Norton 28 Clyde 13

High School Football

Division III Region 10 Playoffs
Home Team: Clyde Fliers
Visiting Team: Norton Panthers
Venue: Bishop Stadium (Clyde, Ohio)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: Brandi, MB

Norwalk 41 Clyde 40 (OT)

High School Football
Home Team: Clyde Fliers
Visiting Team: Norwalk Truckers
Venue: Bishop Stadium (Clyde, Ohio)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.*
Fellow Attendees: None

*Brandi and I came to Clyde to visit her dad. Her family lives about two blocks from the stadium, close enough to vaguely hear the PA announcer inside the house. After we ate, I wandered over to the stadium and found a seat just in time for the third quarter kickoff. The score at the time was 21-17 Clyde.

This is the kind of night that was made for high school football, with a chill in the air but otherwise perfectly pleasant. This was a game with big playoff implications, and with Brandi being a Flier alumna, I feel some small connection to the town/team, so I was glad I got to catch some of it.

I'm not entirely sure how Clyde managed to hang in as well as they did in this game. I can't really pinpoint anything they do well. They can't tackle and take poor routes of pursuit; the offensive line is shaky in the run game; pass protection seemed okay but the quarterback is indecisive; the offense seems overly complicated for a high school team. A lot of that may have just been the matchup—Norwalk only has one loss on the season, and they looked pretty good. And yet the Fliers just seemed to make a play when they needed one.

(Another point seemingly against them: this is the sort of thing that's hard to tell when you just see one half of one game, but the fans in the stands sure don't seem to like the coach. Then again, I don't think I've ever been to a high school game where the fans in the stands did seem to like the coach.)

I started off sitting on the west end, near the student section, then moved to the east (and the older folks) when overtime moved the action down there. Strange as it may seem, the experience by the students was much more low-key. They were content to just stand around and cheer. The adults shake their cowbells and yell at the kids like they're pro players. It's bizarre. The high point came when Norwalk scored their TD in overtime, and a kid from Clyde ended up being injured on the play. A bunch of fans around me started yelling about "lack of class" when Norwalk's players celebrated their touchdown instead of immediately taking a knee for the injured player, and there was some not-so-good-natured yelling back and forth across the field between the two fanbases, all while the kid was still being tended to on the field. It was amazing.

Finally the player was helped off the field and the game resumed, with Norwalk kicking the extra point to go up 41-34. Clyde then took over and made their bumbling way toward the goal line and eventually scored. I was not in favor of the decision to go for 2; I guess here I'm voting with the fans and against the coach. Given the way the game had gone, they didn't seem terribly overmatched, and it didn't seem like the kicker was going to have any issue, so I think in that situation you tie the game and take your chances in a second overtime. But they didn't, and the QB got stuffed on a run toward the endzone, and that was the ballgame.

It would have been awesome if they had managed to pull it out, but this was probably the most fun I've had at a high school game that didn't involve the Troy Trojans, so I'm just glad I was there.

UPDATE 12/7/19: After this game, the Clyde Fliers won their next six games and won the Division IV state championship in Ohio. I find this hilarious.

Marysville 35 Thomas Worthington 7

High School Football
Home Team: Thomas Worthington Cardinals
Visiting Team: Marysville Monarchs
Venue: Hamilton Field (Worthington, Ohio)
Game Time: 7:30 p.m.*
Fellow Attendees: None

*Kickoff was at 7:30. As I spent the day working in Toledo, I got to the game shortly after 8:00, with the score tied at 0 and about ten minutes left in the 2nd quarter. I then left with about 6:30 left in the game and Marysville leading 21-7, as their coach apparently has no idea how to call an offense with a lead in the fourth quarter and seemed perfectly content to let his quarterback continue to throw incomplete passes until midnight or so. I had seen enough bad football at that point to know that Thomas wasn't going to mount a comeback.

