South Playoff Bound After Win Over North

 

Both North and South entered their last regular season game with playoff hopes. It made the rivalry that much more intense as the loser could very well end up watching the playoffs from home. It was a well attended game and that helped give it a playoff atmosphere. The 2 teams sparred through a scoreless first quarter, but it was South that erupted for 28 points in the 2nd quarter to break the game open. One of these scores was from a blocked punt by Eric Allison that was recovered in the endzone by Caiden Kingsley just before halftime. South's defense was able to pitch a shutout for the 3^rd time this season as they would carry home the Battle of the Panthers trophy with a 42-0 victory.

TVS coach Fogle: “Our defense plays lights out. They have been our mainstay all year. Sometimes we bend, but we don't break. They just keep up the pressure. Our goal tonight was to pitch a shutout and we did that.”

North did make a drive deep into South territory in the 3^rd quarter. A halfback pass from Colten VanWinkle to a wide open Jon Shirley helped to get the ball past midfield. They got all the way to TVS 10 yard line and then began to go backwards. A Caiden Kingsley tackle for loss pushed them back and a 4^th and 25 pass fell incomplete to end the drive.

The win puts TVS in the playoffs and they will have to travel to meet their opponent. At this time, the bracket has not been published. With the loss North's season ends.

TVS coach Fogle: “We had to really fight the 1^st half of the season, but here we closed out with 4 wins in a row. The kids are hungry, they are eager – ready to go and now we want to make a run in the playoffs. Tonight the 1^st quarter was slow but once we got a taste of the endzone we really got it going. It was kind of a playoff atmosphere tonight and I hope that they continue to travel with us where ever we may go in the playoffs.”

Others who scored for TVS: Brayden Koeller 68 yd & 5yd TD runs; Cais Kingsley 6 yd & 3 TD runs – he ends the season with over 1,000 yards rushing.; Cole Bishop 25 yd TD run.  Brayden Koller also finished the season as the all time leader in tackles at TVS.

game pics at mediafire

Arrows Blank Trojans

 

The Arcanum Trojans hosted the Preble Shawnee Arrows this past Friday night for their Homecoming game. The Arrows would end up as Homecoming spoilers as they shutout the Trojans 33-0 on their home turf. This ended a tough stretch of 3 games in a row where Arcanum had to play teams at the top of the conference standings. However even with this loss, if the team wins out their last 2 games they still have a chance of making the playoffs at the end of the season.

The first half was the best half for the Trojans. Shawnee was able to move the ball, but the Arcanum defense was able to get stops when they needed. It was 0-0 at the end of the 1^st quarter. Blake Weaver got a sack that forced Shawnee to punt. Isaac Mills made a timely defensive play when he batted away an Arrow pass on 4^th down that ended a Shawnee drive at the 11 yard line. Zade Shank ended another drive when he picked off a pass just before halftime. So at the break it was a 14-0 game, still within reach of the Trojans.

Entire Story to posted shortly to:  DarkeCountyNow

Game pics at Media Fire

Patriots Pummel Panthers

 

After losing a close game against Preble Shawnee, the Tri-Village Patriots were anxious to bounce back and get back to their winning ways. They hosted the Twin Valley South Panthers this week and after trading scores in the 1^st quarter, the Patriot offense got into high gear and it was all Tri-Village for the remainder of the game. They went on to dominate in all 3 phases of the game: offense, defense, and special teams. The final score was 48-6.

Coach Hopkins,“I thought it was a really great game by the team. We worked all week long on the game plan, and they executed it just like we asked them to. I am really proud of how we bounced back from last week. We got better this week – and us coaches got better too and good things happened.”

Entire story to be posted soon at: DarkeCountyNow

Game Pictures

Musical Coaches in the WOAC

 Arcanum head coach Schondelmeyer put the Trojans into a bit of a tough spot when he resigned this past spring.  His son, Bryce, who was voted offensive player of the league is leaving Arcanum to play for Springfield his senior year.  Both Schondelmeyers will be part of the program at Springfield is what I have heard.  

