Blogs > In the Huddle

An inside look at area high school football.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Computer rankings are out

The OHSAA computer rankings were released Tuesday and some area teams have a good chance to make the playoffs.

In Divsion II, North Ridgeville (5-0) ranks second in Region 6 with 10.55 points. Avon Lake, despite having a losing record (2-3) are ranked 10th with 5.4 points.

In Region 9, Bay (4-1) is ranked seventh in Division III with 7.0798 points.

Edison (5-0) is tied with Clear Fork for first place in Region 14 in Division IV with 8.8 points. Keystone (3-2) is ranked ninth with 5.2 points, followed by Elyria Catholic (4-1) with 5.15 points in Region 14.

Western Reserve (3-2) is ranked ninth in Region 18 in Division V with 4.7 points.

In Region 21 in Division VI St. Paul (5-0) is ranked fourth with 7.45 points, while Monroeville is ranked eighth with 5.3 points.

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Friday, September 18, 2009

Wellington shocks Clearview

Week 4 of Friday night football featured many surprises around the area, but none were bigger than Wellington's 40-35 upset win over Clearview at Tom Hoch Stadium.

The Clippers held a 21-0 lead after the first quarter, but the Dukes went on to outscore Clearview 40-14 the rest of the way, including 12-0 in the fourth quarter.

Wellington rushed all over the Clippers defense as they finished with 314 yards on the ground, led by Clay Wright's 156 yards.

Not to be outdone were the Sandusky Streaks.

The Streaks traveled to Lorain for the second time in four weeks and hammered Admiral King 46-19 for their first win of the season.

Cordney Strickland rushed for 121 yards, while Zak Esposito threw a career-high four touchdown passes.

Avon Lake, who was supposed to be a state contender, find themselves at 1-3 after a 20-14 road loss to Olmsted Falls.

The Shoremen rushed for 214 yards, led by Mike Mansnerus' 132 yards, but the Shoremen are now in unfamiliar territory as they have now lost three regular season games for the first time since 2006.

Amherst went on the road and dropped its second game of the season to North Olmsted 21-7.

Keystone, fresh off its fourth quarter comeback against Firelands, went to Brooklyn and crushed the Hurricanes 41-20.

Corry Sprouse and Jimmy Reid combined for 283 yards and four touchdowns for the Wildcats, who are now 3-1, 1-0 PAC.

Brookside won its second consecutive game in a row with a 27-7 win over Luthern West.
Austin Tackett rushed for 148 yards while Rocky Radeff added 97 yards.

St. Paul, North Ridgeville and Perkins all improved to 4-0.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Thursday's football picks

There a number of Thursday night high school football on the schedule to kick off week 4 of the season.
Westlake and Berea will face off on Fox Sports Ohio and Elyria, Elyria Catholic and Southview also have Thursday game because they are playing schools from Eastern Cuyahoga County that will closed Friday for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana. Here are the Morning Journal staff picks for Thursday's games.
Jim Brady: Westlake, Mayfield, Elyria Catholic, Cleveland Heights
Todd Shapiro: Westlake, Mayfield, Elyria Catholic, Cleveland Heights
Mike Perry: Berea, Elyria, Elyria Catholic, Cleveland Heights
Steve Walker: Berea, Mayfield, Elyria Catholic, Cleveland Heights
Anthony Rios: Westlake, Elyria, Elyria Catholic, Cleveland Heights
Colin Wilson: Westlake, Mayfield, Shaker Heights, Cleveland Heights

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Saturday, September 12, 2009

Panthers fail first test

After two easy wins against Collinwood and Southview, Elyria Catholic wanted to show people they could hang with the top teams.

They got their chance Friday night against Cardinal Mooney, who beat the Panthers 59-14 last season, but once again Cardinal Mooney proved to be too much for Elyria Catholic as they rolled to a 49-20 win.