I knew before the season when I looked at Troy's schedule that I probably wasn't going to follow the Trojans to Trotwood for their game tonight. With Brandi at her yoga class until late, though, I didn't feel like skipping a week of high school football entirely. Football-wise, I'd prefer to go see Kilbourne of the two high school teams here in Worthington, but they weren't at home. And of course, it isn't just about seeing good football--if it were, I could have stopped going to Troy games following Ryan Brewer's senior season in 1998 and not missed a whole lot. Thomas is more local to where we live, so after I got back from Toledo, I threw on a sweatshirt and walked over to TWHS to check them out.

The walk was nice. I had seen the stadium from outside, obviously, but this was my first time going into it. It's pretty nice, especially for a team with no football tradition to speak of, at least not recently (I went back to 2000; their best record since then has been 5-5). They also had a pretty decent crowd when I got there--although I soon learned it was their Homecoming, and much of that crowd dispersed following halftime. I think I may have ended up sitting in a reserved section, but no one ordered me out or even looked at me funny, so I could be wrong.

The TWHS mascot is the Cardinal, which suggests to me that their uniforms should be just red, or maybe red and black, but they are in fact red and blue. That's a problematic combination for me, although the shade of blue they use is brighter than that of the Piqua Indians and is instead more Dayton Flyers-ish. Still, no bueno.

And yeah, they're bad at football. That was no surprise, given their 1-5 record coming in, but I was surprised by just how bad they are. For instance, my own beloved Troy Trojans are going through a rough season of their own, but if the two teams played each other, I'd pick Troy and the running clock. And it's not like Marysville was a whole lot better—they also were 1-5 coming in. I saw ten minutes of the first half, and in those ten minutes, the two teams combined for four interceptions.

Anyway. I don't mean to denigrate the kids, so the less said about the actual football, the better. What I will say is that I have a hard time figuring out exactly why Thomas has such a rough time in football. It's a good-sized school (they're in Division I this year after competing in Division II last year), and as I mentioned, it seems like they have a pretty good amount of support. Their coach is only in his second year, so maybe he'll be able to build them up, although the early results aren't encouraging (their one win this year is already better than their winless season last year). Either way, with the right guy in place, I don't see why Thomas couldn't at least be decent at football.

Of course, I'm a fan of the entire high school football experience, and I had heard really good things about Thomas's band, so I was looking forward to seeing them perform. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, it was Homecoming, so all the band did at halftime was stand in place and play a tune over and over as the Homecoming Court was announced. They were performing their competition show in full after the game, and I was interested in sticking around to see it, but it got to a point in the fourth quarter where I just couldn't take any more. The Marysville band sounded really good, though.

So now I've checked out Thomas Worthington and (mostly) satisfied my curiosity about the Friday night experience there; I don't really see myself going back. In the future, on the rare occasions I decide to skip the trip back to the Miami Valley to see the Trojans, I imagine I'll just stick with Kilbourne.

Kilbourne 22 Hayes 0

High School Football
Home Team: Worthington Kilbourne Wolves
Visiting Team: Delaware Hayes Pacers
Venue: Ron Hopper Memorial Stadium
Game Time: 7:30 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: None

The real story on this one, of course, is the game I didn't attend. Here's something I've never been able to say before: I voluntarily chose not to attend Troy's game tonight, not because of something else Brandi and I had planned, but because it wasn't quite worth it.

I say this with nothing but fierce love in my heart for the Trojans, but I knew they had little shot of winning, or even staying particularly close, in their game against the powerhouse Wayne Warriors. Not this year, at least. Still, if that was all there was to it, that wouldn't have been a deterrent. I've followed Troy to premeditated blowouts (in both directions) before with no compunctions. There were a couple of other factors at play. For one, the new running clock rule in Ohio high school football - I had a feeling the second half of this game would be played under this rule, making for a short game. Having already attended two Troy games played under this rule, I know how unsatisfying it has been to attend games that barely last longer than it takes for me to drive there. And two, true or not (probably not), I remember hearing rumors that Wayne ducked out of games with Troy back when the Trojans had Ryan Brewer in the backfield, saving themselves the embarrassment he regularly lavished upon opposing teams and leading to Troy playing such opponents as Akron Coventry and Columbus West, who provided no competition (or Harbin points) at all. While I admire the Trojans greatly for their unwillingness to take a similar stance now that the tables have turned, I still just don't really like when they play Wayne.

