FAC Football Preview Week 10: Rivalry week to end regular season
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
Week 10 — the final week of the high school football regular season — has arrived. Though it brings a lot of varying emotions, including excitement and a bit of sadness, it also means a champion will be crowned in the Frontier Athletic Conference for the first time, and it is also rivalry week for all three conference games.
The FAC championship will be on the line as the winner of the Chillicothe Cavaliers (7-2) at Jackson Ironmen (8-1) game will be crowned the inaugural conference champion. Both Jackson and Chillicothe enter the game with 4-0 FAC records, and for the season they have just a combined three losses, meaning this game also has playoff implications, too.
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There is also the matter of the annual Fayette County battle with the Miami Trace Panthers (1-8) hosting the Washington Blue Lions (4-5) in their annual showdown with their traveling game trophy up for grabs. Washington won last season by a 41-31 score, so they will be the ones defending the trophy this season.
As for Highland County, the game to be at is the annual Rotary Bowl, with this year the McClain Tigers (0-9) hosting the Hillsboro Indians (6-3). The Indians will be defending the trophy this season, as they won last year’s matchup in a shootout by a 43-40 score.
All three rivalry games are sure to be exciting in some way or another, but what makes Week 10 football bearable is the fact the regular season ends with — if nothing else — bragging rights on the line, making the games mean something no matter what the overall records are.
Enjoy the final regular season football Friday night, and good luck to all the teams involved. Here is the Week 10 preview for the FAC.
• Hillsboro Indians (2-2, 6-3) at McClain Tigers (0-4, 0-9)
Everyone always says “throw the records out the window” whenever the Indians and Tigers battle for Highland County supremacy, and in most cases, that is correct. This season, the Rotary Bowl is the final opportunity for the Tigers to win a game in 2017, but it hasn’t been for lack of effort.
Though they might not be having the greatest season scoring points or being ahead in the win column, one thing folks have been saying about the Tigers this season is they don’t quit, they battle strong and they play up to the best of their abilities. That is all you can ask for from any high school football team, and one day the positive results on the scoreboard will eventually return to McClain due to the hard work the Tigers are putting in when times aren’t the greatest.
This season, the Tigers are averaging 84.7 yards per game passing and 119 yards per game rushing. Justin Osborne has 54 completions this season for 629 yards and two touchdowns. The Tigers are led in rushing by Darius White with 461 yards and one touchdown in 2017. He’s carried the ball 110 times for an average of 4.2 yards per carry.
McClain’s leading tackler through nine games is Tanner Tite — a junior — with 73, averaging 8.3 tackles per game. Senior Kyle Wyatt leads MHS with two sacks on the season, resulting in 27 yards lost for the opponent. David Jett leads McClain with three interceptions.
Hillsboro enters the Rotary Bowl with their first winning record since 2009, coming off a win where they defeated the Miami Trace Panthers by a 76-48 score. The Indians totaled over 500 yards of offense – and junior running back Josh Keets rushed for five touchdowns – in the win.
Keets leads the Indians with 10 total touchdowns on the season, but right behind him is Deon Burns with nine, while Britton Haines and Mason Swayne each have eight touchdowns on the season. In all, nine different players have scored at least one touchdown for the Indians in 2017, and all but three Hillsboro touchdowns (they have 48 total touchdowns through nine weeks) have been scored by the offense this season.
The Rotary Bowl trophy has been on the line since the 1985 meeting when the Indians won by a 37-0 score, and since then, the Indians have won the Rotary Bowl game 20 times and the Tigers have been the victors 12 times.
Last year, the Indians won over McClain at Richards Memorial Field by a 43-40 score.
• Chillicothe Cavaliers (4-0, 7-2) at Jackson Ironmen (4-0, 8-1)
One of these two teams will be crowned the FAC champions, and for the Cavaliers, it would be their first football conference championship of any sort since winning the OCC title in 1990. Jackson played in the three-team SEOAL last season, where they won that league crown.
But this is 2017, and both the Cavaliers and Ironmen have shown they are the two best teams in the first-year conference, and they both are within one win of a goal they set at the start of the season.
Last season, these two teams met in a non-conference game in Week 2, where the Cavaliers won by three points at 24-21. The year before (2015), it was Jackson winning in overtime by a 19-16 score. So in what is their third meeting in the past three seasons, both teams have a lot on the line, even possibly playoff scenarios.
