right direction with a victory. Coming into the game, Dixie had 2 wins and needed this win plus 2 more to get to .500.

But things didn’t start off well for the Greyhounds when a Luke Bowling pass was intercepted and after a good return, Northridge passed the ball from the 12 yard line and were up on the scoreboard 7-0. Dixie next went to ground game and Ryan Jordan scored to draw the score even at 7-7 to close out the first quarter. Any thoughts that Northridge had of getting their first win of the season were put to the rest in the second quarter when Dixie erupted for 27 points. Northridge never really got regrouped in the second half although they did score again in the fourth quarter. When all was done Dixie had a decisive 53-13 victory.

On way to the victory, Ryan Jordan had the best night of his high school career. Not only did he score a touchdown in every quarter, he also set a new Dixie single game rushing record with an astonishing 294 yards. But wait there’s more - to paraphrase the late night pitchmen – Jordan had a great night on the defensive side of the ball too. Matt Isaacs was out with a concussion and so middle linebacker duties fell on Jordan’s shoulders. He responded by leading the team with 11 tackles. Quite a night’s work for the young athlete. Also scoring for Dixie were Mike Smiley, Doogie Houser, and Luke Bowling (1 run and 2 TD passes).

Coach Tarpley had plenty of praise to go around, “Ryan Jordan had a great night for us, but we had a good night as a team. Our defense played well holding Northridge to under 200 yards of offense. Matt Smiley, John Isaacs and Luke Bowling did really well. Our PAT kicker, Ryan Scott, had 5 PAT’s and we have been focusing on special teams this week and it showed in the game – we wanted to stop giving team’s good field position.”

Next week Dixie plays a tough West Milton team, “We just have a brutal schedule this year. We played another team that is strong up front like West Milton – Brookville. We played with them for a half and then the game got away from us. But we have to get our heads up. I told the players that of the 7 games we played, in 5 we have been close to even. West Milton is looking at Division 4 playoffs and maybe a chance at the league. We need to focus on what we can do and try to spoil their party.”

Football Texas Style

Everyone knows that things are bigger in Texas. And the high school football game I attended last night lived up to expectations. Coppell High school at Dallas is one of the largest high schools in Texas and regularly vies for the state championship. When you pull up, you are struck by the size of the complex. A huge scoreboard with graphics and video replay, a stadium with field turf that most colleges would be envious of and a practice facility with an indoor football field. The indoor field was actually used by the Dallas Cowboys when there was a dome collapse at their facility a few years ago. So the sports complex is impressive. I have been to playoff's in Southwest Ohio and the Troy and Mason facilities are some of the best in the area and they pale in comparison to this.

And the whole experience was an event. Both teams took the field running thru inflatable helmets and smoke in the endzones. The home team Coppell Cowboys ran thru a huge banner that looked to be about 25 feet tall. The cheerleaders had to use poles and ropes to hold it up. The halftime show was impressive. The Coppell band had to be at least 200 members strong and generated a wall of sound. Not one, not two, but 4 conductors lead the band. The Lariat drill team in short skirts and dainty cowboy hats did a well choreographed high kicking routine.

Oh yeah there was a football game there too. Fossil Valley Panthers were the visitors. Coppell was starting a sophomore quarterback due to their starting quarterback going down with a knee injury two weeks ago. Both teams ran variations of the spread offense. Coppell used a 3-5 defense and Fossil Valley used a 4-3 defense. As one might expect, Coppell tried to run the ball more with the young quarterback while Fossil Valley was more creative with their offense - even using a halfback pass at one point. They did not utilize a punt team, as the quarterback could also punt. So they just got into a regular spread formation, he took a couple of steps back and quick kicked the ball.

Fossil Valley scored twice to get the early lead. But Coppell was able to make adjustments and after two possessions where they did 3 plays and punted, they finally scored on their third possession when they ran a quarterback keeper and he found a seam for a long run and was finally dragged down at about the 5 yard line. Later they punched the ball in for a score and it was game on from that point. With a bigger line, they were able to get most of the yardage in between the tackles. Mixing in a pass every so often to keep the offense honest.

Coppell gave up a field goal and even a safety. The quarterback had problems with the snap from center several times and that was a thorn in their side as the ball was bobbled and had to hit the ball at least a half dozen times during the night. But they got their third touchdown and the lead in the third quarter. And the score was from a broken play where they drove inside the 10, the snap was bobbled and the quarter scooped it up and drove forward thru a crease in the line and somehow rolled out of a tackle to cross the goal line.

