By CRAIG DUNN Sports Editor [email protected] LANCASTER — Turns out the only football team that could stop the Lancaster Golden Gales’ running game Friday night was the Lancaster Golden Gales.

Despite fumbling the ball away not once, not twice, but three times in the game’s first nine minutes, the Gales still rushed for 518 yards — the most ground yards ever gained by a Logan Chieftain football foe — and scored a whopping 57 unanswered points en route to shellacking the Chiefs 57-7 at Fulton Field.

The one-sidedness of the season-opening series again reared its head as the bigger, stronger Gales dominated both sides of the ball… at least when they weren’t giving it away.

“We had fumble problems last year, but it was mostly getting through the line of scrimmage and handoffs. Our fumbles today were at the end of runs,” said Lancaster coach Rob Carpenter. “Logan was well-coached defensively, they were punching and stripping the ball, and we hadn’t really practiced (against) that.”

By CRAIG DUNN Sports Editor [email protected]

LOGAN — As the Logan Chieftains prepare to open their 2013 season Friday night at Lancaster, it's time to address — and then put aside — the obvious question right off the bat.

"I've been asked this question before, obviously," new Logan football coach Billy Burke said, “but I've already coached against my alma mater as an assistant coach at Hilliard Darby. I've been through the process.”

Even the most casual member of Chieftain Nation knows Burke is a graduate (1988) of Lancaster High School. He was a linebacker under head coach Tom McCurdy; then, he moved on to the University of Akron, where he played for former Gales coach Lee Owens.

In fact, earlier this summer McCurdy was set to join his former pupil as an assistant coach for the Chiefs but had to step aside due to recurring back problems.

By SPENCER WAUGH for The Logan Daily News Gallipolis ended Jackson’s two-year stranglehold on the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League football championship last fall by running up a perfect league slate behind an outstanding defense and the league’s top player, junior quarterback Wade Jarrell.

But with heavy losses from a talented senior class and a change at the head coaching position, the league could be wide open in 2013.

Here’s a look at the league team by team:

By CRAIG DUNN Sports Editor [email protected]

LOGAN — When the Logan Chieftains travel to Lancaster to open their 2013 season Friday night at Fulton Field, they once again expect to see a huge, rugged, smash-mouth Gales football team facing them from across the line of scrimmage.

Lancaster is always the biggest team — both in size and in numbers — the Purple & White face on their regular-season schedule.

It'll likely be the same when the two teams kick off at 7:30 p.m.

Under longtime coach Rob Carpenter, the Gales are, once again, that huge, rugged and smash-mouth team.

By SPENCER WAUGH for The Logan Daily News

LANCASTER — While Chieftain Nation is witnessing an offseason of change, up the road in Lancaster it’s a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same.

While Billy Burke prepares for a new season with a new team taking on his alma matter, he can probably rely somewhat on game plans from previous Chieftain coaches on Friday night at Fulton Field.

By CRAIG DUNN Sports Editor [email protected]

LOGAN — When the Logan Chieftains experienced unparalleled success behind quarterback Patrick Angle and a stable of terrific receivers in 2008 and 2009, they utilized a spread offense that both befuddled and overwhelmed their opposition.

For the most part, the Chiefs have used a spread offense since… but without the success. And while the 2013 Chiefs are running what could be termed a spread offense, it's not geared solely to get the ball to receivers in open space as the Angle-to-receivers spread was.

By CRAIG DUNN Sports Editor [email protected]

LOGAN — The 2013 Logan Chieftains won't be a two-platoon football team.

Several players will play both defense and offense, so it will be essential to develop depth and find creative times and ways to give players a break.

"I suppose you could call us a shade-50 defense, but really we're a multiple defense," said head coach Billy Burke. "The defense is structured to be able to play against a Lancaster (with huge size), which is a power-running team in a wing-T set, but also prepared for when we play Newark against a very good quarterback and multiple receivers. The defense is structured to adapt to the (opponents') offensive system.

"The reason that's the case is that teams have so much time in the off-season to throw the football that we have to be able to defend the pass," he added. "Years ago, you didn't work on the pass as much; everybody ran the football more, so everybody was geared to stop the run and make you pass. Well, now we have to be able to defend the pass as much as we defend the run."

By CRAIG DUNN Sports Editor [email protected]

LOGAN — It's no secret that Chieftain Nation became accustomed to — and maybe even somewhat spoiled by — a phenomenal run of success that saw the Logan Chieftains pack not one, but two "teams of a lifetime" into a little more than a decade.

Over the past three seasons, however, the Logan football program has went through hard times of almost historic proportions. After the Chiefs went just 6-24 since 2010, changes were on the horizon.

A change has been made in the form a new head coach — 36-year-old Billy Burke, hired last winter to replace LHS graduate and Athletic Hall of Famer Kelly Wolfe — who, being a graduate of (and football standout at) nearby Lancaster High School, was familiar with Logan and Hocking County.

LOGAN — For the Logan Chieftains, Friday night's annual OHSAA "Jamboree" exhibition football game in Logan Chieftain Stadium was all about continuing to make steady progress.

They won both on the scoreboard — 13-7 over the Sheridan Generals in a scrimmage stopped after three quarters — and in the eyes of many intrigued onlookers who wanted to see what the Purple & White would look like in their final tune-up before next Friday's season opener at Lancaster.

"Our scrimmages led up to tonight pretty well," said Logan coach Billy Burke. "We had some things we had to correct with Logan Elm; that was more of a practice situation that progressed into more of a game (last Friday) at Circleville, then even better tonight. We have progressed the way you would expect us to progress.

"The thing I said to the kids (after last night's scrimmage) is that it just sounded and felt pretty good," he added. "Sometimes you can just close your eyes on the sidelines and you can hear a team communicating with each other and a team cracking pads. You know they're playing well, and I think that was us this evening."