At the beginning of the high school football season we always have a page dedicated to 10 things to look for in the upcoming season. Like most years, the football seasons were filled with exciting finishes and exciting moments. So as we say good-bye to another year of play on the gridiron I would like to end it with 10 things I saw during the football season.
This is primarily dedicated to what I personally observed throughout the year and the games I covered.
Best game of the year: St. Marys 13, Wapakoneta 7. No doubt this game was circled by both teams at the beginning of the season. There were a number of story lines coming into this game.. We had the Doug Frye factor. The Redskins winning streak factor. The Travis Moyer winning streak factor. The Western Buckeye league title on the line factor. Packed inside and on the railroad tracks above Skip Baughman Stadium, the game lived up to its billing. A tight defensive battle ensued as both teams were determined not to give up points. But in the end it was the Roughriders, holding a late surge by the Redskins, who rode home with a 13-7 victory to stop the Redskins’ 33-game win streak and put St. Marys in the driver’s seat for the league title. Unfortunately, Ottawa-Glandorf would have something to say about that the next week.By the way, the schedule makers for the WBL could not have scripted a better ending to the season.
Best play of the season. To piggy back off the St. Marys victory over Wapakoneta, the best play of the year I saw was the halfback option pass by the Roughriders. With less than 20 seconds on the clock and the ball at the Redskins 33-yard line, most expected St. Marys to run out the clock and let the second half play out. But Frye had decided to gamble with a little trickery and went with the gadget play that saw Julius Fisher pass the ball to senior split end Seth Warniment who had gotten behind the Redskin defenders and score a touchdown with 10 seconds remaining in the half. The touchdown would prove to be the deciding points in the Roughrider win.
Best game of the year I wish I would have seen: The Spencerville-Delphos Jefferson rivalry has been one of the best games the past several years and this year’s season finale pitted the two squads for the outright Northwest Conference title. Jefferson, winner of the last three league titles, looked to make it a clean sweep for its seniors and when Hunter Binkley’s 39- yard touchdown run with a little more than two minutes left in the game capped off the Wildcat comeback, Jefferson was celebrating another title and added another exciting chapter to this rivalry.
Best game of the year part 2:Lima Senior vs. Findlay 28-21. The rival Trojans came into the game undefeated and Lima Senior had two losses. The Spartans, thanks to the running of Jaden Walker, who would finish with 157 yards and two touchdowns would carry the Lima Senior offense. The Spartan defense made several key defensive stands throughout the game and when Walker plunged in from two yards out in overtime the Spartans celebrated their biggest win of the season. Which leads us to….
Best player I saw this year : This one is a rather tough one because there is so much talent in northwest Ohio. When I sat down with our reporters to decide the dream team it was amazing how tough of a process this is. There are so many good schools with top notch players, programs and coaches. But because I am limiting it to who I personally saw it had to be Jaden Walker. The Spartan senior was surrounded by an inexperienced squad and still delivered when called on. To see him race pass defenders or bull his way over players was truly fantastic to watch. Walker put the Spartans’ offense on his shoulder and carried them in several games and almost helped Lima Senior pull off the upset of the year when the Spartans gave Toledo Central Catholic all they could handle before being edged 35-34 in what I would call the third best game I saw. Irish running back Michael Warren, who would be crowned Mr. Football in Ohio, ran for 390 yards and four touchdowns against the Irish.
Best performance by a player in the playoffs: Roughrider Eric Spicer gets the nod for me after watching him give the Roughriders the boost they needed to knock off a talented Franklin team that most people favored to beat St. Marys. Spicer, who was the WBL offensive player of the year, racked up more than 330 all-purpose yards . Finishing with 174 yards rushing Spicer’s biggest plays didn’t come from the backfield but on special teams when he ran a kickoff back 96 yards for a touchdown to give St. Marys a 17-10 advantage. The Roughrider senior would then have a big 52 yard punt return to set up the Roughriders’ next touchdown and give them a lead they would never relinquish.
Best performance by a player in the playoffs part 2: At the end of the year, Ottawa-Glandorf head coach Ken Schriner admitted he didn’t know how good his team was going to be during the year but week in and week out, the Titans kept winning and producing wins. After a tremendous season that saw them go 9-1 and share the WBL title with St. Marys and Wapakoneta after the Titans downed the Riders in the season finale, Schriner knew he had a talented bunch of what he liked to call “blue-collar, no-nosense players,” willing to put in the hard work to succeed.
When the playoffs came, Schriner knew they were in for another tough match when they opened the playoffs with a determined Bellevue team who many thought would end the Titans’ season. It appeared that would be the case when the Redmen opened up a 21-7 lead with a little more than a minute left in the first half. Up until that point the Redmen had shut down the Titans offense. But Ottawa-Glandorf quarterback Jay Kaufman changed all that when he guided the offense on a 60 yard drive to score a touchdown before the end of the first half and then in the second half continued with his hot hand to help lead the Titans to a 49-28 victory. Kaufman, who was 6 of 13 for 79 passing yards in the first half with zero yards rushing, finished with 127 yards on 14 carries and two touchdown and passed for 203 yards and two touchdowns.
Best feel good story: For me the best story that makes you believe in hard work, heart and dedication came in the form of the Upper Scioto Valley Rams. High expectations were always tempered at Upper Scioto Valley for the football program. But when head coach Josh Spencer came aboard six years ago he changed the attitude and the culture of Rams football and this year it all came together. Under the leadership of Spencer and the hard work of his coaching staff and a corps of talented athletes, the Rams made history. Not only did they overcome a 1-3 three start this year, but the Rams went on to garner their first Northwest Central Conference title in school history and make it to the playoffs. A league championship and a playoff berth were an amazing accomplishment but then the Rams put a little icing on their season by recording a first round playoff win against Troy Christian.
Toughest hard luck season: When I saw Allen East beat Perry in the second game of the season, I thought the Mustangs were destined for a playoff berth. They had the running of Caleb Smelser and quarterback Spencer Miller and appeared primed for the postseason. However, the Northwest Conference had a different ideas. The Mustangs suffered losses to Jefferson, Spencerville, Crestview and Ada, and missed the playoffs. By the way all four of those schools made the playoffs and the NWC proved to be one of the best small school conferences in the area this year.
Most fun game to watch: Going into week 8, Bath and Shawnee had endured a number of losses and the only thing these two teams were playing for were pride and bragging rights. Neither of these two teams wanted to be on the short end that night as the two teams exchanged touchdowns in a game where defense was not the focal point. The game would see more than 800 yards of total offense and three lead changes in the final quarter. In the end, Bath’s Kaden Sullivan would drive his team 72 yards in the final minute and a half of the game to secure the win for the Wildcats and deliver a heartbreaking 43-40 loss to the Indians.
I hope everybody enjoyed the season as much as I did and I’m sure 2017 will shape up to be another exciting year. Now on to the hardwood.
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