The Coppell defense made a good stand in the fourth quarter – Fossil Valley was in the redzone and they kept them from a touchdown for three plays and failed on a field goal attempt. This allowed Coppell to run out the clock for the remainder of the quarter winning 22-19. All in all I found the quality of play exceptional and it was definitely an event worth watching.

Coppell Cowboy Stadium

Tri County North took out their frustrations on the Bradford Railroaders on Friday night. The team was still smarting from a disappointing 35-7 loss against Covington last week. The coaching staff would have to be wondering how the team would react on their first game back from an emotional loss. And being homecoming weekend, the Panther fans were even more clamoring for a win. This team still has a lot on the line for themselves, a future Covington loss would mean a chance for a least a tie for the league championship and at last check they were unofficially in 8th place for their district – meaning that they are in the hunt for a state playoff berth. So the Panthers needed to rebound with a win for all these reasons.

On their side of the ledger Bradford already had a thin roster decimated by injury – but had some players suspended from the game. So the North sideline was overflowing with red jerseys, while the Bradford sideline was thin – I don’t think there were even 10 substitutes on the Bradford sideline. Bradford was certainly playing iron man football – no rest for the starters. And with new faces on the field there was a greater chance for mistakes.

Any doubts on the North sideline were quickly erased in the first quarter. North struck first with a 80 yard touchdown pass from Austin Hutchins to Bill Derringer. A stout North defense kept Bradford out of the endzone for most of the game, preventing them from getting any traction. But Bradford had several mistakes at key times that prevented them from taking advantage of opportunities. Early in the second quarter they recovered a fumble at the North 35 yard line. But a critical hold on 4th and 1 put Bradford into long yardage and they had to give up the ball. North took advantage and regained their momentum scoring on a Sam Judd pass reception from Caleb Lawson.

The next Bradford drive was again stopped by penalties – a hold, then an unsportsmanlike as a flustered Bradford offense could not get on track. After a Bradford fumble North scored again on a JJ McPherson run and now things were getting lopsided with North up by 3 scores. Bradford tried a little subterfuge right before the half ended with a fake punt in their own territory. This failed and gave North a short field with about 1:22 left in the half. This was all the time needed for North to find paydirt again as Caleb Lawson caught a 35 yard pass from Austin Hutchins to put North into a commanding lead 28-0.

The second half showed even more that it was not Bradfords night –another fumble and a penalty, and then a snap on a punt went over the punters head who then correctly reacted by kicking the ball out of endzone – denying North the chance of a TD, but gifting them with a safety. About midway thru the 3rd quarter things got a little ugly when a pushing and shoving match drew unsportsmanlikes for both teams and a talking to from the referee’s and coaches to settle both teams down.

North found the endzone 3 times in the second half. JJ McPherson and Michael Olinger (who bull rushed thru several tackles on his 24 yard TD run) both ran the ball in and a Colton Booth to Mark VanBrederode touchdown pass rounded out the scoring for the Panthers. The Bradford offense was able to find the endzone in the 4th quarter as the North first string defense rested on the sidelines and let the reserves finish out the game. Giving an otherwise frustrated Bradford offense some measure of success.

Coach Derringer was asked if the staff was worried about how the team would react after the Covington loss, “Well we were all disappointed about how we got down early and were dominated up front. So we got the whole team and worked on firing off the ball and drive blocking and I think you can see the results of that on Friday night. Austin Hutchins had over 200 yards passing and you can’t do that unless you have an offensive line to protect him. This is the first time in a long time that North has had over 200 yards passing in a game. “

JJ McPherson had 95 yards rushing and a TD. Austin Hutchins threw for 201 yards, 2 TD’s, and was 8 of 13 passing. Billy Derringer had 105 yard receiving and a TD; Caleb Lawson had a TD and 25 yards; Sam Judd also had a TD.

“Now we did get to a slow start against Bradford even though we scored on the second play of the game. But our defense really dominates at home and we held Bradford for three quarters. One of their rushers had over 2000 yards last year and we held him to just 35 yards over 3 quarters. Josh Daughtery our middle linebacker had one of his best games of the year, he had a tremendous night and covered the side to side defense well. JJ McPherson had three tackles for loss at outside linebacker. And the entire defensive line played great – we rotated 6-7 players in there and kept fresh all night.”

Next up is Miami East, who is also coming off of a loss to Covington. “We upset them last year and I know they remember that. But we are playing here at home this year, and this season we are playing good at home. It should be a great ball game.”

