Chieftain Notebook: Little, Jordan set Logan marks in game for record books
By CRAIG DUNN Sports Editor [email protected]
LOGAN — Had the Logan Chieftains been told in advance that they would score 42 points against the Lancaster Golden Gales, they no doubt would have been more than glad to take their chances of emerging with a win.
Such wasn’t the case, however, in what turned out to be a game for the record books.
Logan’s 43-42, double-overtime loss to the Gales marks the most points Logan has scored without winning a game in program history, dating back to 1912.
Previously, the most points Logan had scored in a non-winning effort was in a 40-34 loss to Warren in 2011 — and that, ironically, also came in double-OT.
LOGAN — Had the Logan Chieftains been told in advance that they would score 42 points against the Lancaster Golden Gales, they no doubt would have been more than glad to take their chances of emerging with a win.
Such wasn’t the case, however, in what turned out to be a game for the record books.
Logan’s 43-42, double-overtime loss to the Gales marks the most points Logan has scored without winning a game in program history, dating back to 1912.
Previously, the most points Logan had scored in a non-winning effort was in a 40-34 loss to Warren in 2011 — and that, ironically, also came in double-OT.
Lancaster and Logan combined for the third-most single-game points (85) in Chieftain football history. The top two games — both played at Bill Sauer Field — were Logan’s 76-20 (96 combined points) rout of Marietta in 2007 and Chillicothe’s 60-28 (88 points) drubbing of the Purple & White in 1993.
It marked the eighth time in Logan football history in which the Chiefs and their opponent combined to score at least 80 points.
Ironically, however, 85 points isn’t even the Logan Chieftain Stadium scoring record.
That distinction, which goes to Athens and Dresden Tri-Valley, occurred just last fall when the Bulldogs outscored the Scotties 55-52 (107 total points) in a second-round Division III playoff game.
Even if that game hadn’t occurred, 85 points still wouldn’t have surpassed the seven-year-old stadium’s previous record of 86 points, set in St. Clairsville’s 59-27 Division IV playoff triumph over Piketon in 2012.
Little’s big numbers: Quarterback Lane Little knocked Patrick Angle out of the all-time top slot for passes attempted in a single game. Little’s 40 throws bested Angle’s all-time mark (38) set in the Chiefs’ 7-0, second-round playoff loss to Louisville in 2008.
Logan’s 42 overall passing attempts (including Dean Jordan’s halfback-option TD pass and a spiked pass to stop the clock) are a school record as well.
Little also became just the sixth Chieftain to throw four touchdown passes in a single game. Angle did it four times — the most recent being against Jackson in 2009 — while Jim Richardson (1937), Scott Gasser (1977), Keith Myers (1983) and Chad Zimmerman (1994) all accomplished the feat once.
However, the five total touchdown passes — again, including Jordan’s halfback-option toss — are a team single-game record.
In addition, Little’s passing yardage (306) was second only to Angle (324 against Pickerington North in 2008) for a single game, and his 24 completions rank behind only Angle in two games against Pickerington North (27 completions in 2009 and 26 in 2008).
All in the family: Chance Cox’s three TD receptions tied him for second on the all-time single-game list. The all-time Chieftain leader? Chance’s father, Eric, who was on the receiving end of all four of Zimmerman’s TD aerials in that 1994 game at River Valley.
More irony: Chance’s 147 receiving yards are tied for eighth all-time for a single game — tied with the 147 yards Eric had against Warren in 1994. Both are career-best marks.
Mason Mays (2009 against Lancaster) was the last Chieftain to haul in three touchdown passes in a single game.
After further review: Jordan’s third-quarter fumble return for a touchdown, originally thought to be 87 yards, was officially listed at 89 after the Logan coaching staff reviewed the game films on Saturday.
Either way, it’s a new LHS record. The previous record was an 82-yard scoop-and-score by Greg Poston against Hilliard way back in 1966.
Rush to judgment: While Logan allowed 487 rushing yards (the second-most ever given up to the Gales, runner-up to the record 518 allowed in last season’s game) on 71 attempts (the most rushing attempts ever by a Logan opponent), Logan football historian Spencer Waugh points out the numbers don’t compare badly to previous games against Lancaster.
The Gales averaged 6.85 yards per carry last Friday. By comparison, Lancaster’s rushing numbers against the Chiefs — since the series renewed in 2004 — were 10.79 in 2013, 10.68 in 2012, 10.92 in 2011, 8.02 in 2010, 5.35 in 2009, 2.79 in 2008 (Lancaster ran a spread offense that season), 6.58 in 2007, 8.52 in 2006 (the Gales’ last 10-0 regular-season team), 3.69 in 2005 (a game in which both offenses struggled in a 7-0 Lancaster win) and 6.29 in 2004.
“The defense allowing 6.85 yards per game is a huge improvement from 2010-2013,” Waugh notes, “and in line with the ‘04 and ‘07 teams and just behind the ‘09 team when you remove the outliers from ’08, ’06 and ’05.”
And the Chiefs did an excellent job defending Lancaster’s patented double-inside-handoff play. Other than a big gain in the early stages, the Gales didn’t get nearly as many yards on that play as they had in previous seasons.
Logan coach Billy Burke credited defensive coordinator Pat Walsh for making stopping that play a point of emphasis during practice last week.
Unkind OT: Before the Chiefs moved into Logan Chieftain Stadium in the fall of 2008, they had an all-time 4-1 record in extra-session games.
However, the Chiefs have dropped their last four OT contests and all of them, ironically, have been played in their home facility over the past three-plus seasons: the aforementioned 40-34 loss to Warren, as well as a 24-21 setback to Portsmouth, both in 2011, and a 32-26 single-OT defeat at the hands of Columbus Northland in 2012.