So it was that I found myself this evening at Ron Hopper Memorial Stadium watching the Wolves take on the Pacers, rather than at Troy Memorial Stadium watching the Trojans take on the Warriors. Worthington has three high school football teams; living in Old Worthington as we do, technically I suppose that Thomas Worthington is our "home" team. Unfortunately, they're terrible at football. Worthington Kilbourne, on the other hand, is pretty decent at football, and as Troy met them in the playoffs once upon a time (a Troy loss at Welcome Stadium in 1997, Brewer's junior season), I'm inclined toward them.

Being at the game was a little strange, never more so than when it turned out that Kilbourne and Troy have the same fight song. But it was fun. Kilbourne has a pretty good team, with good size and speed. I left after the third quarter, with the score at 22-0 in favor of the Wolves. Their quarterback had left the game with an injury, and it looked like they were going to use a DB at QB and run the wildcat for the rest of the game, which didn't especially interest me. And as that turned out to be the final score, it seems I didn't miss much.

Clyde 32 Eastwood 22

High School Football
Home Team: Clyde Fliers
Visiting Team: Eastwood Eagles
Venue: Robert J. Bishop, Jr. Stadium (Piqua, OH)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: Brandi, Steve, Mary Beth

Obviously, this was not the Troy game. The Trojans played in Cincinnati this evening; instead of heading south for that game, Brandi and I made the trek north for this game instead. Clyde is her alma mater, and they invited the cheerleading alumni to come cheer at the game. It was pretty cool to see her in her cheerleader mode, and I think she had a pretty good time, so it was worth it.

We got lucky to get the game in. There were some storms in the area that caused quite a few other games to be suspended. We did get rained on a little bit before the game started, but after that the only weather issue we had to deal with was the sheer mugginess of the evening.

And it turned out to be a pretty good game. The ol' alma mater prevailed, which is always nice. Of course, Brandi wasn't there to see it--her cheerleading duties over at halftime, she and Mary Beth left about midway through the third quarter to escape the humidity. Steve and I stuck it out, as the outcome wasn't certain until close to the end. It looked in the second quarter like it was going to turn in the shootout, as both teams traded quick-strike scores to close the half. But Clyde's defense really tightened up in the second half, and they added a TD late in the fourth quarter to salt it away.

I was pretty impressed with Clyde overall. Good team. Their quarterback was really solid. He made some good throws, scrambled some to get out of trouble, and did everything he needed to do. He also serves as the team's kicker, and I told Brandi, if I was a college scout I would have offered him a scholarship to kick for my team based solely on what I saw in this one game. Big leg. He did miss a long field goal, but it was long enough, just wide, and the fact that they even tried it says a lot to me. I was also impressed by the way their defense played in the second half, really controlling Eastwood's offense after getting burned by a couple of long runs in the first half.

Next week we're back to our regularly scheduled Trojan programming. Just like Week 1, I'll be at Troy Memorial Stadium as the 2-0 Miamisburg Vikings roll into town, and the Trojans will look to get into the win column for the first time.

Coldwater 28 West Jefferson Roughriders 6

High School Football
Home Team: Coldwater Cavaliers
Visiting Team: West Jefferson Roughriders
Venue: Alexander Stadium (Piqua, OH)
Game Time: 7:30 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: Doug, Pops

OHSAA State Playoffs, Regional Finals - Division V Region 20

My buddy Doug usually goes to a MAC football game each week throughout the season. With Troy out of the playoffs, I was free to join him. It's always an interesting experience to go to a game without any rooting interest--I watch the game in a completely different way. That was doubly true tonight, as we stood along the fence at a corner of one endzone instead of taking seats in the stands, so I had a field-level view. I liked it, especially being able to see how the players line up and how the plays develop. But it's hard to see the depth of the plays, and that's a pretty significant downside.