Bville wins 28 20

Dix 14 bville 0 halftime. Ch 7 n ch 45 filming

dix 7 bville 0. 1St

“Our defense is what makes this team”, stated coach Derringer after his squad defeated Bethel on Friday night, “we don’t have much size but overall quickness is what makes our defense so effective.” Bethel was able to march their opening drive down the field and plant the ball in the endzone. It looked like game on for two teams that are battling for the top half of the league. But that would be the only score of the night for the Bee’s as the stifling North defense shut out Bethel for the remainder of the game. Meanwhile the North offense was able to put up 34 points in all against Bethel.

Coach Derringer explained after the game that he was disappointed with the first half rushing game. “We had scouted them, and attacked their defense where we felt they were weakest against the run. But we were not able to run, we might have had 8 yards in the first quarter and not much more than that for the half. “ Fortunately for the Panthers their passing game is effective – and Austin Hutchins connected with Billy Derringer for the first score for the Panthers. This tied the game and the Panthers were able to score again before the half ended. They split Austin Hutchins out as a receiver and placed Caleb Lawson at quarterback. Billy Derringer was again the recipient of a touchdown pass - this time from Lawson, and the Panthers had a 14 – 7 lead.

As good teams do, North made some half time adjustments to their running game and then exploded for 163 yards rushing in the 3rd quarter. Caleb Lawson scored a rushing td in the third and North opened the game up in the fourth quarter with both JJ McPherson and Cameron Gayheart scoring rushing TD’s. So the two halves were opposites for the team with the passing game carrying the load in the first half, and the rushing game making the difference in the second half. The game was won 34-7 by the Panthers. Coming into the game Bethel had a single league loss against Covington and in that loss they played tough against perennial powerhouse Covington losing by just 3 points 17-14. So on paper this should have been a much closer battle.

“Our defense stepped it up after the opening drive,” said coach Derringer, “We gave up 52 yards in the first quarter, but in the second quarter they had -22 rushing. And when we beat Arcanum they had 7 yards rushing in the first 3 quarters, and it was the same against Mississennewa Valley. For the game Bethel had less than 100 yards rushing and maybe 25 yards passing. It was a good game for us, we had great intensity and the team was emotional going into the game.”

Defensively for the Panthers Josh Daughter lead the way with 12 tackles and 2 for loss; Jacob Schlater, who had just returned from injury after missing two games had 6 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, and caused a fumble. Sam Judd and JJ McPherson had 6 tackles apiece with McPherson also intercepting a pass.

Coach Derringer on next week, “Covington will run every type of option at us – they have a complicated offense and our defense will have our hands full trying to sort it out. It has been 12 years since a North team has beat Covington. We will have to play an excellent game to leave their field with a victory.”

As we approach midseason, the league is starting to sort itself out from top to bottom. This coming Friday North takes on Covington for a game with both league and playoff implications for both teams. Both teams are undefeated in league play – tied for first, and a win makes the route the league championship that much easier. North is D6 this year and beating D5 Covington would give them first level points to get into the playoffs, and Covington would like to have the second level points from North wins. This will be an away game for North in the always tough Covington home field.

Ansonia Outlasts South in Shootout

Ansonia outlasted South in a contest where offense was king. Neither teams defense could stop the others and it came down to which team would make the final score before time ran out. Ansonia under coach Hoying has been known for years for a ball control/run first offense. This year South’s offense features a spread attack and they would air it out – scoring 5 of their TD’s with the pass. So it was a game that would contrast two different styles of offense, plenty of lead changes, and where the punters pretty much had a night off.

South fell behind early as Ansonia got the ball and marched it down the field, taking 6 minutes of clock to score. South moved the ball on their first possession getting two first downs, but a penalty stopped their first drive and caused them to punt. And for the game South would punt twice, once in the first half and once in the second half. Ansonia then did another machinelike clock eating drive and ended it with another touchdown in the second quarter. Ansonia went for 2 points on their PAT’s and were successful twice. So the scoreboard was 16-0, it was not looking promising for the Panthers.

But although time of possession in the first half would favor Ansonia, South showed that they didn’t need much time to score. They scored not 1, not 2, but 3 unanswered touchdowns in quick succession. Suddenly it was TVS in the lead with a 21-16 lead. But South just would not be able to stop Ansonia on Friday night and they scored just before the half ended to regain the lead 24-21.

Now the game became a seesaw with Ansonia and South exchanging leads several times. But Ansonia was able to extend their lead. And late in the game South was facing a 40-28 deficit. But with 5:11 left, they scored to make it 40-34 and then did a squib kick which South recovered. It was a big momentum shift. And South made use of that momentum to drive the ball in and score. But
Ansonia was not out for the count – they made a big special teams play and blocked the TVS kick for the point after and now the score was knotted 40 all. But Ansonia had one more drive left in them and scored with 11 seconds to go for the win 48-40. And every fan in that stadium got their money’s worth that night.