So that left an empty seat to fill and spring is generally a tough time to find a coach as most positions are emptied and filled not long after the football season ends as coaches resign or retire around that time. So the pool of candidates looking for a coaching position is very small by the time Spring rolls around. But Matt Macy, the head coach of Ansonia, was an Arcanum alum so when the job was offered to him, he took it.

Next Ansonia was in a predicament.  They saw what Arcanum did and likewise contacted an alum - Adam Hall to come back to coach.  This was great for Ansonia as Hall accepted the offer, but bad for TCN where Hall had been the head coach.   

Now North's AD Tony Augspurger in a pickle.  But he did have a lead with a coach who had been an assistant when he was the AD at South.  Trace Smitherman had been a defensive secondary coach during the Dave Miller era and so Tony gave him a call and persuaded him to come to North.  Leaving Stebbins now without a head coach... and that is where we drop this game of musical coaches.  Situations like these are where Athletic Directors earn their pay.

Dixie will have a new coach as Dave Worley has stepped down.  He had some early on success at Dixie - sending them to the playoffs, but he has decided to move on at this time.  Eric Wolf is taking up the reins in New Lebanon and will be rebuilding a Greyhound program. He has been an assistant at several local programs so he is familier with the schools in the area and of course brings his experience. 

This is all that I am aware of, but as you can see this means a lot of change for many of the teams in the league. 

#WOAC

Covington Struggles with Numbers

 Although Covingtons numbers are not as low as neighbor Bradford, they are struggling with fielding a competive football team.  They notified several of the teams on their schedule that the Buccaneers will not be competive this year and so they would need to find another team to play if they wanted to find a team that could compete at the varsity level.  Several of the teams have already done that.

For the longest while Covington was the terror of the CCC. If they did not win the league outright, you could count on them being the 2nd place team at a minimum. But the Buccaneers fortunes changed when the school went to a new league - the Three Rivers Conference and also got a new, tougher coach. The combination did not sit well with last years crop of players. Only 1 senior bothered to come out and just one starter from last season.  The team is comprised of mostly freshmen and sophomores - so yes basically a JV team.

Second year head Coach Austin Morgan is truly rebuilding and reshaping a football program from the ground up. He is sticking to his guns - instead of bending the program to accomodate the kids, he is bending the kids to fit into his program. Will these younger kids buy in and reconstruct the tradition that has been Covington football for decades, or will they likewise decide that the short term pain is not worth the long term gain like their older classmates?  

Bradford Railroads the WOAC

 Bradford is again struggling to get enough players on the field to have a football team.  The rumor is that only about 12 kids went out this season. And the rumor was confirmed as team after team in the WOAC has announced schedule changes here in the preseason. They are scrambling to find out of conference teams to replace Bradford on their schedule.

Bradford has been having a problem getting kids out for several years now.  They had to cancel a season earlier when they were in the CCC and even when they had teams they had low numbers - once going through a season with like 15 players.   Really a program needs twice that many players - above 30 is best.  That way you can give players a rest, have some depth in case of injuries, and be able to compete.  

Whether the problem is with worried parents not wanting kids to play because of concussions, or just a lack of interest in football (a lot of schools are seeing numbers diminish in all sports, not just football), it seems clear that Bradford needs to take a hard look in the mirror and just end the program.  It is difficult to end a tradition and I am sure there are many in the community that will fight this. But if the interest is not there from the students, then it just needs to be taken off of life support and fade away.

 The other schools can find out of conference games to fill their schedules. They would have an entire off season to pick up games to fill the empty slot.  Franklin and Newton are fellow WOAC members who do not have football, so the precedent is there.  Bradford has shown that they can be competetive in the WOAC in other sports so there are athletes attending this school, just none that care enough to play football.

Having said all this - there is a radical way that Bradford could salvage their football program - 8 man football.  Travel would be a problem as there are not that many teams that are doing this.  But as other small schools reallize that to keep football they need to adjust to smaller teams this division can grow.  As the number of small schools participating grow, then travel times will go down. Not the best solution, but it would be a means to keep football alive in Bradford.

