Doc it's OHSAA time again

[Lincoln Tower]

As always, I love our High School playoffs.

Division 1 seems like typical D1 from last year. St. Ignatius and Glenville will meet in the second round, and I fully expect the winner to win region 1, and beat the region 2 champ in the semis. Since I haven't seen Elder, Moeller, St. X or Anderson play, I can't predict who will come out of region 4. They'll a tricky game against Coffman in the semis, but I expect it to be region1 vs region 4 in the finals.

My alma mater made it again, for the 3rd time in history. Unfortunately, we play Sanzenbacher's school, Toledo Central Catholic, in round 1. I am not very optimistic.

Region3 will probably feature Mooney versus Steubenville in the state title game. Steubenville won last year in the regional semis, and Mooney in the regional finals 2 years ago. Now, they are in different regions.

Divisions 4,5,6 are predicted as this: Kettering Alter in 4, Coldwater in 5, Delphos St. John's in 6. Youngstown Ursuline might give Coldwater a scare in 5.

Any thoughts?

[Doc]

I didn't think Moeller played very well and lost 13-10. St. X plays ultra conservative on offense and puts it in the hands of their defense. Moeller really never got going on offense. Moeller also gave St. X a cheap FG when they fumbled a punt inside their 10 yard line.

I'd say there will most likely be a rematch in a couple weeks of this game in the regional final. St. X may have to play Elder in the second round but I don't see Elder being able to score much, if at all, against the X defense. Moeller plays 9-1 Middletown and then could face undefeated Anderson in round 2. Anderson played for the D-2 championship last year and won it two years ago.

Winton Woods would appear to have a great shot at going far in D-2, they're only losses were to D-1 teams, Moeller and Anderson, which only lost one game combined. Very athletic team with planty of speed.

Alter and Coldwater are always threats to go all the way.

["14-O" U.]

The only Div I team I saw from region 4 was Anderson. Also saw Div II Winton Woods and Turpin.

Anderson has a great offensive line (even after the OSU recruit, Norwell, went down early in the season) and a very talented running back and running qb. Their passing game is not terrible (like what I saw for Winton Woods) but I believe it is untested. In the game against Anderson our defense (team ended up 4-6 for the year) sold out completely to stop the run and left some wide open wide receivers in the process. Resulted in two wide open TDs - qb threw accurately. They threw a 3rd TD that I would say was ill-advise even though it found a way for the TD.

Our defense did pretty much the same against Winton Woods and it worked much better. The WW qb couldn't hit the side of the proverbial barn. But their speed killed us on defense and special teams (and we shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly on special teams, imo because we were so worried about their speed).

I believe Anderson's troubles will be due to defense and being 1-dimensional. Teams that do not need to sell out comletely to stop their run should be able to cover their passing game as well. They will still move the ball with the running game. I think they have a good chance against Lakota West as I believe they are even more 1-dimensional from what I've read. But I don't see them winning against Moeller in round 2 unelss Moeller has some very significant inuries or illnesses.

In DII, Winton Woods should crush Turpin to take Region 8. Turpin schedules OOC like Penn State and their division in the FAVC would be akin to playing in the WAC, MWC, or maybe even the Big 12 North.

[Doc]

which is now Thurgood Marshall. They made the playoffs a couple years ago in D-2 and got crushed by Harrison. This year they are D-4 and apparently would have made it had they not been forced to forfeit 3 games due to an illegal player. This team scored over 50 points a game and rushed for over 550yards per game. I think they had four, 1000 yard rushers but I doubt the competition was very good. Still, it would have been interesting to see them make the playoffs since teams from the Dayton Public Schools league rarely do.

["14-O" U.]

What a shocker by Middletown! I read they held Moeller to 1 first down in the 1st half.

Doc, I know you are a Moeller fan, but on the surface from a neutral party it did seem classless that Moeller didn't shake hands after the game. I'm sure there were many examples of low class behavior during the game, but I'm surprised the Moeller coaches and players would skip the handshake at the end. Not sure where the info originated but a guy at work said some Moeller friends of his said Moeller's decision was based on Middletown's fake field goal late in the game when they had a big lead.

Wow. A big loss and Moeller complaining about the other team running up the score. Not sure which surprises me the most.

I was looking forward to Moeller crushing Anderson in week 2 of the playoffs. I'm hoping that Middletown will take care of that now. Unfortunately I think Anderson stacks up much better against Middletown than they would have against Moeller. I saw Middletown vs. Princeton on TV earlier this year. If the Middletown team of the 1st half plays against Anderson, Anderson should move on to the Region final. If Middletown of the 2nd half (or the team that played Moeller) shows up, I believe they can probably beat anyone. Every offensive play and return looked like a potential TD. Almost SEC speed .

[Doc]

A friend of mine was there texting updates to me and he said Moeller looked horrible - he left when it was 24-3 or something like that. He probably missed the fake FG. As for that, I've seen plenty of occassions where the shoe was on the other foot and Moeller continued to accelerate so turn about is fair play - in fact, Moeller whipped Middletown several years ago by almost the same score the only caveat is Crable was the coach at the time. But I don't care the circumstances - not shaking hands is bush league in my book - you don't want them to score a TD on a fake FG - stop 'em. And keep in mind Middletown is moving on so they have to give the other teams something to think about. Grow up, Moeller, and don't deflect the attention to anything but the fact you got your butts kicked!!!

[Lincoln Tower]

Count me as shocked as well.

I think we essentially have 2 Division 1 semi finals this weekend. Ignatius vs. Glenville and St. X vs Elder. I'll bet the winners meet for the state title.

Also of note: the PAC went 5-0 with Coldwater, Delphos, Maria Stein, Anna and team #5 (drawing a blank) all winning. That has to be one of the best "small school" conferences in the country.