Week 4: Chillicothe (0-3) @ Athens (3-0)

[A-Town Big Dog]

This game has the "classic trap game" feel to it tonight, Athens is coming off of a big hard fought game playing a winless team at home that they were able to beat on the road last season. I don't know why but I have a gut feeling the Bulldogs may struggle a bit tonight, I'm not calling for the upset just saying it won't be easy if we are able to win.

[diamondD1]

I will try to give updates as often as possible during the game.

[diamondD1]

0-0 end of first quarter

[diamondD1]

Chillicothe 7, Athens 0 with :34 left in 2nd.

[diamondD1]

7-6 Chillicothe at Halftime

[cavalierfan1995]

come on cavs hold that lead!

GO CAVS

[diamondD1]

Athens 21, Chillicothe 7, 1:48 in 3rd

[diamondD1]

Athens gets another pick and driving. :05 left in third.

[diamondD1]

Athens 28, Chillicothe 7, 11:29 in 4th

[diamondD1]

Athens 28, Chillicothe 14 FINAL.

Athens moves to 4-0 (3-0 vs. the SEOAL).

[The Enforcer]

Congrats to the Bulldogs

[noreply66]

Congrats

[cavalierfan1995]

good to hear it wasnt a blow out

defense needs to learn to hold on to the ball too Manny turnovers.

0-4 hopefully we can beat portsmouth to get on the winning side.

[A-Town Big Dog]

First off congratulations to the Bulldogs on a hard fought win and to Chillicothe for playing a good game overall. Athens played maybe the worst first half I've seen since the Gallia game last year and one of the worst overall I've seen in 3 or 4 years. Athens came out flat and didn't look inspired, had three turnovers in the first 14 minutes and were totally outplayed by the Cavs. The second half Athens made the necessary adjustments and the kids finally looked as if they wanted to be there and dominated the 3rd quarter and were able to coast down the stretch. No lack of inspiration for the coaching staff this week with plenty of lack luster play and four turnovers to harp on in the film room. The quarterback for Chillicothe is a player, he throws a very nice ball with great touch. I know #5 for Chilli is a good runner but I think they should use #27 more often, that kid runs really hard and looked like a load to bring down. All in all Athens moves to 4-0 and should be darn proud of it!

[diamondD1]

Tonight Mitch Rider (#36) made one of the hardest hits/tackles I have ever seen in a high school football game on a punt coverage. Kudos to the young man from Chillicothe for getting up after that one, although very slowly. There were several good collisions in this game. Both teams played hard.

[questionmark]

Good teams finds ways to win when they have their backs against the wall.

Tonight, the young men for Athens learned to swallow hard, bare down, look at each other and come together for a hard fought win tonight in front of their home town crowd.

Turnovers plagued both teams in the first half, as both teams managed to find the endzone only once while each had the ball several times during the 1st half. Chillicothe capitalized first scoring the games first points on a TD pass inside the redzone. Athens then was forced to punt, but the Cavaliers could not handle the kick and Athens recovered with little over a minute left. After nothing went right in the 1st quarter, and with much of the 2nd quarter long gone, the boys on the Bulldogs side needed to score some points before the half to gain some momentum. They did, scoring on a toss sweep to pull within one of the Cavs. Athens would miss the extra point, and would go into half trailing 7-6...

Here during Halftime is where the game changed...

Athens Coach Ryan Adams and staff did an excellent job making adjustments to better their team. Also, they must have said something inspiring to their players because Athens came out fired up in the 2nd half led by some big time hits by Mitch Rider and Chris Russell, and some big time runs lead by DeVon Sharp, Josh Skinner and Russell. Rider made a statement early in the 2nd half delivering that blow mentioned by 'diamondd1'. Russell as well was flying around smacking Cavaliers as the Athens Defense looked great in the 2nd half. One big adjustment I liked to see was made by the Athens staff to help their QB who was having some difficulties gripping the football. They mixed in some run-option plays with Sharp that froze the Cavaliers defense opening up holes for Skinner, Sharp and Russell to run through. This allowed Skinner to get some confidence using his athletic ability to run on a night when he struggled through the air. Some nights things like this happen and I really liked to see the staff tweak their gameplan. Skinner and the offense buckled down tonight when their 1st half offense was a misfire, and came out and attacked the Cavs for a big 22 point 2nd half.

Great win tonight Bulldogs, and way to swarm to the football.
It's Waverly Week already!
"Just Win Baby!"

[A-towndogs117]

Another quality win for Athens as they look good moving forward....diamondD1, do you have access to season stats through the first 4 games? It would be interesting to see Sharp's numbers on paper.