Week 6 Logan @ Gallipolis

[noreply66]

Big win for the Chiefs. That early season bear of a schedule has finally paid off. Logan could salvage something out of this season now. Big confidence boost with this win on the road.
Trashing Coach Eddy and the staff doesn't help, but this is America and you can say what you want.

Yep... Paid off to the tune of 0-6! Maybe you just finally played someone who wasn't that good. I seriously doubt the beatings you took in the first six games had anything to do with this win.

Not a Logan fan. Just an observation.
You could be right. Maybe Gallia is just that bad.

Gallia had 6-0 Athens beat for a while and with a little break they could have beaten Ironton

[pappy1]

I went down 23 to 35 last night. Just west of 23 an eagle flew across the road in front of us. It was a magnificent sight. There were no major injuries in the game. I have heard of no fans that had major difficulties getting home. Even though I would have liked to have seen the blue win, the above items made yesterday a good day.

[pigskinguru]

Gallia had 6-0 Athens beat for a while and with a little break they could have beaten Ironton

I don't think Gallia beats any of the teams you have played so far either. They were probably the worst team you have played so far... that is the point I am making. I just don't think you can definitively say your schedule was the reason you beat the weakest team on your schedule so far. Congrats though...Any win had to feel good at this point in the season.

[NYBuckeye96]

Congrats, Chiefs!

[NY BUCKS]

As gallia seen logan not that bad..Logan has to get back to the basics..And start over..IE...Running game...Quick hitters...

[noreply66]

The Chiefs ran a different defense which helped a lot

[caglewis]

http://www.mydailysentinel.com/pages/fu ... d=15858442

Logan notches first win over Blue Devils, 14-3
by Craig Dunn Gallipolis Daily Tribune

That 800-pound gorilla you might have seen running away from Gallia Academy High School’s Memorial Field Friday night was the monkey that jumped off the collective backs of the Logan Chieftains.

The Chiefs, facing the possibility of an 0-6 start to a football season for the first time since 1929, rode junior halfback Cory McCarty and their defense to a 14-3 Southeastern Ohio Athletic League victory over the host Blue Devils for their first victory of the season.

“It all comes down to Cory McCarty and our defense,” lauded a happy — and relieved — Logan coach Kelly Wolfe after the Purple & White (1-5 overall, 1-1 SEOAL) broke what amounted to a six-game losing streak, including the final game of the 2010 season.

“A lot happened this week (four players quit the team), and I told our kids when we go down there we need to show up with an attitude,” he added. “I told them that when I walk around in pre-game, I’m going to be looking in your eyes… and I want to see kids who are ready to play football.”

With a surprisingly sparse Logan crowd looking on — likely a combination of the 0-5 start, the rainy, dreary weather and 80-mile trip — the Chiefs were, as Hank Williams Jr. might say, ready for some football.

In their first five losses of the season, the Chiefs only played one good first half and were pretty much out of the running by the time the second half rolled around.

Not Friday night.

“We came out and took it to them,” Wolfe said. “We scored quickly, but our defense really took it to them in the first half.”

McCarty rushed for 207 yards on 30 carries for the Chieftains, who only had four skill-position players touch the ball on offense all night. He broke a 57-yard touchdown run up the middle with 6:03 remaining in the first half to put the Chiefs ahead.

It was a precarious lead the Purple & White defense protected the rest of the way against a Gallipolis team that very easily could have entered the game 5-0. The Blue Devils (3-3, 0-1) had lost by five points to Athens and by six points to Ironton.

But Friday night, Gallipolis lost three fumbles and several times committed key mistakes or penalties that, along with the Logan defense, kept them off the scoreboard except for a Brandon Taylor 19-yard field goal at the end of the first half.

“We put ourselves in position to get on track, but whether it was a mental mistake or a physical mistake from a penalty to a turnover… just uncharacteristic things from this group of kids,” Gallipolis coach Mike Eddy said. “We haven’t played that way all year long. I think you have to credit Logan’s emotional play. Coach (Alex) Penrod, being a (Logan) historian the way he is, (the Chiefs) haven’t gone 0-6 in 82 years, so you know coming in they’re going to bring their best.”

Penrod, the Blue Devils’ defensive coordinator, is a Logan High School graduate and a former Chieftain football player.

“They’re not an 0-5 team,” Eddy said of the Chieftains. “They just were in that situation (with a tough schedule). They’re a team that has good athletes.

“We kind of played their game,” he continued. “That seemed to be their Achilles’ heel all year: they would get in a situation to score, or be ready to put a drive together, and they would make a mistake. For whatever reason, the roles were reversed tonight.”

Five times the Blue Devils drove into Logan territory in the first half, only to turn the ball over twice on downs. They also had to deal with Chieftain defensive end Caleb Branson, who was in the Gallipolis backfield most of the night.

