D4 R15 #3 Hartley vs. #2 Heath

[catfan4ever]

#3 seeded Bishop Hartley Hawks take on #2 seeded Heath Bulldogs. Who advances to week 13 in this contest ?

[seasick80]

What happened to both teams in week 11? I know they won, just want to know some more specifics! LOL

[pbuck]

I'll take Heath their team speed is pretty good

[I-town-90]

I haven't seen Heath, so I can't comment intelligently, but I have seen Hartley play Ironton. Hartley had the most speed of any team that Ironton faced this year IMHO. Unfortunately, they are not very well coached. Hartley's game plan was very poor on both sides of the ball against the Fighting Tigers. I haven't seen a team play a base 6-2 defense for 4 quarters no matter where the ball was on the field against the Fighting Tigers for YEARS. Eight men in the box is one thing, but 6-2 straight up at mid field first and ten, that is not smart against the Fighting Tigers, hence the lop-sided score of the game.

So, as for speed, Hartley can fly, how they use it, now that is a different story.

Also, Hartley was one of the softest teams Ironton faced all year too. They are not very physical at all.

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

No prediction yet but I can see this one being very high scoring.

[Bleeding Red]

I watched Ironton absolutely dominate Hartley. Hartley was big and fast but not very physical and didnt play with much heart (no pun intended).

I could see Heath win this one by 21.

[Bleeding Red]

And Ironton and Heath would be a great regional final.

[pappy1]

Never can tell but if I had to pick would choose Heath and will not be surprised if they win big.

[55buckeyes98]

A lot of people on other sites are saying that Hartley will win big... I think Heath will win but it will be close or high scoring

[catfan4ever]

A lot of people on other sites are saying that Hartley will win big... I think Heath will win but it will be close or high scoring

I think it's a lot to do with the so - called private school power vs public school debate. It's like Hartley has to be better they're from the CCL, although they may only play Ready. Plus it's the Columbus bias that you get with Hartley. I remember reading a Huddle preseason forcast and they ranked Hartley really high in the region 15 forcast and in their channel 4 D.111 / D.IV rankings. I guess they were justified because Hartley returned 14 starters from a non playoff team but one that was 7-3.
Heath on the other hand were listed right along West Muskingum as an also ran. I knew that West Muskingum lost a boatload from last season and would struggle. Heath returned 10 of 11 starters on defense and 7 of 11 on offense. That was 17 of 22 starters ( a total of 15 players because 2 players started both ways) on a team that made it to the regional semis.
The Harbin ratings ended up with Heath being the # 2 team in the region ( higher than Hartley), the channel 4 rankings have Heath #4 ( higher than Hartley) and that sites own power poll has Heath ranked #9 in the state ( higher than Hartley ). The thing with this is that Hartley was given those rankings but when it was all said and done, Heath ended up ahead of the Hawks.
Heath did lose a heartbreaker to Licking Valley ( who's still playing in D.III ) on a last second field goal that just skimmed over the bar. The lack of a kicker caught up with the Bulldogs in that game but a freshman soccer player was added to the team ( prior to this a player could not play both sports but Heath's coach finally relented). The kid's pretty accurate with his pat's as I can only recall him missing one all season.
I have not seen Hartley play all year and I know Key is a special player. I've seen Heath all season and they don't have great size but they play really fast ...use their hands good to play off blocks and have very quick feet to shoot gaps. I think they have enough speed on defense to do a really contain Hartley's speed. I feel comfortable with this match up and can't wait for Friday night.

[hartley]

Hartley is physical and does play with alot of heart. They only lost to Ironton bcuz of turnovers

[YOU'RE TIGER BAIT]

REALLY. I THINK NOT.

[Orange and Brown]

Heath

[seofan_via_dublin]

Heath wins this one.

[TigerTownKid]

Hartley is physical and does play with alot of heart. They only lost to Ironton bcuz of turnovers

You must not have watched the same game I watched....

[Tjhtygeverve]

Heath!!!!!

[fightingtigers45]

Will anyone be attending this game? I would like to receive updates while at the Ironton game...

[LICKING COUNTY FAN]

Hartley takes this one.

[Bleeding Red]

Hartley is physical and does play with alot of heart. They only lost to Ironton bcuz of turnovers

I was there. Hartley didnt like to get HIT and their star RB was tip toeing around the line of scrimmage to find the next Ironton defender that was going to tattoo him.

Hartley had an offensive and defensive line that looked like a DIII college. They looked strong, fast and mean.

Then they kicked off and Ironton dominated them all night! Maybe an off night for Hartley, maybe it was the long bus ride. But they got drilled.

[victor creed]

the thing i noticed most about hartley is their star back runs pretty hard when he gets the ball however when he doesnt get the ball he takes about 3 steps and watches the play. i didnt see him block for the other backs all night. plus they probably ran to their right side about 85% of the time. i thought they were physical its just that ironton is probably as physical as anyone in the division. i am really curious to see how this game turns out. i am leaning towards heath just because they are well coached and overall team spead, however they will have to be as physical as hartley. should be a good one.