According to JoeEitel.com, the Cavaliers control their own destiny, meaning if they win, they most likely will jump into the Top 8 of Region 8 (they are currently ninth) and earn a third consecutive trip to the playoffs.
CHS enters this game averaging 99.7 passing yards per game and 239.6 rushing yards per game. Quarterback Branden Maughmer has passed for 810 yards and nine touchdowns on 70 completions this season. He also leads the Cavaliers in rushing with 1,437 yards and 20 touchdowns on 170 carries. Maughmer averages 8.5 yards per carry and 159.7 yards per game rushing. Through nine games, Maughmer has collected 2,247 total yards, an average of 249.7 yards per game.
Jackson is in the same boat as the Cavaliers. On the Joe Eitel site, he says that Jackson also controls their own destiny. They are currently seventh in Division III, Regional 11.
This is the “Game of the Week,” for the FAC, and with so much on the line, it is now the “Game of the Year” for both the Ironmen and the Cavaliers.
• Washington Blue Lions (1-3, 4-5) at Miami Trace Panthers (1-3, 1-8)
This game has more than just the usual bragging rights of defeating a rival on the line, because the winner of this game will break the tie between the two teams in the conference standings as they’ve each won once in FAC play this season.
Neither team is having the season they’ve wanted to have, and various obstacles this season have tested both teams, but all of that is forgotten with the Fayette County rivalry on the horizon. A win by the Blue Lions would put them at .500 for the season.
Taking away the points allowed against St. Charles, as those stats were erased when St. Charles had to give up the win, allowing the Blue Lions to win via forfeit, Washington has outscored their opponents this season 251-244. Last week, the Blue Lions lost to Chillicothe, 42-25, and their last win was in Week 8 over McClain, 48-10.
The Panthers have been outscored by their opponents this season, with Miami Trace having 187 total points, and their opponents scoring 355 points through nine games. They’ve lost their past three games, and this past Friday they gave up over 70 points to the Hillsboro Indians, falling by a 76-48 score.
This is going to be a very interesting game where Miami Trace is sure to give Washington a heavy dose of Brady Wallace, as last week he scored five touchdowns in the loss at Hillsboro. Washington has solid athletes as well, and even though neither team has a winning record this season, this game could and should be competitive and exciting to watch for the fans in Fayette County as the season closes.
The FAC championship will be on the line as the winner of the Chillicothe Cavaliers (7-2) at Jackson Ironmen (8-1) game will be crowned the inaugural conference champion. Both Jackson and Chillicothe enter the game with 4-0 FAC records, and for the season they have just a combined three losses, meaning this game also has playoff implications, too.
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There is also the matter of the annual Fayette County battle with the Miami Trace Panthers (1-8) hosting the Washington Blue Lions (4-5) in their annual showdown with their traveling game trophy up for grabs. Washington won last season by a 41-31 score, so they will be the ones defending the trophy this season.
As for Highland County, the game to be at is the annual Rotary Bowl, with this year the McClain Tigers (0-9) hosting the Hillsboro Indians (6-3). The Indians will be defending the trophy this season, as they won last year’s matchup in a shootout by a 43-40 score.
All three rivalry games are sure to be exciting in some way or another, but what makes Week 10 football bearable is the fact the regular season ends with — if nothing else — bragging rights on the line, making the games mean something no matter what the overall records are.
Enjoy the final regular season football Friday night, and good luck to all the teams involved. Here is the Week 10 preview for the FAC.
• Hillsboro Indians (2-2, 6-3) at McClain Tigers (0-4, 0-9)
Everyone always says “throw the records out the window” whenever the Indians and Tigers battle for Highland County supremacy, and in most cases, that is correct. This season, the Rotary Bowl is the final opportunity for the Tigers to win a game in 2017, but it hasn’t been for lack of effort.
Though they might not be having the greatest season scoring points or being ahead in the win column, one thing folks have been saying about the Tigers this season is they don’t quit, they battle strong and they play up to the best of their abilities. That is all you can ask for from any high school football team, and one day the positive results on the scoreboard will eventually return to McClain due to the hard work the Tigers are putting in when times aren’t the greatest.
This season, the Tigers are averaging 84.7 yards per game passing and 119 yards per game rushing. Justin Osborne has 54 completions this season for 629 yards and two touchdowns. The Tigers are led in rushing by Darius White with 461 yards and one touchdown in 2017. He’s carried the ball 110 times for an average of 4.2 yards per carry.