“We changed our defense up this week when Michael (Simpson) went down (with a broken collarbone in last week’s game at Nelsonville-York) and made some adjustments,” Wolfe revealed. “We felt we had more linebackers than anything else and put four linebackers out there instead of three.”

Logan even had 4-4 and 6-2 formations.

“I don’t know how many tackles for loss our defense had tonight… it had to be eight or 10,” he added. “Our defensive line had a great game.”

Late in the first half, the Chiefs gave the Blue Devils an opening by shanking a 6-yard punt deep in their own territory, giving GAHS the ball on the Logan 31 with 72 seconds left.

Two first downs later, Gallipolis was at the Logan 10 and quarterback Wade Jarrell connected with Taylor on a swing pass. Taylor was tackled inside the 2-yard line with the clock running out and Gallipolis called its last timeout with 5.2 seconds left.

The Blue Devils attempted a quick pass that Branson batted down, forcing Gallipolis to settle for Taylor’s 19-yard field goal as time expired.

“At that point, points were points for us,” Eddy said. “We had no time-outs left, five seconds on the clock and had one shot. If you run the ball in that situation you’re not going to get any opportunities for points. You have to throw a pass… and the wide receiver was open, but their end (Branson) got up the field and knocked the pass down. We were at least able to come away with some points.

“One score after that and we’re in the lead. That’s how I looked at it,” he added. “We had to get something on the board. The points themselves were more important than how we got them. We’d had opportunities, and there was no reason to believe we wouldn’t get another.”

“At halftime everybody felt we needed to line up and let Cory do what he does,” Wolfe said. “I think it was pretty obvious in the second half. I told Cory at halftime to just run the ball, look for the hole and not put pressure on himself. It wasn’t anything fancy… I must have called the same play 25 or 30 times.”

McCarty accounted for 21 of the Chiefs’ 27 running plays in the second half. Logan couldn’t get its passing game going, completing just 1-of-6 passes in the second half and 2-of-13 for the game.

The Logan defense again came through several times in the second half, stopping Gallipolis on fourth-and-1 at the Logan 40 midway through the third period and forcing a pair of fumbles on the next two series, which were recovered by Garrett Tutwiler and Sean Wotring.

Wotring’s play was the biggest. Early in the fourth quarter, Jarrell hit Taylor with a swing pass in the right flat and Taylor found some running room down the sideline and crossed midfield. But Wotring stripped the ball from Taylor, it popped into the air, and Wotring caught it for a huge turnover.

“You could see as the game went on (the Logan players) were playing with energy, with confidence and believing in themselves,” Wolfe said. “There was a lot of enthusiasm on the sidelines. When Wotring got that strip, you just felt (the monkey) was off their shoulders and we were winning this game. That was a huge play.”

And that, for all intents and purposes, was it for the Blue Devils. After turning the ball over on downs on their own 21-yard line — defensive back Josh Fridley got a hand on a deep pass that bounced out of Cody Russell’s hands — McCarty broke a game-clinching 21-yard TD run off right tackle.

Wolfe said the Chiefs took a different approach to pregame preparation Friday night.

Assistant coach “Pat (Walsh) came to me on Thursday (and said) ‘when we go in after pre-game, before you talk and we come out, they get their pads on, they sit down, it’s dead silent in here, and they do nothing but think about the game and what they have to do to help us win’ ,” Wolfe revealed. “So we made some pre-game adjustments to get our minds right. I think we came out with a better attitude to start the game tonight.”

Make no mistake about it, there was a huge exhale of relief from everyone in Chieftain Nation — players, coaches and fans alike — Friday night in Gallia County.

“I can breathe,” Wolfe said with a relieved laugh. “Now my family will love me again.”

Craig Dunn is the sports editor of the Logan Daily News in Logan, Ohio.

[pappy1]

The Chiefs ran a different defense which helped a lot

Many on this forum would not have known this without you telling them.
Many would not believe you.

[Blue_nd_Gray]

My two cents:
- as stated by pappy they lack speed and yes have a good inside running game but teams will eventually take that away and lack of speed to stretch the d makes it harder to be successful running inside.
- all the penalities and fumbles last night are not the coaches faults that is the discipline of the players.
- parents bad mouthing the coaches in front of the kids; that really helps the kids develop good relationships and respect for the coaches
- maybe oldtimer can help, he obviously has college playing experience or thinks it is at least a necessity to be a successful coach. The positions are posted every year maybe he should apply as well as all the other folks who know more than the coaches.

Instead of bashing, folks this is a time for all to rally together and become stronger.

I really don't think any coach let alone GAHS staff make decisions to lose games. Remember they spend countless hours with these young men, practicing, watch film and game planning to make these calls and fans see them on fridays and have all the answers.

i wish the blue success the rest of the season.