“I was proud of the team, twice we were down by 2 touchdowns and twice they responded and came back, said Lance Engleka after the game. I was most pleased that we didn’t get down and kept coming at them. But ball control was a problem, we gave up 474 of rushing offense – and you can’t win games giving up that kind of yardage. Also Ansonia converted on 3rd and 4th downs 12 of 17 times. We can’t allow teams to have that kind of success again us.”

He went on to point that that Cole Cottingim had a great game rushing 24 times for 149 yards and a touchdown and his passing was 12/19 for 210 yards and 5 td’s. Scoring 5 passing touchdowns is something that South has not done for quite some time. He also pointed out that Michael Burke had a good night at receiver 7 receptions for 131 yards and 2 TD’s. Finally safety Zane Cottingim had 8 tackles with 4 assists and defensive back Wes Cole had 2 solo tackles and 8 assists. But when asked about this he admitted, “Our leading tacklers should not be in the defensively secondary, we need more from the rest of the defense. “

Dixie Falls to Valley View

Although the final score was lopsided, the Greyhounds hung with the Spartans for 3 quarters. And Dixie had their chances against Valley View. There were two times in the game where 14 point swings made a big difference. Although the outcome would probably have been the same, the score would have been closer had Dixie not had mistakes in the red zone. Twice they failed to score points in side the twenty and both times Valley View capitalized on Dixe mistakes in the red zone to score themselves. So add 14 to the Dixie side and subtract 14 from the Valley View side and suddenly you have a game. Dixie showed that they could move the ball but putting it in the endzone was a problem on Friday.

Dixie’s first drive was their best of the night. Combining the pass and run they capped the drive with a Bowling to Ryan Jordan 32 yard touchdown pass. Later in the Valley View offensive series Dixie’s Nick Parker sacked the Valley View quarterback as did Wade Floyd a few plays later and Dixie would hold a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. So far Dixie was looking good on both offense and defense.

But to beat a bigger opponent, a team can’t afford to make mistakes. And turnovers kept Dixie from getting momentum, this started in the second quarter and didn’t stop. Early in the second quarter a bad snap lead to a bad handoff which lead to a Valley View Spartan pouncing on the dropped ball. A few plays later and the game was even at 7-7. Then a bad punt gave Valley View the ball on the 41 yard line where they drove it in to go ahead. A fumble recovery by John Isaacs gave Dixie new life but on that series, Dixie coughed up the ball on an interception at the Valley View 14. Dixie did stop them and got new life when a bad snap went over the punters head, he attempted a kick which was partially blocked and who else but Isaacs covered the ball at the Valley View 17. It looked like a momentum change, but Dixie threw an interception on 4th and 11, it was returned by Chris Lykins over 90 yards for a TD. So instead of tying the game 14 all, Dixie was down 21-7 at the half – not the momentum shift that Dixie needed.

In the third quarter, Dixie’s Wade Floyd had a tackle for loss and ended Valley View’s first drive. Dixie’s last gasp was on their next possession. John Isaacs caught a pass and went 80 yards for the touchdown. They did not make the extra point and it was 21-13. And from there on out it was all Valley View. Dixie was able to drive again to the Valley View 25, but a bad snap on 4th down killed that drive and lead to another Valley View touchdown. With Valley View able to platoon, they wore down Dixie. Many Dixie players had to go both ways in the heat – plus two starters were just coming back from the flu. So they just ran out of gas in the second half. The Spartans would win 49-13.

“Well you can’t win any ball game with 7 turnovers,” stated Coach Tarpley after the game,”and Valley View capitalized on 4 of those for touchdowns, including all three Valley View TD’s in the second quarter. Bad plays and bad snaps were a problem. And our defense could not find an answer for Schenck their running back. Valley View rose to the occasion and played really well.”

He did go to say that Ryan Jordan had a really good game on defense. “He was our leading rusher last week, but we couldn’t get our running game on track this week. He plays both ways and lead the team in tackles at linebacker. Next week we play against Division 2 Franklin, the mistakes we made this week we can correct.”

Congrats to both TVS and TCN on their first victories of the season. And Eaton is hitting on all 8 cylinders. They look tough to beat at this point in the season.

Finally on OSU - watching the game against Akron over my shoulder as I update. Glad that OSU gets the win. They looked good - but you have to consider the opponent, the Zips have been in the bottom half of the MAC. Still I liked what I saw, an Ohio State team that controlled the line of scrimmage, ran well, passed well. Freshman Miller got playing time at qb in a non threatening situation. So a good start to the Finkell era.

