LOGAN — If for some reason Canal Winchester’s Tyler Thompson and Chillicothe’s Caleb Knights ever get together someday and discuss their high school football days, you can bet the name Mason Mays will come up in the conversation.

And you can also be quite sure they’ll speak of Mays the same way Boston Red Sox fans speak of the New York Yankees’ Bucky Dent or Aaron Boone. The adjectives will be colorful.

Mays was up to some of his old tricks as his Logan Chieftains sidelined Canal Winchester 30-7 in the opening round of the Division II playoffs Friday night in Logan Chieftain Stadium.
With the Chiefs leading 14-0 early in the second half, Canal Winchester quarterback Justin Whitlatch hit Thompson with a beautiful pass over the middle that sprung the CW receiver behind the Logan defense, including Mays.

But just like he did in last season’s Southeastern Ohio Athletic League championship game at Chillicothe, when he hauled the Cavs’ Knights down from behind on a long run that looked to be going for a sure touchdown, Mays turned on the afterburners and caught Thompson from behind at the Logan 6-yard line after a 64-yard gain.

Three plays later, Mays then made a play that capped off a terrific goal-line stand. On fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Mays knocked down a Whitlatch pass in the end zone and the Chiefs took over on downs.

And Mays still wasn’t done.

On Logan’s first play from scrimmage, Mays went 61 yards off left tackle to get the Chiefs out of the shadow of their own goal line, setting up what turned out to be a game-breaking, 99-yard, six-play scoring drive.

Quarterback Patrick Angle scored on a 6-yard run moments later to give the Chiefs an insurmountable 20-0 lead, breaking the Indians’ collective hearts in the process.

“I got burned,” Mays admitted afterward. “I was looking in the (Canal Winchester) backfield, but I caught (Thompson), fortunately. I was running as fast as I could… and I got him. Then our defense stepped up and had a big goal-line stand, and I was able to redeem myself and knock down that pass.

“Then my guy T.J. (offensive tackle T.J. McCray) got a good block for me and I got it up through the gut and busted it outside and down the sidelines,” he added. “Once we made the big play to get out of that hole, our offense got jacked up and we knew we could put it in the end zone. We had the momentum after that.”

And as Mays raced down the sidelines, Canal Winchester’s hopes of knocking off the undefeated Chieftains pretty much went down the sidelines with him.

“He’s one of the reasons we’re where we’re at,” said Logan coach Dale Amyx. “He’s done a great job on both sides of the ball. How about that tackle on (Thompson) to save that touchdown? (A lot of players) would have given up, and (Thompson) would have scored, but he stayed with it and we were able to keep them out of the end zone. That’s how you win championships right there.”

The Purple & White, now 11-0 for just the third time in school history, advance to the second round of the Division II playoffs to face Columbus Brookhaven (9-2), which survived a 27-20 overtime scare from Columbus Walnut Ridge Friday night in another Region 7 quarterfinal.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association will make the official announcement Sunday afternoon, but the Logan-Brookhaven game will likely be played next Friday at Gahanna-Lincoln High School in suburban Columbus.

Three of the top four Region 7 seeds advanced to the second round Friday night… but state Associated Press poll champion Louisville wasn’t one of them.

The top-seeded and previously-undefeated Leopards, who knocked the Chiefs out of the 2008 playoffs in the second round, were upset on their home field by Columbus Marion-Franklin, 14-7.

Thus the Logan-Brookhaven winner will face Marion-Franklin or Olentangy Orange, which defeated Dresden Tri-Valley 28-21, in the regional finals on Nov. 20. There will be no Logan-Louisville rematch this season.

Mays’ heroics early in the second half came on the heels of a huge turn of momentum late in the second quarter.

With Logan leading 7-0, the Indians (8-3) put together a tremendous drive, advancing from their own 24-yard line to the Chiefs’ 20, with a 31-yard pass play from Whitlatch to Michael Mainella helping the Indians get deep into Chieftain territory.

But Whitlatch was stripped of the ball on the next play and the ball bounced down to the Logan 8-yard line, where the Chiefs recovered with 3:01 left in the half.

Angle then led the Purple & White on a 92-yard, 13-play scoring drive that took, well, exactly three minutes and one second.

Hitting Zach McDaniel, Mays (twice) and Jordan Rutter with key pass plays, Angle pushed the Chiefs across the midfield stripe before connecting again with Mays deep down the left sideline for a 30-yard gain to the Canal Winchester 23.

Angle and McDaniel converted a third-and-five situation with a 10-yard pass to the CW 8 before Angle was sacked with time running out in the half.

There was some confusion as the clock was accidentally re-set to eight-tenths of a second instead of to eight seconds, but the officials apparently didn’t catch the snafu.

Angle then had just enough time to connect with senior Ryan Sigler deep in the left corner of the end zone. Sigler made a terrific leaping catch and was still able to come down with a foot inbounds for the touchdown as time ran out.