Anyway, this looked at first like it might be a pretty decent game. West Jefferson got the ball first and drove down to take the early 6-0 lead, missing the extra point attempt in a stiff wind. That was pretty much it for them, though. Their defense held Coldwater mostly in check in the first half, trailing 7-6 at halftime, but that score was a little deceiving as Coldwater turned the ball over twice on the goal line as they were preparing to score.

In the second half, Coldwater started taking advantage of West Jefferson's inability to cover their receivers deep downfield. They went up 21-6 going into the fourth quarter (after giving up the ball again on the goal line), and that's when we headed out. The final score turned out to be 28-6, but if Coldwater hadn't had all those turnovers, it could have easily been 49-6.

And Piqua's stadium: ick. I'm sure it's my bias showing, at least a little bit, but it just looks chintzy. They do have a nice turf field, though.

St. Mary's 21 Tippecanoe 14

High School Football
Home Team: Tippecanoe Red Devils
Visiting Team: St. Mary's Memorial Roughriders
Venue: Park Stadium
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: None

OHSAA State Playoffs Round 1 - Division III Region 10

Make no mistake, I live and die with the Troy Trojans. But, I must admit, I've got the tiniest little soft spot for Tipp. I used to work in Tipp City, just a block over from the park (and, hence, the stadium), and on nice days I would occasionally take my lunch there. However, as my Friday nights during football season are booked with Troy games, I had never seen a game there, so I decided to take the opportunity.

The Tipp City Park is a great setting for a game. Even the lack of a parking lot doesn't really hinder the experience, as there's plenty of parking available on the nearby side streets. I drove into the area about half an hour before kickoff and found myself a perfect Taurus-sized spot just a short walk from the stadium. And that was with a good crowd - the stands weren't jam-packed by any means, but they were pretty full, and there were plenty of people hanging on the railing or camped in the green spaces surrounding the field. The park is filled with trees that were in their full fall glory, rioting with color in the glare of the stadium lights. And the weather was absolutely perfect - I took a jacket along, but I put it on only after it fell through the stands to the ground below, as a way to ensure that such an occurrence would not happen again.

Another thing that I thought was cool was that Tipp had a sign language translator on the sideline facing the home stands for all pregame activities and announcement. I'm not fluent in sign language, but I thought she was fascinating to watch nonetheless. She even signed the words of the fight song as the band played, keeping time with the music. Very cool, and I think it's awesome that they do that for their fans.

As for the game itself, it was pretty simple: Tipp just couldn't stop St. Mary's ground game with any consistency, and they couldn't get their own offense going. They looked the best coming out of halftime when they mixed up the offense and worked in some passes, but Tipp's coaches seemed far too insistent on reverting to their own run-heavy tendencies, and the Roughriders were having none of it. Still, I have to give the Red Devils credit for fighting - they were down 14-0 at half and being pretty much dominated, but they were able to come back and tie the game 14-14 in the third quarter. They actually would have taken the lead on a punt return TD, but one of the blockers unnecessarily hit the very last Roughrider defender in the back, which nullified the score. From there, Tipp couldn't get back on the board, St. Mary's ground it down the field and into the endzone, and that was the ballgame.

EDIT: Another random note I just had to mention. One guy sitting behind me was a very loud clapper (totally acceptable at a football game, but irritating when it continually happens at a distance of what sounds like approximately two inches behind your head) and a constant second-guesser of the players on the field. I noticed at one point when he left the stands that he was wearing a pair of obnoxiously loud and ridiculous-looking boots. Later in the evening, we were at a party here in Troy, and I saw Brandi talking to a guy in a Tippecanoe shirt, so I wandered over to chat about the game. Then I looked down and saw the obnoxious boots he was wearing, and realized it was the same guy. I ended up not saying much about the game, or anything at all.