Check back in about two months, when it really means something. After all, two-thirds of the regular season remains to be played.

“It’s a nice honor,” said Logan coach Dale Amyx, “but there’s still a long season to go and a lot to be earned… and we haven’t earned anything yet.”

And the last thing the Purple & White want to do is to stumble after getting off to their first 3-0 start since 2001. The Chieftains entertain 2-1 Gallipolis Friday (7:30 p.m.) in Logan Chieftain Stadium.

Although the Chiefs and Blue Devils are charter members of the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League, this game won’t count in the league standings.

When the SEOAL expanded to 10 schools two seasons ago, league administrators adopted a schedule in which each football team does not play two other conference members on a two-year rotating basis. The schedule rotation stays in place through next season; in 2010, the eight remaining schools will play a complete single-round-robin schedule.

Gallia Academy and Portsmouth are the teams that rotated off the Chieftains’ schedule. However, Logan and Gallipolis agreed to play non-conference games in the meantime to fill the void.

The Chieftains were ranked No. 5 in Division II Monday night when The Associated Press released its inaugural poll of Ohio high school football teams. No. 5 is believed to be the highest state ranking ever for a Logan football team.

“That’s nice to look at, and it’s good for the fans,” Amyx pointed out, “but (as a team) as soon as you start hearing that stuff — and then believing it — that’s when you get knocked off.”

The Blue Devils were picked to finish seventh out of nine schools in a pre-season media poll. But the Chieftains don’t want to get caught looking ahead toward the remainder of their schedule, including their SEOAL opener next Friday night against Ironton.

Gallipolis broke out of the gate with victories over Athens and Point Pleasant before losing 42-6 last week at Ironton.

The Blue Devils and Tigers opened their SEOAL schedules a week earlier than everyone else. That game was moved up one week on each team’s respective schedule to make room for Logan-Gallipolis and Ironton-Ashland (Ky.) to be scheduled this week.

“They have some injuries right now but they’re always competitive,” Amyx said of the Blue Devils. “They throw the ball real nice. Gallipolis is always a rivalry game with me and that’s how I always treat this game. Coach (Matt) Bokovitz does a great job. They have a good coaching staff and it’s been a hard-fought game for many years.”

On the M*A*S*H front, it looks like the Chieftains are close to getting seniors Jon Neff and Clay Morgan back in the lineup, although it’s not set in stone that they’ll play Friday night.

Both were injured two weeks ago at Pickerington North, and whether they’ll play against the Blue Devils will likely be game-time decisions.

“Right now they’re both practicing,” Amyx said. “Jon’s cleared this week (and) once he gets the full two weeks (he’ll dress for practice today) but we’ll keep him out of contact.”

Neff, a starter at defensive end, tight end and punter, sustained a moderate concussion when he was accidentally kicked in the head by a teammate while making a tackle late in the second quarter at Pickerington North. Morgan, a starter at tailback and linebacker, strained a knee in the first half of that game. Both missed last week’s 31-0 victory at Hamilton Township.

“Clay’s knee has loosened up,” Amyx said. “There’s still a little pain there.”

No team wants to sustain injuries, of course, but the Chieftains dipped into their depth of athletes to replace them with solid, reliable players both last week and in the second half against Pickerington North.

“We’ve got excellent kids coming in (such as) Ryan Sigler and Zach McDaniel (and) Mason Mays moving from corner to linebacker,” Amyx noted. “We had some kids do a great job for us last week… and if we have to, we’ll do that again.”

McDaniel stepped in and gained 116 yards rushing on 15 carries last week at Hamilton Township and he, Sigler and Mays combined for 22 tackles on defense. McDaniel had three solo tackles, five assists and broke up a pass from his cornerback slot; Sigler had a solo tackle, six assists and two tackles for loss at defensive end, and Mays also had a solo and six assists at linebacker.

     More wins than losses: All of the Chieftains’ first five opponents have winning records, and if Ironton wins tomorrow night, they will all have had winning records when they faced Logan. Lancaster, Pickerington North, Hamilton Township, Gallipolis and Ironton are all 2-1 on the season, with the only losses thus far for Lancaster, Pickerington North and Hamilton Township being to the Chiefs. That’s the main reason Logan is still the unofficial No. 1 team in OHSAA playoff Region 7… the Blue Devils’ wins over Athens and Point Pleasant have them ranked ninth (again, unofficially) in D4 Region 15; also in that region, New Lexington is second, Meigs fifth and Ironton seventh.

     Not running on empty: When quarterback Patrick Angle ran for 119 yards on 15 carries in the season opener against Lancaster, he became just the fourth Chieftain QB to reach the century mark in rushing in nearly a half-century.

According to LHS football historian Spencer Waugh, Angle joins Larry Bainter (229 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries against Middleport in 1960), John Gasser (144 yards and two TDs on 12 attempts at Pomeroy in 1965) and Bob Johnston (exactly100 yards and one score on nine runs at Bexley in 1967) as the only Chieftain signal-callers to reach that mark. Angle, a junior, then set a pair of school single-game passing records (for yardage and completions) the next week against Pickerington North.

Read More in the Logan Daily News.