SCOL disbandment procedures announced

(Continued from last week.)

October 4, 1991 saw Washington meeting Dayton Stebbins on the Stebbins field.

Also, Miami Trace would lock horns with Hillsboro and McClain would tangle with Wilmington on the Wilmington gridiron. Miami Trace had lost their quarterback, when All-SCOL Tobin Hoppes suffered a fractured leg against Stebbins, last week.

Terrell Baker had stepped into the quarterback slot, and had adjusted well.

But Hoppes might be missed more on defense than offense, especially against Hillsboro’s Run & Shoot, which required defensive players to think.

The Blue Lions hit on all cylinders at Stebbins. Everything they tried to do seemed to work to perfection. The blue-and-white routed the Dayton team, 43-25.

At Wilmington, Doug Eastes’ 10-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter spelled the difference as the Hurricane took a 13-7 victory over the McClain Tigers, who had maintained a 7-6 lead up to that point.

The big shocker was at Hillsboro, where the Indians utilized a 70-yard touchdown drive in the final quarter to up-end the undefeated and state ranked Miami Trace Panthers.

The Tribe grabbed a 14-0 first quarter lead when nose guard Sean Longstreth pounced on a Terrell Baker fumble which led to a 23-yard touchdown pass from Chad Downing to Rodney Captain.

A few minutes later, Baker tried a pass in the flat, but Hillsboro defensive back Rodney Helsel picked the pass off and raced 56 years to the end zone.

When the Indians took the second half kickoff and quickly scored again, on another Downing-to-Captain pass, the Red-and-White had a 21-7 lead.

Trace fought back, and actually tied the game with about 11 minutes remaining, when Baker broke loose for a 42-yard touchdown run and Gifford ran in a two-point conversion. But the Panthers elected to punt with 9:40 remaining when they faced a fourth and one. Hillsboro then began their
final touchdown drive, which consumed a lot of time, and resulted in an Indians' victory.

This win gave Hillsboro a 2-0 league mark. McClain and Wilmington were both 1-1, while Miami Trace and Washington were both 0-1.

Meanwhile, the South Central League Board of Control announced that it was beginning disbandment procedures.

The league had accepted letters from Wilmington High School and Hillsboro High School, both expressing their intentions to join their new leagues in the 1992-93 school year. All SCOL activities would end at the spring banquet on May 19, 1992. All league members would attempt to revise their schedules so that “we may continue to compete with one another in a mutually advantageous manner.”

The board had tried very hard to keep one of the oldest leagues in the state of Ohio going – but, had been unsuccessful.

Wilmington traveled to Washington C.H. October 11, to battle the struggling Blue Lions. On this night, the Lion offense fired on all cylinders, totaling 327 yards of offense against the ’Cane. Basically, the Lion forward wall was able to keep Wilmington defenders out of the backfield, giving quarterback Shawn Smith time to choose his targets. Smith hit on 11 of 21 passes for 174 yards. The final score was WCH 35, Wilmington 7.

McClain hosted Miami Trace. Panther senior fullback Scott Gifford ran wild on the Tiger gridiron, totaling 189 yards on 18 carries. The Panther defense held the normally potent McClain squad to 253 yards of total offense – 90 yards coming on the Tigers’ final scoring drive, when the outcome of the game had already been decided. The final score was Miami Trace 28, McClain 12.

Hillsboro became the latest SCOL team to thump Dayton Stebbins when Indian fullback Sean Longstreth ran for more than 100 yards, scoring two touchdowns, and teammate Rodney Helsel booted field goals of 40 and 30 yards, while Chad Downing and Damon Bolden intercepted two passes each. The final score was, Hillsboro 26, Stebbins 13.

The following Friday night, Oct. 18, Wilmington would play at Miami Trace, Hillsboro would travel to Washington and McClain would play a non-league game at Little Miami.

The Hillsboro Indians, presently in first place in the SCOL, with a 2-0 league record, desperately wanted a win at WCH so that the Tribe, in the final year of the old league, could have a shot at winning its second outright championship ever. But the Lions had been playing good football of late, and beating them on the Gardner Park field was never easy. Could the Indians pull it off?

And, of course, Trace’s game against Wilmington could be described as a “must win” game. If Washington defeated Hillsboro the Panthers could back into a tie with the Indians with only one league contest remaining. McClain’s game at Little Miami was mostly a warm-up for the big McClain vs. Hillsboro game the following Friday. But Oct. 18 would be critically important for all the other SCOL teams.

(Continued next week.)

Bob Patton is a Highland County sports historian and a contributing writer to The Highland County Press.