Week 11: Logan Elm (7-3) at Athens (10-0)

[Gecko]

what about sheridan? Seems like that would be a good spot for this matchup?
Athens looked good on offense but man that defense?????
I thought I was watching an old big 12 game. absolutely no defense on either side at all.
Athens needs to get much improved really quick or tri valley might send them home.

[loganlocos]

Zanesville???

Zanesville will be in high demand next week. Would be nearly a home game for TV. But that hasn't stopped the OHSAA before.

I wouldn't count out Columbus either.

Obviously I'm hoping for Logan. Was at Tri-Valley tonight. They will bring a BIG crowd wherever they play. Probably brought the biggest visitor crowd I've seen in Logan for the playoff game with them in 2007.

[Raider6309]

Athens got up big quick and looked like they wanted to go home. So many turnovers. Worst game of the year on offense, defense, and special teams and score 74.

[teach1coach2]

New Philly's Jermal Johnson is 6th all time in rushing in Ohio HS history.

Just saw gridiron glory stats. Jermal Johnson had 7 yards on 8 carries vs. Tri-Valley. WOW! I knew it was a low number, but not even double digits.

[BUCKEYES]

What great game for the fans to watch, both teams showed no defense. Loved the stadium, atmosphere, and the crowd. just curious....did Athens get them starters rested....lol. Good luck to Athens next week!!

[loganlocos]

New Philly's Jermal Johnson is 6th all time in rushing in Ohio HS history.

Just saw gridiron glory stats. Jermal Johnson had 7 yards on 8 carries vs. Tri-Valley. WOW! I knew it was a low number, but not even double digits.

Im not surprised. They went away from the running game early and played Johnson in the slot most of the night.

As I said on another thread, TV completely dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Impressive performance.

Will be a lot of points scored next week.

[93Bulldog]

I told you Locos; you better be able to read fast tonight ... ;)

[93Bulldog]

yeah but defense wins championships enjoy it for this week at least.

don't read too much into that 55 points scored. 3 TD's were due to special teams mistakes that gave LE a short field. then the Burrow/Williams fumble on a handoff gave LE a short field again.

The 'Dogs defense wasn't stellar or anything - but they did get put in bad situations all night long.

[Raider6309]

34 pts off Athens turnovers when given ball in Athens territory. No defense will look good with that many turnovers. Athens looked bored. Even us fans were. But I thought offense played bad and Burrow was 26 for 34 for 501 yards, Williams rushed for like 150 yards and 7 tds. Scary to think the score should have been close to 100 if they had less turnovers. But have to give credit to Logan elm. They played hard for 4 quarters

[A-Town Big Dog]

First off, congratulations to the Bulldogs for reaching week 12 and for tying the school record of 11 wins in a season. Now the bad.... the tackling was horrid, way to many arm tackles and not wrapping the ball carrier up, secondary though in position to make plays much of the night couldn't locate the ball in the air, way to much guessing by the LB's. The special teams units weren't any better, gave up big kick returns, holder was taking his hand off the ball on kick attempts, couldn't field punts cleanly(dropped 4 lost one). Turnovers! Need I say more? The offense looked good, no surprise there but many of these mistakes were self inflicted and allowed Logan Elm to hang around a whole lot longer than they should have. Give LE credit though, every time Athens made a mistake, the Braves made them pay. I was also impresses with the no quit effort they gave, Athens scores with no time on the clock at the end of the half to take a 41-21 lead and then scored to open the second half making it 47-21, most teams would have folded up shop and packed it in for the night but the Braves kept grinding and made a game of it for a bit. The bottom line is this and I'm not going to sugar coat it, if the Athens defense and special teams units play this poorly next week they will lose.

[bman]

LE also put the ball on the ground and lost it a few times. The Braves came in wanting to establish the run but had to leave it in first half except for inside the Athens 20. LE had the ball going into tie the game at 14-14 and lost it, which was big. Athens comes right back and goes up 21-7.

Burrow is the real deal. Williams makes great cuts and the wide receivers do a nice job. Fantastic offense. Defense needs some work.

[noreply66]

Congrats to Athens.............a lot of quick score in this game..........did anyone think they were watching tennis

[Nybucks70-80]

From the Circleville Herold -
THE PLAINS — With a 4-2 record against playoff teams entering a Division III, Region 9 quarterfinal game on Friday, dealing with adversity in games is old hat for Logan Elm.

