By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News
LOGAN — Before the Logan Chieftains can begin a highly-anticipated playoff season, they first need to take care of regular-season business.

Several goals and record-setting achievements are squarely within reach as the undefeated Chiefs (9-0 overall, 4-0 Southeastern Ohio Athletic League) host Chillicothe (1-8, 0-5) to conclude their regular season Friday (7:30 p.m. kickoff) in Logan Chieftain Stadium.

So far as those goals and achievements are concerned, first thing’s first: the Purple & White reach their number-one goal, that of winning an undisputed SEOAL championship, by downing the struggling Cavaliers, who have lost their last eight straight games.
Logan clinched no worse than a share of its sixth-consecutive championship by beating Jackson 27-7 last week. Only Ironton, which has one league loss (to Logan), can potentially tie the Chiefs in case they’re upset by the Cavaliers.

A Chieftain victory over Chillicothe then kicks in goal 1A: to complete an undefeated season for the seventh time in school history, their second in as many seasons and their fourth this decade.

This game means little so far as the playoffs are concerned. The Chiefs have already clinched the No. 2 seed in Region 7, and they are already assured of not only a Division II post-season playoff berth but of an opening-round home game as well.

It’s very meaningful, however, in so many other ways.

Friday is Senior Night, and when 19 Chieftains take the traditional Senior Walk across the field after the game, they strive to do so as undefeated conference champions for a fifth-straight time. Logan shared the 2004 title with Gallipolis before winning outright titles in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

A win over the Cavaliers would also tie the conference record for the most-consecutive SEOAL wins (34, last achieved by Ironton from 1971 to 1976), and would tie the school record for most-consecutive regular-season victories (29, accomplished by the 1999-2001 LHS teams).

Suffice to say, there are a lot of potential distractions and pitfalls this week. Keeping the team focused is priority one, according to head coach Dale Amyx, but it’s something he doesn’t anticipate being a problem.

“That’s the task,” he said. “There’s so much else going on this week. The big thing is being focused on this game and not looking ahead.

“It’s our goal to be outright league champions and to go 10-0,” he added. “Those are our two biggest goals, and the kids understand that. But this group has been so focused that I don’t see (lack of focus) being any trouble for this group.”

Football tradition is embedded in Chieftain Nation. Having already clinched no worse than a tie for the school’s 25th SEOAL championship (the league’s all-time best in this, the 85th season of football competition), this year’s seniors learned at the hands of the 2009 LHS senior class, which in turn was taught winning tradition by the 2008 class, and so forth and so on, going back several years.

“They know they would catch a lot of grief from last year’s seniors” if they were to let this outright title get away, Amyx said with a chuckle.

Speaking of tradition, starting next season, the SEOAL’s week-10 regular-season finales will officially be reserved for games between traditional rivals.

Unless league membership changes, week 10 will always match Logan against Chillicothe, Gallipolis against Jackson and Marietta against Warren, with Portsmouth having the week 10 bye unless another school enters the league. Logan-Chillicothe being in week 10 last season and this year was coincidental on the league’s schedule rotation.

While Logan-Chillicothe is not a rivalry in the “traditional” sense, the two schools are in the midst of forging a strong rivalry in all sports that may wind up being better than the Logan-Athens games of a long-ago era when Athens was still a member of the SEOAL and was a factor in league championship races.

This season has been a departure from recent success for the football Cavaliers, who in recent seasons have been in the thick of races for the SEOAL title and the post-season playoffs.

Other than Lancaster (to open the 2007 season), Chillicothe is the last school to hand the Chiefs a regular-season loss. The Cavs beat the Chiefs 31-21 in the second week of the 2006 season (Chillicothe’s first season in the league), but that game was played as a non-conference game since the teams weren’t on each other’s league rotation.

And who can forget last season’s regular-season finale at Chillicothe’s Hernnstein Field? The Chiefs overcame the Cavaliers, quarterback Caleb Knights, a steady rain and muddy field conditions for a 23-13 victory in what was a true league-championship game. Both teams entered that game undefeated in league play.

“It was a dogfight,” Amyx recalled. “And they are going to come in here this year with nothing to lose. They’ve been through a terrible season, but a win in this game would make their season and make all their hard work worthwhile.

“Our scouts said they played hard last week (in a 22-6 loss at Warren) and they haven’t folded the tents,” he added. “We expect them to give us everything they’ve got.”

The Cavs lost a boatload of seniors from that 2008 team, including Knights, who was the starting quarterback for four seasons. Chillicothe returned just 10 lettermen this season, and the Cavaliers have turned to junior Casey Oates and senior Shay Netter to replace Knights under center.

“Sometimes it’s (Oates) and sometimes it’s (Netter),” Amyx said. “We’ve seen both of them. (Oates) may be a little better, with a better arm, and a little quicker.

“They have some good receivers,” he added. Donta Thompson “is their go-to guy. They throw the ball fairly well and will try to hit (Thompson) on a bubble screen. They’ll also run the ball out of the gun, the quarterback will hand it off or sometimes he’ll keep it. They will present some challenges.”

Defensively, Amyx says the Cavaliers are “aggressive and will blitz a lot and play man coverage, which they did last year too. Their problem has been consistency.”

While getting up for a 1-8 team isn’t easy under most circumstances, the Chiefs know the Cavaliers are playing with nothing to lose while they themselves have so much on the line Friday night. And the Purple & White are taking nothing for granted.

“This is big. This is what we play for,” Amyx said. “We want to finishing things off right.”