LOGAN — A few years ago, when Southeastern Ohio Athletic League administrators came up with a rotating schedule for football, one particular game — Oct. 24, 2008, Logan at Chillicothe — stood out to those who were in the football know.

Even prior to the league’s official expansion to 10 schools in 2006, many looked at the schedule and felt tomorrow night’s matchup of two rock-solid football programs would eventually turn out to be a league championship game.

And so it has come to pass.
The hype that started a long, long time ago — even prior to the current season — culminates Friday (7:30 p.m. kickoff) when the undefeated Logan Chieftains (9-0 overall, 5-0 SEOAL) travel to Chillicothe to face the Cavaliers (7-2, 6-0) with the 2008 SEOAL title squarely on the line.

Although they have played one another twice since Chillicothe entered the league, this marks the first meeting between the two football titans that counts in the SEOAL standings.

While the Cavaliers stumbled a bit during their strong pre-SEOAL schedule — they lost to a pair of state-ranked teams in their first three games — Chillicothe righted the ship, and Logan started its season with a bang by beating longtime rival Lancaster for the first time in 63 years.

Both teams are playing solid football entering week 10 and are the undisputed kingpins of area football this fall.

For the Chieftains, winners of 28-consecutive league games and four-straight conference championships, winning the SEOAL championship is always goal one — bar none.

But this season, however, they’re in the strange position of having secured their second goal before achieving their first: not only are the Chiefs assured of a post-season playoff berth, but they’ll host a Division II Region 7 playoff game against an opponent to be determined next Friday in Logan Chieftain Stadium.

“I hadn’t thought of that. That is unusual,” said Logan coach Dale Amyx. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but I don’t see it as being a big distraction.

“I remember two years ago going to Ironton (for the Chiefs’ 2006 regular-season and SEOAL finale) knowing we had a share of the championship wrapped up but needing to win to get the (outright) championship and to get into the playoffs,” he added. “I felt the pressure (that night) and the kids did, too.”

Logan won that rainy night 7-0 on a sloppy Tank Memorial Stadium field and the win indeed vaulted the Chiefs, a Division I school that season, into the playoffs.

So at least the playoff portion of the pressure is off the Chiefs’ collective shoulders Friday night. But for the most part, Amyx said keeping those collective Chieftain eyes on the SEOAL prize hasn’t been all that difficult this season.

“That hasn’t been as much of a struggle as I thought it would be this season,” he said. “We’ve stressed all season (the players) need to focus on what’s in front of them — practice and then (that week’s) game — and then that Zanesville game was a wake-up call.”

Both the Chiefs and Cavaliers got those calls from the Zanesville front desk this season. Logan eked out a week-six 16-14 victory over the visiting Blue Devils, two weeks after Chillicothe rallied from a 21-7 second-half deficit for a 24-21 success at Zanesville.

“It seems kind of fitting (to play Chillicothe for the league title) with the way the season has went for both teams,” Amyx noted. “All season we’ve been on a collision course for this game.”

It’s simple human nature. While taking care of business elsewhere on their respective schedules, players and coaches on both teams, as well as their legions of fans and most others who follow high school football in this area, were keenly aware the other team was the 800-pound gorilla in the SEOAL room.

Friday will be a matchup of two teams who not only mirror one another on both sides of the football but who also have several outstanding athletes at their disposal.

Chillicothe is led by third-year quarterback Caleb Knights, who as a sophomore helped pace the Cavaliers to a 31-21 win over the Purple & White way back in week two of the 2006 season.

While in a way that’s ancient history and a lot has happened since then — counting playoff games, that was 29 games ago for the Cavaliers and 30 for the Chiefs — but that’s also how much additional experience Knights has gained running the show for the Cavaliers. And the Chiefs know it.

In that 2006 game, Knights connected on 11-of-13 passes for three touchdowns and a whopping 258 yards in the first half and finished 14-18 for 309 yards and four scoring aerials. Ten of his completions in the first half went for 10 yards or more.

He was 29-of-43 passing for 278 yards and a touchdown last fall, and also scored a rushing touchdown, but it was the Chiefs who prevailed at Bill Sauer Field, 47-18.

Like Logan quarterback Patrick Angle, Knights is both a threat throwing the ball and running it. While Angle has twice as many passing yards, Knights isn’t far from reaching the 1,000-yard mark rushing.

“They are very similar to us,” Amyx said. “They run the spread offense and (Knights) runs quite a bit, too. We have to find some way to keep him contained. We’ve not seen anyone like him all season… we need to get some pressure on him, take him out of his comfort zone and be aware of where he is at all times.

“We also have to stop their tailback and their big, strong fullback,” he added. “They present a lot of problems for us. Maybe we can’t stop them, but we need to slow them down. It will be a good game of skill vs. skill, and it may very well be whoever’s skill people plays the best wins.”

The outcome may also hinge upon which team can get the earliest upper hand. The Chieftains have been behind on the scoreboard for all of five minutes and three seconds (out of 432 game minutes) this season and most of their games have, for all intents and purposes, been over at halftime.

Logan’s defense has only allowed 13 first-half points — Jackson became the first Logan opponent to score a first-half touchdown this season last week — and the Chiefs have outscored their previous nine foes 106-0 in the second quarter alone.

“That’s something we want to do, jump out quickly and build a lead, then play sound, fundamental football and not take as many chances” afterward, Amyx said. “But that’s also something we’ve told the kids: everyone we play the rest of the way is going to be good now. It’s not going to be as easy (to get a big lead), and we have to play even better.

“We’ve probably gotten by by winning more on athletic ability than anything else,” he added, “but now, with the season coming down to the wire, it comes down to who makes the right adjustments, who follows their game plan best and who picks up their intensity the most.”

There are several other similarities between the Chieftains and Cavaliers.

Like the Chieftains, the Cavaliers haven’t really been threatened in league play other than by Zanesville… like the Chieftains, the Cavaliers own convincing wins over common SEOAL foes Jackson, Gallipolis and Warren, though the Cavs did struggle a bit in beating Ironton (17-9), a team Logan ripped by 25 points… and, like the Chieftains, the Cavaliers are also assured of a post-season playoff game, although they’re not assured of playing a home game at Herrnstein Field. However, a Chillicothe win over the Chieftains would secure that coveted week-11 home game in cement.

They’ve also both faced the wrath of the Sheridan Generals.

The Cavs’ only losses are at the hands of Division I Columbus Brookhaven (14-7) and Sheridan (34-14), the state’s top-ranked Division III team. Those two teams are a combined 17-1 (Sheridan 9-0, Brookhaven 8-1) and both have clinched post-season playoff berths.

With all due respect to the first nine teams on their schedule, the Chieftains may very well have faced their toughest battle to date before the season even got under way: the Chiefs struggled to a draw against the Generals in their final pre-season scrimmage.

And, to be sure, the Chiefs and Cavaliers share one other similarity: both teams are hungry for a league championship.

“This will be a fun game from the fans’ standpoint with two evenly-matched teams with quarterbacks who can run and throw and with plenty of good skill players,” Amyx said. “That makes it interesting for everyone coming to the game.”

And, admittedly, nerve-wracking for the respective coaching staffs. But that’s why you want week 10 to mean much, much more than just playing out the string and getting the season over with.

“I’m sure it’s that way for (Chillicothe head coach) Bill (Davidson), too,” said Amyx, the dean of SEOAL coaches. “I’m sure he and his staff are looking at a lot of things the same way we are, too. The league championship is on the line for both teams… and that’s what makes it all so exciting.”
 
 

Read More in the Logan Daily News.