That's why it shouldn't have been a surprise when the Braves trimmed a 26-point deficit down to five in the third quarter before falling 74-55 to host Athens.

"Whenever we've had adversity this season, we've handled it well," said Logan Elm senior running back Cory Heeter, who broke the school's record for rushing touchdowns in a single game with seven. "This felt a lot like the Hamilton Township game (a 24-21 loss last week), where we had a lot of opportunities but couldn't quite finish the game out with a win, but I couldn't ask for a better effort than what our team gave. We left everything we had out there on the field."

The Braves finish the season at 7-4 and made the playoffs for the third straight season. They lose 16 seniors to graduation, including Heeter and quarterback Casey Tyler.

"This senior group isn't the most athletic group I've ever coached, but I think they're the most dedicated group I've ever had," LE coach Scott Bartholomew said. "They've gotten the most out of their abilities, and some of them are playing out of position and giving great effort.

"In the weight room last winter, we give awards for attendance and we had a lot of kids get 50 out of 50, meaning they attended 50 times in a row. That tells you about the type of kids we have, and the heart and soul they compete with. I don't know if I'll ever coach a better group of seniors in terms of their personalities and the type of people they are."

The Braves fell behind 47-21 on the second play of the third quarter, when All-Ohio quarterback Joe Burrow connected with Trae Williams on a 54-yard touchdown pass.

But, as they've done numerous times this season, the Braves battled back.

Logan Elm put together a four-play drive that stretched 64 yards on its second possession of the half, capped by Tyler scoring from 14 yards out. The fourth of seven extra points of the night by Drew Strong made it 47-28 Athens.

The Tyler score was the start of a run of 21 straight points by the Braves.

Isaiah Miller and Dominic Vagnier came away with fumble recoveries on the next two Athens' possessions, and Heeter finished off each ensuing drive on a pair of one-yard runs to trim the LE deficit to 47-42 with 3:32 left in the third quarter.

"We told our kids Athens was very skilled and very explosive," Bartholomew said. "I felt we were being cautious in the first half, and when you give people more room who have the ability to make big plays that's what they're going to do.

"We got a little more aggressive and tightened up a little bit in the second half. We started getting a couple of stops and came up with a couple of turnovers, and that goes back to the extreme amount of heart our kids play with."

Athens (11-0) answered back on its next drive by covering 59 yards on eight plays, capped by Williams scoring from 13 yards out.

Each side then scored two more touchdowns. Williams caught a 63-yard screen pass from Burrow and took it in early in the fourth quarter and the Bulldogs added their last touchdown on a 44-yard run by Williams.

Heeter scored on runs of five yards and one yard for the final two Logan Elm scores.

"We played with a lot of heart all the way to the end," Heeter said. "We wanted to win and keep the season going, but we have no regrets about the way we played."

Athens entered the game averaging 57.1 points per game and continued its torrid scoring pace against Logan Elm.

Williams scored on a 16-yard run off an option pitch on the Bulldogs' first possession of the game to take a 6-0 lead, as the extra point was blocked.

Heeter returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards to the three-yard line, where the LE senior finished what he started. The Strong extra point gave the Braves their only lead of the night at 7-6.

Athens quickly responded when Williams returned the ensuing kickoff 83 yards for a touchdown. The two-point conversion pass from Burrow to Heath Wiseman made it 14-7 Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs scored two more touchdowns in the first quarter on passes of 87 yards to Ryan Luehrman and 36 yards to Wiseman. Athens scored twice more in the second quarter on a 15-yard pass to Sam Vander Ven and a 12-yard toss to Adam Luehrman as time expired in the first half.

Logan Elm trailed 21-14 following a nine-yard run by Heeter in the first quarter and 35-21 after a two-yard run from Heeter with 3:36 left in the first half.

Bartholomew wanted to shorten the game by using the Braves' running attack, but had to instead take to the air to generate most of their offense.

"We wanted to get into a situation where we could control the clock with our running game, but we couldn't with the start Athens had," Bartholomew said. "Even with that, a lot of teams Athens has played don't have the ability to run an empty backfield and throw it, like Casey did to our different receivers.