OLD TIMER!
I can't keep my mouth shut anymore. I have sat quietly in the stands watching my devils for a couple years now and I give coach Eddy his props for being able to motivate the kids and making them bigger faster and stronger but his staff has got to go. We have coaches who have never played football outside of high school to be frank was not that good in even in high school I should know I played with them and against them. They have no idea of what it means to play blue devil football. The coaching staff should be apologizing for the seniors for handling there 3 loses so far. I think we really should be thinking about clearing the house.

This kind of behavior and talk is what sickens me!
I played at GAHS in the 70's and we did not win a lot of games we were usually.500 or maybe better,why does everyone in Gallipolis think we are a State Contender every year?
Before this season most picked this team to win 4 games we knew speed was not there we wondered how the lines were going to play?
Every team in this league has athletes if we dwell on opponents we will get beat.

I think the kids and coaches have done a great job so far! I heard the QB's family is sick of hearing how he should not be playing there and someone else should be QB. Hey! the coaches asked the kid to play there,get off him.

-The bad mouthing the coaches in front of the kids,used to be the coach was the boss you did what he says now the parents know more than the coaches?
Seriously! Just 2 months ago i heard how great this staff is!

-The BS of how we should play Devil Football?
What is Devil Football? Under Saunders we were balanced ran the I and under Bokovitz we ran Naiday's pass happy offense now WingT! Were not Nebraska I don't think we have an identity with our Offense.
-Coaches who never played Football other than High School football?
What the hell does it matter if the guy knows the game Gene Kady at Purdue played football in College then became a Basketball coach,coaches are born with the ability not what experience they had playing the game tons of great players who cannot coach a lick! If you played with any of these coaches you didn't win a lot of games either!! Hypocrite-last week I heard what a great job they did?

This is why i go to River Valley Games the kids play hard yea get beat most games but not all this bull crap about how we should do this we should do that??

Get serious and some of you GROW THE HELL UP!

Good LUCK Devils the rest of the year!

[pappy1]

^^^
I agree with most of what you say.
The sophomore QB has not been the reason for our lack of points. His family should be sick of hearing he should be replaced.
We do not have a state contender, any moderately knowledgable fan knows this.
You do not have to be an all american from OSU to coach successfully, you just have to be able motivate and to teach the game.
Coach Eddy is a great leader and an upstanding addition to the community. I hope he will be our coach for many years.

Last year we scored lots of points when we had better athletes than most of our opponents.
Those athletes graduated and for the most part we have not adjusted.
My hope is that the coaching staff grows from the experience of this year.

Coaches love the game and the young men. If they didn't they wouldn't put all the hours in for the meager salary they get for coaching.

[Mighty Mighty Devils]

It is by no means the qb fault if you seen the clip on wsaz last fri night you see a large part of the problem .I think jarrel has done good so far this year you need to realize he is a sophomore an the size an weight advantage he is giving up he may not be a deep threat but he has showed some nice timing an good feet work he will get better as the year goes on

[superblue]

It is by no means the qb fault if you seen the clip on wsaz last fri night you see a large part of the problem .I think jarrel has done good so far this year you need to realize he is a sophomore an the size an weight advantage he is giving up he may not be a deep threat but he has showed some nice timing an good feet work he will get better as the year goes on

You are correct about our QB, MMD… For a sophomore he is doing a very credible job. The lack of a deep passing game really hurts; teams have scouted us and made adjustments to our short passing game.. Seems like Blue & Grey knows everything about the Blue Devil football program. That’s funny because by his own admission he doesn’t even go to the games and support these kids.. But I can understand him supporting the new River Valley Pass happy offense they are now running……LOL …. Most of the other ridiculous statements he made are not worth responding to….

[91blue14]

nice one super!

[Blue_nd_Gray]

It is by no means the qb fault if you seen the clip on wsaz last fri night you see a large part of the problem .I think jarrel has done good so far this year you need to realize he is a sophomore an the size an weight advantage he is giving up he may not be a deep threat but he has showed some nice timing an good feet work he will get better as the year goes on

You are correct about our QB, MMD… For a sophomore he is doing a very credible job. The lack of a deep passing game really hurts; teams have scouted us and made adjustments to our short passing game.. Seems like Blue & Grey knows everything about the Blue Devil football program. That’s funny because by his own admission he doesn’t even go to the games and support these kids.. But I can understand him supporting the new River Valley Pass happy offense they are now running……LOL …. Most of the other ridiculous statements he made are not worth responding to….

I have grand children on RV team you need to shut up and i support GA,
i support the coaches i just don't tell them how to coach and i prob watched and played GA football before you were both born!
We have so many idiots who have no idea around the GA program now!!