Derek Montgomery initially missed the placement kick, but the reeling Indians were called for an illegal participation penalty (too many men on the field), and Montgomery was successful on his next attempt to make it 14-0 Chiefs at the intermission.

Both coaches agreed those six or seven minutes at the end of the first half and at the outset of the second were the game’s turning points.

“That was big, even if we go in down seven (at halftime) without getting a score,” said Canal Winchester coach Phil Mauro, “but to go down 14-0 really hurt. Then we get stopped on the 1 (early in the third period), and they go for another score.

“Give them credit,” he added. The Chiefs “made big plays, and we didn’t take care of our scoring opportunities. We didn’t do a very good job in the red zone.”

“They were trying to run an option play around the end… I can’t remember what I had called, but the kids did a great job executing it,” said Amyx. “I don’t know how (the ball) came out, but recovering that fumble was key. Then we scored right there at the end of the half. That was a big momentum change, and it stayed with us the rest of the game.

“That goal-line stand took a lot of wind out of their sails, and for us to get the ball, take it down and score again, that was big too,” he added. Canal Winchester “didn’t quit. They got the ball back and scored and were in scoring position a few times, but our defense stood tall. We had two or three great stands by our defense.”

The Indians had a few oh-so-close misses on pass plays early in the game that could have made a difference.

“We had a lot of narrow misses, but it just came down to we didn’t take care of our scoring opportunities and they did,” Mauro said. The Chiefs are “pure man (defense) with no center fielder, so you want to try to get the ball in that middle area. We hit Michael with a big pass and hit Tyler with a big pass, and those were big conversions… but we didn’t get into the end zone.

“When you get scoring opportunities, especially against a good team like Logan, you’ve got to take advantage of them,” Mauro continued. “That was the difference in the game: they scored in the red zone and we didn’t.”

The Canal Winchester defense gave the Chiefs some problems early on. But Angle recovered nicely, thank you: he finished 22-of-35 for 229 yards and two touchdowns, connecting with Jordan Rutter on a 4-yard score to put Logan ahead for good late in the opening stanza.

“We knew (the Logan passing game) was good. We knew (Mays) was legit, and Pat Angle is all what they say he is,” Mauro noted. “If you let him have time, he’s going to find his guys, and he did a great job.”

There was a reason Angle did a great job. Five of them, actually.

“Our offensive line did a great job all night,” Amyx praised. “We haven’t mentioned them a lot this year, but they’re unsung heroes. All five of those guys have done a great job all year, and they did a great job protecting Pat tonight.

“(Canal Winchester) didn’t blitz as much as I thought they would,” he continued. “I thought we’d see a lot more of that, but they tended to drop back and play a little more coverage, especially there in the first half when they were rushing two (defenders) and dropping nine. It was kind of effective (for awhile), then we started getting some runs on them and they had to mix it up a little bit. Our offensive line just did a great job on protection all night.”

After a bit of a slow start — the Chiefs were forced to punt three of the first four times they had the ball — they came on strong starting with that two-minute drill to conclude the first half.

“That was a good job on coach (Kelly) Wolfe’s part, running the two-minute drill there,” lauded Amyx. “It really kept (the Indians) off-balance, and they didn’t have a chance to call blitzes or do some things and we were able to make some great catches.

“Our offense played lights-out,” he added. “Once we got going, for the rest of the game we played the way I think we need to play if we’re going to do this thing and do it right. We got off to a little slow start, but they’re a good football team and they made some good adjustments and did some things we weren’t ready for. Once we adjusted to them, (the Logan offense) was fun to watch.”

Canal Winchester came back to score its only touchdown with 3:49 left in the third period — Thompson scored on a 9-yard run — but the Chiefs answered with a nine-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a 5-yard run by McDaniel in the waning seconds of the third period. Montgomery kicked a 28-yard field goal for good measure in the fourth quarter.

The Chiefs wound up gaining 416 yards and had better balance (187 rushing, 229 passing) than the Indians (49 rushing, 211 passing), who are usually much-more balanced on offense.

Mays wound up with 94 yards rushing on just four attempts and caught six passes for 74 yards. McDaniel caught nine balls for 88 yards and picked up 45 rushing yards on six attempts.

Although they know Louisville is no longer in the title picture, the Chieftains certainly can’t look past Brookhaven, next on their agenda.

“This is a new season, we’re 1-0 and we’re excited to get ready for Brookhaven and get into round two,” Amyx said. “I’m shocked by (Louisville’s loss), but I also look at it that there’s an opportunity there.

“It also shows how tough our region is,” he added. “Anybody can probably beat anybody if you don’t have a good game and don’t play well. We told (the players) all week that ‘if you come out and play the way you’re capable of playing, there’s no doubt we can win this game.’ We had some (tough) moments early on, but once we starting clicking on all cylinders, it worked.”

Mays agreed and echoed the Chiefs’ desire to play 15 games this season and reach the state championship game.

“It’s a great start. We played great tonight,” Mays said. “We made a few mistakes here and there, but we can work through those, and we did tonight. We look forward to four more games.”