Tigers Tail Panthers in Second Half

 

The Ansonia Tigers fought hard against the Twin Valley South Panthers – who are at the top of the conference. They played well in the 1^st half and had a half time lead against the Panthers who are undefeated in league play. But the Panthers battled back after the break and early in the 3^rd quarter claimed the lead for the first time and would not relinquish it for the remainder of the game. What had been a close game broke open in the last quarter as the Panthers cruised to victory 58-40.

The Tigers seemed to have the Panthers figured out in the first half. Defensively they used a zone to...

Complete story to be posted shortly at Darke County Now

Pics at: Media Fire

Box Score: 

Ansonia: Kadyn Edwards 4, Ethan Reichart 5, Trevor Hemmerich 7, Jacob Creaser 2, Treadon Spence 2, Garrett Stammen 8, Ian Schmitmeyer 12.

TVS: Grant Ulrich 9, Seth Vorhis 8, Jace Thuma 5, Jandon Ankrom 13, Cole Bishop 6, Logan Clark 4, Lucas Sievering 11, P. Mershan 1

Blackhawks Down Blazers

 

The Mississinawa Blackhawks were able to down the National Trail Blazers 52-44 on Friday night. The game was knotted at 21 at halftime, but a strong 3^rd quarter propelled the Blackhawks into the lead. Then they had to fend off a furious fourth quarter comeback attempt in order to preserve their lead. The Blackhawks had a steady hand at the free throw line - cooly making 8 of 10 in the 4^th quarter as they clung to the lead and were 15 for 18 on the night for a respectable 83% average.

Coach, “We have 5 keys before the game. One of the things was we have to match these guys intensity at home. I think we did that, although we did fall off a bit in the 2^nd quarter. We regrouped at halftime...

Complete Story to be posted soon at Darke County Now

Game pics 

Scoring: Dirmeyer 8, Woodbury 8, Anguiano 2, Pisano 19, Loy 4, Shimp 4, Trump 2. Trail Scoring: House 11, Smyth 2, Leal 13, White 8, Koehl 3, Carrell 5.

Arrows Fall Short Against Tigers

 

Preble Shawnee's improbable tournament run came to an end in the regional finals against the Versailles Tigers at Trotwood Madison this past Saturday. Shawnee has a decent sized line and matched up well against other teams this fall, but the Tigers sported linemen a size larger. The senior laden team was able to dominate the line of scrimmage throughout the game. The Tigers would end up regional champs 28-0, ending Shawnee's winning streak at 13.

It was a good night for small school football in Ohio. The air was cool and crisp and both stands were filled to capacity with rabid fans rooting for their hometown team. As each teams fortunes rose and fell, you could tell what was happening by which stands were louder. There was definitely a playoff atmosphere in the stadium.

Versailles scored on their first offensive drive of the night. The Arrows then had 2 chances to score and answer in the first half. The first drive was stopped inside the 20 yard line of Versailles when a muffed hand off fell to the ground and Versailles recovered the ball. The second drive went to the 22 yard line of Versailles, but an interception stopped this drive. Versailles then drove the length of the field to score themselves and go up 14-0 at halftime.

In the 2^nd half Shawnee had a tough time establishing a consistent offense. And defensively they took to blitzing linebackers to try and stop the running game of the Tigers. This was high risk and high reward. They did make some tackles behind the line of scrimmage. But if a runner broke through the line, he was able to ramble and gain good yardage before the secondary brought him down. The Tigers were able to score 2 more times once on the ground and once by air to provide the final margin of victory.

Shawnee Coach Dave Maddox, “They got the momentum and took off with it – we couldn't catch up. The turnovers didn't help, but we couldn't match up physically with them. They were big and powerful up front. That's where a game is won – in the trenches. It doesn't matter who you have carrying the ball when you have big ole horses like that up front. Hats off to them – that is a good football team.”

Still it was a season of firsts for the young Arrows. First conference football championship for the program ever, and the first ever in the new Western Ohio Athletic Conference. Most wins in a season for the program as well. No other Preble county school has accumulated 13 wins in a row in a single season. So this young team has put Preble Shawnee football on the map.

“We hate to lose, but we count this season as a success. We had a lot of firsts. We won more games than any other Shawnee team in history. First time winning a conference title. First time making a qualified playoff. First time winning a playoff game. We have nothing to hang our heads about.”