McClain’s leading tackler through nine games is Tanner Tite — a junior — with 73, averaging 8.3 tackles per game. Senior Kyle Wyatt leads MHS with two sacks on the season, resulting in 27 yards lost for the opponent. David Jett leads McClain with three interceptions.
Hillsboro enters the Rotary Bowl with their first winning record since 2009, coming off a win where they defeated the Miami Trace Panthers by a 76-48 score. The Indians totaled over 500 yards of offense – and junior running back Josh Keets rushed for five touchdowns – in the win.
Keets leads the Indians with 10 total touchdowns on the season, but right behind him is Deon Burns with nine, while Britton Haines and Mason Swayne each have eight touchdowns on the season. In all, nine different players have scored at least one touchdown for the Indians in 2017, and all but three Hillsboro touchdowns (they have 48 total touchdowns through nine weeks) have been scored by the offense this season.
The Rotary Bowl trophy has been on the line since the 1985 meeting when the Indians won by a 37-0 score, and since then, the Indians have won the Rotary Bowl game 20 times and the Tigers have been the victors 12 times.
Last year, the Indians won over McClain at Richards Memorial Field by a 43-40 score.
• Chillicothe Cavaliers (4-0, 7-2) at Jackson Ironmen (4-0, 8-1)
One of these two teams will be crowned the FAC champions, and for the Cavaliers, it would be their first football conference championship of any sort since winning the OCC title in 1990. Jackson played in the three-team SEOAL last season, where they won that league crown.
But this is 2017, and both the Cavaliers and Ironmen have shown they are the two best teams in the first-year conference, and they both are within one win of a goal they set at the start of the season.
Last season, these two teams met in a non-conference game in Week 2, where the Cavaliers won by three points at 24-21. The year before (2015), it was Jackson winning in overtime by a 19-16 score. So in what is their third meeting in the past three seasons, both teams have a lot on the line, even possibly playoff scenarios.
According to JoeEitel.com, the Cavaliers control their own destiny, meaning if they win, they most likely will jump into the Top 8 of Region 8 (they are currently ninth) and earn a third consecutive trip to the playoffs.
CHS enters this game averaging 99.7 passing yards per game and 239.6 rushing yards per game. Quarterback Branden Maughmer has passed for 810 yards and nine touchdowns on 70 completions this season. He also leads the Cavaliers in rushing with 1,437 yards and 20 touchdowns on 170 carries. Maughmer averages 8.5 yards per carry and 159.7 yards per game rushing. Through nine games, Maughmer has collected 2,247 total yards, an average of 249.7 yards per game.
Jackson is in the same boat as the Cavaliers. On the Joe Eitel site, he says that Jackson also controls their own destiny. They are currently seventh in Division III, Regional 11.
This is the “Game of the Week,” for the FAC, and with so much on the line, it is now the “Game of the Year” for both the Ironmen and the Cavaliers.
• Washington Blue Lions (1-3, 4-5) at Miami Trace Panthers (1-3, 1-8)
This game has more than just the usual bragging rights of defeating a rival on the line, because the winner of this game will break the tie between the two teams in the conference standings as they’ve each won once in FAC play this season.
Neither team is having the season they’ve wanted to have, and various obstacles this season have tested both teams, but all of that is forgotten with the Fayette County rivalry on the horizon. A win by the Blue Lions would put them at .500 for the season.
Taking away the points allowed against St. Charles, as those stats were erased when St. Charles had to give up the win, allowing the Blue Lions to win via forfeit, Washington has outscored their opponents this season 251-244. Last week, the Blue Lions lost to Chillicothe, 42-25, and their last win was in Week 8 over McClain, 48-10.
The Panthers have been outscored by their opponents this season, with Miami Trace having 187 total points, and their opponents scoring 355 points through nine games. They’ve lost their past three games, and this past Friday they gave up over 70 points to the Hillsboro Indians, falling by a 76-48 score.
This is going to be a very interesting game where Miami Trace is sure to give Washington a heavy dose of Brady Wallace, as last week he scored five touchdowns in the loss at Hillsboro. Washington has solid athletes as well, and even though neither team has a winning record this season, this game could and should be competitive and exciting to watch for the fans in Fayette County as the season closes.