Offensively the Panthers were improved as Alex Alicea rushed for 100 yards and scored a touchdown, Danny Reaser threw for 136 yards and Josh Russ had 7 catches for 70 yards.

The problem was the defense could not stop the running game of Cardinal Mooney, led by Braylon Heard.

Heard, who has committed to play football at the University of West Virginia, rushed for 192 yards on just 11 carries. Overall Cardinal Mooney rushed for 278 yards.

If the Panthers want to be considered one of the best teams in Division IV, they will have to shore up their defense.

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St. Paul wins battle of unbeatens

So much for a showdown.
Both St. Paul and Huron came into Saturday's game both 2-0, but it was Flyers who looked like the contenders as they hammered the Tigers 42-3.

The Flyers came into the game without starting quarterback Eric Schweiterman for the third straight game with a hand injury.
It didn't matter because Brian Griffin carried the load on offense with 165 yards and five touchdowns.

With Elyria Catholic's loss to Cardinal Mooney expect the Flyers to soar into the No. 1 spot in the Morning Journal's Power Poll.

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Saturday, September 5, 2009

Lighting up the scoreboard

Friday night Keystone and Chippewa played one of the wildest games in Lorain County football history, combining to score 118 points, in the Wildcats 62-56 win. It has been reported that the game was the highest scoring game in Lorain County in over a century.

The highest scoring game in OHSAA history occurred back in 1923 when Medina defeated Spencer High School by a score of 165-0. The highest scoring game to involve an area team in the previous 100 years was back in 1920 when Norwalk found itself on the losing end of a 125-0 score against Toledo Scott.

Fast forward back to 2009, Scott was on the wrong end of another rather lopsided game this weekend, as Admiral King traveled to Toledo to put on a 58-0 beating on the Bulldogs. The Admirals' Luis Mendez took the opening kickoff back 80 yards for a touchdown and Admiral King never looked back while improving its record to 1-1.
Admiral King domianted on both sides of the football, gaining 383 yards of total offense and at the same time holding Scott to 59 yards.
The Admirals will look to contiue their winning ways as they travel to Avon Friday night for a battle of 1-1 games.

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Friday, September 4, 2009

Things to watch in week 2

Week 1 of the high school football season left area fans with more questions than answers as to what the 2009 season may bring. Here is a few thing to look at this weekend that could be indicators of what the future may hold for area teams.

Will Amherst rebound from last week's stunner against Elyria? Look to see how the spread offense performs this week. Putting 13 points on the board probably won't win too many games in the Southwestern Conference.

Speaking of the Southwestern Conference, seven of the eight conference teams lost their opening games last weekend. The second-level computer points these teams won't be getting, could mean that both Amherst and Avon Lake will be going on the road for the opening round of the playoffs, presuming they are able to turn their season's around beginning this week.

Speaking of computer points, Division VI Monroeville could really cash in tonight if they can knock off Division IV Edison at home this evening. Both of these teams put up big numbers last weeks but one one of them will still be undefeated after tonight.

After months of anticipation, the Perkins-Sandusky game could prove to be a read dud. The Blue Streaks looked like a team in disarray last week while losing to Southview. Meanwhile Perkins had a strong week 1 performance against Bellevue. Hopefully Sandusky was looking ahead to this crosstown matchup or this one could get ugly early.

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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

On the Big Screen

For the second time in three seasons, Avon Lake will play football in front of a statewide television audience Friday when they travel to Brunswick in a game that will be televised on Sports Time Ohio. The game will be shown at 11 p.m. after Cleveland Indians baseball.

In 2007, the Shormen played Avon as part of the Charity Game doubleheader at Cleveland Browns Stadium that also featured Benedictine and Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin. Those Saturday afternoon games were carried live by Fox Sports Ohio.

According to OHSAA rules, television stations are not allowed to show Friday nights football games until 10:30 p.m. in order to protect the gate of other area games.

The Shoremen will play in another TV game later this season when they take on traditional rival Amherst on Fox Sports Ohio on Thursday October 29.

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