By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News Sports Editor

OBETZ — At least this time the rain wasn’t accompanied by lightning.

And oh, by the way, the Logan Chieftains are off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2001.

Neither intermittent rain, a late-game downpour, the gloom of Friday night or the Hamilton Township Rangers kept the Purple & White from their appointed rounds or from a third-straight victory, this one a 31-0 shutout at Hamilton Township High School.

While the undefeated Purple & White were hurting somewhat physically entering the game — they were down two starters on both sides of the football — the players who stepped in and picked things up without skipping a beat.

Hamilton Township (2-1) really only had one player who was any kind of threat — quarterback Dorian Curry, who rushed for 102 yards on 18 carries and who almost single-handedly twice got the Rangers within sight of the Chieftain goal line. But the Logan D turned them back both times for their first shutout of the season.

“Defensively we did a really good job,” praised Logan coach Dale Amyx. “Their quarterback was good and he was slippery. They did some things that hurt us early, but we shored things up.

“We’re playing without basically two (defensive) starters and a kid normally playing at a corner (Mason Mays) coming in and having to make linebacker reads. I thought Mays did a great job with that,” he added. “And Ryan Sigler came in and played well at defensive end. They both did a great job. It showed not having a couple starters in there, but hopefully we’ll have them both back in there next week.”

The Chiefs were missing seniors Jon Neff (moderate concussion) and Clay Morgan (strained knee), players who account for five starting positions, including punter. Both were injured in last week’s epic, weather-delayed victory at Pickerington North.

The rains came again Friday night while Hocking County again remained bone-dry, but that really didn’t bother the Chiefs other than a couple early slips and slides. No three-hour weather suspensions or 12:45 a.m. finishes this week.

What did bother the Chiefs — and, especially, coach Amyx — was a bit of sloppiness on offense. The Chiefs were whistled for eight penalties, seven of them mind-numbing five-yarders that almost drove their head coach nuts.

“Offensively I’m not happy with those procedure calls,” he said. “We weren’t sharp, and against a really good opponent we won’t get away with that. Too many first-and-15 (situations).”

But Friday night the Chiefs more often than not overcame those mistakes.

They took full command of the game on their second play from scrimmage when quarterback Patrick Angle connected with fellow junior Mason Mays with a short pass over the middle. Mays broke a tackle, dodged a couple other potential tacklers, and cut down the right sideline, outracing the Ranger defense to complete a 61-yard scoring play with 9:25 left in the opening period.

“You take the penalties away and we had good drives,” Amyx pointed out. “We just killed ourselves (at times)… and Patrick, what a great job he did again. He makes plays, and our receivers did a great job.”

Angle picked off a Curry pass on the next series and returned it 44 yards to the Hamilton Township 12-yard line. A Logan receiver dropped a sure touchdown pass on the ensuing play and the Chieftains settled for Ronnie Burcham’s 25-yard field goal to make it 10-0 less than halfway through the opening stanza.

Moments later, Curry had a 22-yard scramble to keep a nice Hamilton Township drive alive, but the drive stalled at the Logan 21 when the Rangers bobbled the ball on a fourth-and-one play.

Junior Zach McDaniel finished off an 80-yard, eight-play drive with a 28-yard scoring run up the middle midway through the second quarter, and on the very next Logan drive the Chiefs went 80 yards again, this time on nine plays, with Angle connecting with Zach Adams on a beautiful 32-yard scoring pass with 1:31 remaining in the half.

“I thought our kids played hard,” Amyx praised. “Zach McDaniel did a great job running the ball (116 yards on 15 carries in place of Morgan at tailback) and the offensive line for the most part did a great job blocking. We had great pass protection.

“I was glad (offensive coordinator) Kelly (Wolfe) went back to our base offense in the second half,” he added. “We need to start getting more physical. We haven’t been doing that a lot. Offensively we’ve kind of been finessing, but there’s going to come a point and time when we’ll need to get physical with somebody.”

Hamilton Township’s last good scoring chance came in the waning seconds of the second period when Curry drove his team to the Logan 14. The drive bogged down and the Rangers lined up to attempt a 31-yard field goal, but the snap from center was bad and the holder was forced to throw. Jaushua Huntsberger picked it off to end the threat.

Neither team was in much of a hurry to do much more than run the ball in the second half — Logan threw just two passes and Hamilton Township only one — and the Chiefs let one great scoring opportunity get away when they fumbled the ball inside the Rangers’ 10-yard line and Curry returned it 33 yards.

Logan fullback Stephen Miller finished off an 11-play, 52-yard scoring drive a little less than five minutes into the final quarter with a one-yard run off tackle to round out the scoring.

Angle finished 9-of-16 passing for 170 yards, hitting Mays four times for 86 and finding both Adams and Jordan Rutter with a pair of passes. McDaniel’s 116 yards led a 215-yard ground attack.

While Hamilton Township had 192 rushing yards, the Rangers’ passing game was almost non-existent. Logan picked off more passes (two) than the Rangers completed to their own receivers (one) in 11 total attempts.

“Some good and some bad tonight,” Amyx said. “I’m pleased with how hard we played and with the effort, just a little displeased with all the penalties. We have to eliminate (penalties) in games coming up. We can’t play like that.”

However, the walking wounded might start getting back into the Logan lineup, something that could spell bad news for future Logan foes.

“We got David (Schneider) back, our left tackle, and Weston Andy’s been cleared and he’ll be back (soon),” Amyx revealed. “Eventually we’ll get our original offensive line back and maybe move (Derek) Shirey back to guard and maybe keep (Cary) Maclaughlin on one side of the ball… and now we’ve developed some depth.

“That was a good game for us after playing two big, physical teams (Lancaster and Pickerington North) to play somebody more our size,” he added. “We’re 3-0 and going back home for three games in a row. It seems like we’ve been away from home a long time… and it’s only been what, a couple weeks?”

The Chiefs host Gallipolis next Friday in Logan Chieftain Stadium to set in motion a three-game home stand that also includes Southeastern Ohio Athletic League foes Ironton and Zanesville.

Home cooking from now until early October.
 

Read More in the Logan Daily News.