"If it became an up-and-down the field game, we felt we could match up with them somewhat."

The Braves primarily used their running game inside the Athens 20, with Heeter taking the snaps in the wildcat formation.

"Inside the red zone, we went into our two tight package and ran a lot of stuff inside," Heeter said. "I followed Michael Cline, who did a great job. We had him off the line and put him in motion. I followed Thomas Calton and him, and they opened up wonderful holes and we put it into the end zone."

Tyler completed 16 of 24 passes for 323 of the team's 453 yards of total offense.

"Casey did a nice job of hanging in there under pressure at times and making some great throws," Heeter said.

Heeter, who rushed for 93 yards on 22 carries, also had five receptions for 105 yards. Stephen Saxton led the Braves with seven grabs for 167 yards.

The previous record for rushing touchdowns in a single game was four touchdowns for Logan Elm, which was held by five different players.

Logan Elm scored the most points against Athens this season. The Bulldogs entered the contest yielding only 13.9 points per game.

Burrow, who is drawing attention from a number of Division I schools, completed 26 of 35 passes for 498 yards and six touchdowns.

"Burrow is a special player," Bartholomew said. "He is so accurate, and Athens doesn't drop many passes. We caused them to drop a couple in the second half, and that doesn't happen often to them from the films we watched.

"They're intelligent football players. They know where to run routes, where down markers are and understand the defenses they are playing against very well."

Williams had 23 carries for 139 yards and two receptions for 117 yards.

Bartholomew believes the future is bright for the Braves, but that future starts with his returning players learning a lesson from the departing seniors.

"I hope they grasp a little of the leadership our seniors have shown this season, and some of them are already showing signs of that," he said. "We're excited about young group, and our JV team had a good season.

[TigerBacker#1]

This is too funny. Posters who know football defending defense that gives up over 50 points. That is indefensible in itself. Wake up Bulldog fans you have a glaring issue that has your opponents salivating like starving dogs. Saying well it was turnovers or special teams sounds like Ironton every time they lose. Well you did leave out officiating. Anyway a GOOD team stops the opposition after a turnover or bd special team play. It is too late to build a defense this year. But you can work on it for next year. And you will have a great basketball season.

[A-Town Big Dog]

This is too funny. Posters who know football defending defense that gives up over 50 points. That is indefensible in itself. Wake up Bulldog fans you have a glaring issue that has your opponents salivating like starving dogs. Saying well it was turnovers or special teams sounds like Ironton every time they lose. Well you did leave out officiating. Anyway a GOOD team stops the opposition after a turnover or bd special team play. It is too late to build a defense this year. But you can work on it for next year. And you will have a great basketball season.

I didn't make any nor will I make any excuses for our defense, they did a poor job of tackling plain and simple. The secondary did a below average job in coverage due to not locating the ball in the air. We got caught blitzing the non play side on multiple occasions and were way out of position because of it. The kick coverage teams lacked lane responsibility all night long which there is absolutely no excuse for at this point of the season and we got burned for it by some good athletes.

[A-Town Big Dog]

On a more positive note, thanks to all of people from surrounding areas that showed up to watch this one. Off the top of my head I saw people from Trimble, N-Y, Meigs, Gallia Academy, Jackson, Logan, Warren, Vinton Co. and Alexander. We really do appreciate it. A special thank you to the Trimble football team, nearly the entire team was there last night and even formed a tunnel to the locker room for our team to walk through before the game. We will do our best to return the favor tonight Tomcats, many Bulldogs and their fans will make the trip to "the sty" to cheer the "Mohawk mafia" to victory!

[noreply66]

Tip of the hat to the Trimble team

[TigerBacker#1]

On a lighter note maybe the entire team should go to Glouster and watch the Tomcat defense.

[doubleplay643]

On a more positive note, thanks to all of people from surrounding areas that showed up to watch this one. Off the top of my head I saw people from Trimble, N-Y, Meigs, Gallia Academy, Jackson, Logan, Warren, Vinton Co. and Alexander. We really do appreciate it.

See you all again next week as well, hoping for a favorable "neutral" field spot by OHSAA to make the drive a little bit easier. Good luck against TV.

[bman]

Be interesting to see it at Logan, but whomever brought up somewhere in Columbus, maybe Reynoldsburg, brought up a good point.