At the beginning of the season, no one would have projected that the Arrows would go this deep into the playoffs. A young team in a new league – even though they won out, they had not been tested by any division 5 teams during the regular season. But as the level of competition increased in the playoffs, the Arrows rose their level of play. It was a good run and with this team only losing 3 players to graduation Shawnee players and fans should be looking forward to next years season.

Lastly coach Maddox was asked about the seniors, “We only had 3 seniors and they had like 18. That was a big difference. But we will miss our seniors, they worked their butts off. They helped us achieve everything that we were able to accomplish.”

Game Pics

Brayden Doran Carry on Youtube

Hunter Crockett Carry on Youtube

Shawnee Wins a Thriller Over Roger Bacon

 

Preble Shawnee continues its march in the state playoffs with a quality win over a perennial powerhouse – number 2 seeded Roger Bacon. The Roger Bacon Spartans are the defending Regional Champs of 2020, but they will be in the stands this year as the Arrows won in come from behind fashion 35-28. With the win this will advance them to the Regional finals against Versailles.

Uncharacteristically for the Arrows, they turned over the ball 4 times on the night. They gave up 2 interceptions and 2 fumbles. You don't want to give gifts to a quality team and that is what Shawnee was doing. They also had a knack for giving up big plays to the Spartans. That combination had Preble Shawnee looking at a 21-6 deficit at one point in the first half. The team was slow to get started.

Coach Dave Maddox, “We overcame adversity in the 1^st half. That wasn't who we are. Once we got over the shock of playing on this field and a physical team like that we settled in. We have not faced a...  

Complete Story at:

Darke County Now

Video Clips & Pics:

Preble shawnee crocket

preble shawnee doran

preble shawnee stands

Game Pics

Arrows Tame Wildcats

 

The Preble Shawnee Arrows thumped the Williamsburg Wildcats for an overwhelming 62-7 victory in the 2^nd round of the state playoffs. After last weeks close game, folks were expecting another dog fight at Shawnee high school. But the Arrows seemed to find another gear last Saturday night and dominated on offense, defense, and special teams – the Arrows surpassed the Wildcats in each facet of the game. The Arrows appear to be peaking at the right time – in the heart of the playoffs.

In the 1^st quarter the 2 teams sparred to get a feel for the other and each team was able to score. Each team had a possession with no score initially. Then it was the Wildcats who struck 1^st with an 81 yard....

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Game Pics at Media Fire

  

Tigers Defense Can't Stop Arrows

 

The DVII Ansonia Tigers gave DV Preble Shawnee Arrows all that they could handle this past Friday night. The Tiger offense rang up 34 points on the league leading Arrows – the most allowed by the undefeated team this season. On any other night 34 points would be enough for a win in the W.O.A.C. But so far this season no one has figured out how to stop the potent offense of Preble Shawnee. The Arrows outpaced Ansonia 48-34.

Coach Macy: “We had been struggling on offense most of the year. So it was nice come out and score like this. But this is the type of team we are going to run into during the playoffs. So this is a good measuring stick for us if we want to make any noise in the post season.”

The Arrows feature Hunter Crocket at running back – a big rambling back who can accelerate. But when you try to pack the box, quarterback Brayden Doran can find an open receiver. It's been a 1-2 punch that defenses have had.....  

Entire story to be posted soon at:

Darke County Now

Pictures at:

MediaFire

Tigers Tame Panthers

The Ansonia Tigers came into West Alexandria with a 2 game losing skid, which had given them an overall losing record. Meanwhile TVS had won their last game and were hoping to use that as leverage to improve their record in the 2^nd half of the season. Ansonia crushed these hopes and spoiled South's homecoming as they dominated in all phases of the game to win 37-7. This gives Ansonia a winning record in the conference(3-2) and evens their overall record (3-3).

The Tiger offense was run oriented, but passed often enough to keep South from loading up the box. Their 1^st drive in the 2^nd half was a case in point. The offense had a nice clock eating drive where they....

Complete Story to be posted soon at: Dark County Now