Vv 49 dix 13 final

Dixie 13 vv 28 end of third

Vv 21 dixie 7 at halftime

Dixie 7 vv 0 1st qtr

Dixie 7 vv 0 1st qtr

This Friday I will be covering the Dixie - Valley View game.

If you can't make the game, I will be posting quarterly scores from the sidelines.

Watch for the story to be posted here next weekend.

Greyhounds Race Past Panthers

With Dixie graduating a good crop of seniors last season there was some question if they could reload or would they need to rebuild? They have Junior quarterback Luke Bowling back at the helm but they lost two of his favorite receivers and on the defensive side of the ball they lost a premier linebacker, finally they lost linemen on both sides of the ball. Well the answer this last Friday night was that Dixie is in reload mode. They scored first and allowed South to tie it 7 -7. But that was the high water mark for the South offense as they were smothered from that point on by a stout Dixie defense. On the other side of the ball, the spread offense of Dixie was keeping South off balance with both the run and pass.

Bowling showed that he had some wheels as well as an arm as he carried the ball in twice for scores. He also connected with Doogie Hauser for a 30 yard TD pass, this play was set by a Jordan screen pass a play prior. And Jordan scored himself on runs of 43 and 80 yards. The 43 yard run was set up a Zack Grubb kick off return to the TVS 46 yard line. Trent Cummings scored on a one yard carry. But this score was set up by a Panther miscue – a bad snap on a punt resulted in the ball going to Dixie on the one yard line.

The lone Panther score was set up by freshman Anthony Augspurger’s interception. He was playing outside linebacker and jumped a route for the pickoff. Then he ran about 36 yards until he was tackled at the 23 yard line of Dixie. Three plays later the ball was given to Augspurger from 6 yards out where he finished the deal by running in for the score.

Both teams had their of share penalties – even for a first game. In a close game this can come back to bite these two teams. So I am sure both teams will be working on minimizing the illegal procedures and holding calls for next week. Although there was a good night for football, the turnout in West Alexandria seemed a little light as compared to years past. Hopefully this will improve too as the season goes on.

But Coach Tarpley from Dixie was more than pleased with his defense, “They are doing really well, this is the fastest defense that we have had and it showed on the field. It was lead by linebacker Matt Isaacs, who had 13 tackles and a fumble recovery. We played well in all aspects of the game, the defense, the offense, special teams – our kicking game was outstanding. Ryan Jordan had 165 yards rushing in the first half alone. “

He was gracious to the host team, “They are a well coached team, I see them getting much better once they learn the spread offense. It is a hard offense to pick up the first year. Also I appreciate the good sportsmanship that I saw on the field. Lance [Engleka] will do well at South, I see him doing good things in the CCC. ”

On next weeks game, “Well they are Valley View for one – they dropped us from the schedule years ago because they didn’t think we offered the completion, but I want to see the rivalry we once had come back. They have a good running back that their offense is centered around and they run a 5-2 defense. It will be a tough game, but I hope to surprise them. We had a good fan turnout Friday against South, but I really want to see the Dixie fans come out in full force and support us at Valley View.”

Coach Engleka acknowledged that Dixie was potent after the game, “We knew their offense was explosive, they put 35 points against Division 2 Greenville and scored 49 points in 3 quarters against Tri-County North. So we knew that they could put points on the board in a hurry. So we told the players before the game that we could not allow any big plays. We did that in the first quarter – although they scored, they had to drive the ball down the field. And we stopped them a few possessions. Then we had the break down on special teams early in the second quarter and turned the ball over to Dixie on the one yard line. Then we gave up another big play and so that 14 point swing at the start of the 2nd quarter really broke our backs.”

I asked him about the South score, “We had told our outside line backers where the Dixie receivers hit their marks, and Anthony hit the mark at right time and was able to make the play. We’ve been teaching the kids to listen and get to where they need to be on each play. He then had a nice return to the redzone and we were able to score three plays later.”

Finally, what positives they could find from the game? “We watched the game film and found that defensive linemen Cody Clayton and Kole Maggard did a great job clogging up the ‘A’ (inside) gaps. Kole was generally double teamed and still had 7 tackles including 2 for loss. They were both in their backfield more often than not. We also liked what we saw in Brad Wagers at Defensive End. He is a bit undersized, but compensates with quickness. And that quickness caused problems for the Dixie offense.

Next week South will play National Trail at home – both teams run the same offense and the same defense – according to coach Engleka this game will come down to which team executes the spread offense and 4-4 defense the best, and Dixie stays on the road and will travel to always tough Valley View.

Dix 42 tvs 7 final

dix 42 tvs 7 3rd qtr

Dix 35 tvs 7 at half