[Old_Timer]

Apparently he's talking about me and my years of playing GA ball and years of starting at college and year of coaching in college while I finished school. Yep I'm an idiot with no experience and no idea what I'm talking about. But am glad u going to support ur family. I'm surpized how many people do not anymore. Btw I think the Jerrel kid is doing great for being a sophomore and the lack of our line picking up the blitzs and he having to run for his life.

[superblue]

It is by no means the qb fault if you seen the clip on wsaz last fri night you see a large part of the problem .I think jarrel has done good so far this year you need to realize he is a sophomore an the size an weight advantage he is giving up he may not be a deep threat but he has showed some nice timing an good feet work he will get better as the year goes on

You are correct about our QB, MMD… For a sophomore he is doing a very credible job. The lack of a deep passing game really hurts; teams have scouted us and made adjustments to our short passing game.. Seems like Blue & Grey knows everything about the Blue Devil football program. That’s funny because by his own admission he doesn’t even go to the games and support these kids.. But I can understand him supporting the new River Valley Pass happy offense they are now running……LOL …. Most of the other ridiculous statements he made are not worth responding to….

I have grand children on RV team you need to shut up and i support GA,
i support the coaches i just don't tell them how to coach and i prob watched and played GA football before you were both born!
We have so many idiots who have no idea around the GA program now!!

Calm down Blue/Grey.... I am glad you are supporting your grand children, it should be no other way.. But don't get on here and tell everyone they need to grow the hell up & refer to us as idiots.. Everyone on the forum is just stating an opinion... & I have no problem with that....

[GAHS83]

The QB (Jarrell) has not just done an adequate job. He has done a good job in a tough situation. The offense we run does not put him in a situation where he can best utilize his talents to succeed. In many cases, we haven't given him adequate protection and we haven't done enough with play action to make some of those throws much easier Under no circumstances should he be replaced and I expect him to have a stellar next two years as he continues to develop.

Coach Eddy is a great Leader
Coach Eddy does a great job with our Strength and Conditioning programs
Coach Eddy is developing our team into better young men
The coaching staff has done a poor job of developing an offensive system to fit our athletes this year, Coach Eddy included
The coaching staff has done a poor job of recognizing which of our linemen are not picking up the blitz and giving them some time to contemplate their mistakes on the bench, Coach Eddy included

I've said to a couple of people that have PM'd me about my criticism of the coaches this year that I like the coaches personally, I think they care deeply for the kids, I think they do a great job teaching the kids lessons that make them responsible adults and I think that they're giving their best efforts. I have a younger son just starting school and hope the Coach Eddy is still here to coach him when he gets to High School.

Just because I don't agree with the tactical and strategic decisions that the coaching staff makes and criticize the offensive system they're running does NOT mean that I'm criticizing them personally or am asking for coaches to be replaced. These are all good men that give a lot of their time for very little pay and they should be commended for that. However, that doesn't mean that I can't criticize the other parts of their performance. I hope they learn from their mistakes and correct some of these things. Conversely, just because the coaches are good guys and treat the kids well doesn't mean that the final judgement of their performance isn't going to be wins and losses. Ultimately, my criticism means very little as I have no say in what coaches will be retained or replaced. I look at this forum as a place to discuss my ideas about the team. My criticism is always about their systems and schemes and not a criticism about their character or how much they care.

[Old_Timer]

Well said GAHS83

[pappy1]

There are people who post on this site who have never played the game.
These talk about formations or other things that never happened. They are easy to spot and its probably best not to even respond to their posts.

There are those who have a player's knowledge of the game, it could be a lot or very limited.

There are those who have coached the game.

There are those who are students of the game, and have vast insight into the X's and O's.
The students are the ones that see a team line up in a certain formation and call the play correctly a high percentage of the time. When posting on this site, these students of the game almost never disagree on the basics of the game.

Following his posts over the last few years, I believe GAHS83 is one of these sutdents of the game.

[loganlocos]

The Chiefs ran a different defense which helped a lot

Looked like a 5-3 when an occasional linebacker dropping down to make it a 6-2 like Logan has done against wing-t/power offenses all season.

Logan started the game in a 4-4, but after GAHS moved the ball about 35 yards in 3 plays they moved one of the linebackers back to noseguard and the "D" played pretty well the rest of the game.

I don't think Logan did a whole lot schematically different, but we had players EXECUTE the scheme while playing with PASSION. The linebackers were really making reads and flying to the football, our young defensive ends had BY FAR their best games of the season, especially Caleb Branson (couple of sacks and Pass break-up to force the field goal).

Also, Paul Wesselhoeft played a great game, especially the first half after struggling against bigger linemen most of the season.

Sean Wotring made the PLAY OF THE SEASON when he stripped Taylor on the sideline and recovered the ball. It would have been a huge gain moving the Devils inside the Logan 40-yard line.