Pickoff string snapped: Little’s fourth-quarter interception marked the first time a Logan passer had suffered a pickoff since the fourth quarter of the 2012 season finale at Warren — a streak of 43 consecutive quarters without an interception. The Chiefs did not throw a single interception in 2013 — an all-time first.
Slow start for SEOAL: Jackson’s 48-13 shellacking of county rival Wellston kept the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League from getting shut out on the opening week of play.
Both Logan and Portsmouth (a 41-40 loser at Lucasville Valley on Thursday) dropped high-scoring, one-point games. Gallipolis was blasted 52-0 by Athens and Ohio State-bound quarterback Joe Burrow, and Warren fell 41-22 to cross-river rival Parkersburg, W.Va.
All Logan records noted in this story were researched and compiled by LHS football historian Spencer Waugh.
It marked the eighth time in Logan football history in which the Chiefs and their opponent combined to score at least 80 points.
Ironically, however, 85 points isn’t even the Logan Chieftain Stadium scoring record.
That distinction, which goes to Athens and Dresden Tri-Valley, occurred just last fall when the Bulldogs outscored the Scotties 55-52 (107 total points) in a second-round Division III playoff game.
Even if that game hadn’t occurred, 85 points still wouldn’t have surpassed the seven-year-old stadium’s previous record of 86 points, set in St. Clairsville’s 59-27 Division IV playoff triumph over Piketon in 2012.
Little’s big numbers: Quarterback Lane Little knocked Patrick Angle out of the all-time top slot for passes attempted in a single game. Little’s 40 throws bested Angle’s all-time mark (38) set in the Chiefs’ 7-0, second-round playoff loss to Louisville in 2008.
Logan’s 42 overall passing attempts (including Dean Jordan’s halfback-option TD pass and a spiked pass to stop the clock) are a school record as well.
Little also became just the sixth Chieftain to throw four touchdown passes in a single game. Angle did it four times — the most recent being against Jackson in 2009 — while Jim Richardson (1937), Scott Gasser (1977), Keith Myers (1983) and Chad Zimmerman (1994) all accomplished the feat once.
However, the five total touchdown passes — again, including Jordan’s halfback-option toss — are a team single-game record.
In addition, Little’s passing yardage (306) was second only to Angle (324 against Pickerington North in 2008) for a single game, and his 24 completions rank behind only Angle in two games against Pickerington North (27 completions in 2009 and 26 in 2008).
All in the family: Chance Cox’s three TD receptions tied him for second on the all-time single-game list. The all-time Chieftain leader? Chance’s father, Eric, who was on the receiving end of all four of Zimmerman’s TD aerials in that 1994 game at River Valley.
More irony: Chance’s 147 receiving yards are tied for eighth all-time for a single game — tied with the 147 yards Eric had against Warren in 1994. Both are career-best marks.
Mason Mays (2009 against Lancaster) was the last Chieftain to haul in three touchdown passes in a single game.
After further review: Jordan’s third-quarter fumble return for a touchdown, originally thought to be 87 yards, was officially listed at 89 after the Logan coaching staff reviewed the game films on Saturday.
Either way, it’s a new LHS record. The previous record was an 82-yard scoop-and-score by Greg Poston against Hilliard way back in 1966.
Rush to judgment: While Logan allowed 487 rushing yards (the second-most ever given up to the Gales, runner-up to the record 518 allowed in last season’s game) on 71 attempts (the most rushing attempts ever by a Logan opponent), Logan football historian Spencer Waugh points out the numbers don’t compare badly to previous games against Lancaster.
The Gales averaged 6.85 yards per carry last Friday. By comparison, Lancaster’s rushing numbers against the Chiefs — since the series renewed in 2004 — were 10.79 in 2013, 10.68 in 2012, 10.92 in 2011, 8.02 in 2010, 5.35 in 2009, 2.79 in 2008 (Lancaster ran a spread offense that season), 6.58 in 2007, 8.52 in 2006 (the Gales’ last 10-0 regular-season team), 3.69 in 2005 (a game in which both offenses struggled in a 7-0 Lancaster win) and 6.29 in 2004.
“The defense allowing 6.85 yards per game is a huge improvement from 2010-2013,” Waugh notes, “and in line with the ‘04 and ‘07 teams and just behind the ‘09 team when you remove the outliers from ’08, ’06 and ’05.”
And the Chiefs did an excellent job defending Lancaster’s patented double-inside-handoff play. Other than a big gain in the early stages, the Gales didn’t get nearly as many yards on that play as they had in previous seasons.
Logan coach Billy Burke credited defensive coordinator Pat Walsh for making stopping that play a point of emphasis during practice last week.
Unkind OT: Before the Chiefs moved into Logan Chieftain Stadium in the fall of 2008, they had an all-time 4-1 record in extra-session games.
However, the Chiefs have dropped their last four OT contests and all of them, ironically, have been played in their home facility over the past three-plus seasons: the aforementioned 40-34 loss to Warren, as well as a 24-21 setback to Portsmouth, both in 2011, and a 32-26 single-OT defeat at the hands of Columbus Northland in 2012.
Pickoff string snapped: Little’s fourth-quarter interception marked the first time a Logan passer had suffered a pickoff since the fourth quarter of the 2012 season finale at Warren — a streak of 43 consecutive quarters without an interception. The Chiefs did not throw a single interception in 2013 — an all-time first.
Slow start for SEOAL: Jackson’s 48-13 shellacking of county rival Wellston kept the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League from getting shut out on the opening week of play.
Both Logan and Portsmouth (a 41-40 loser at Lucasville Valley on Thursday) dropped high-scoring, one-point games. Gallipolis was blasted 52-0 by Athens and Ohio State-bound quarterback Joe Burrow, and Warren fell 41-22 to cross-river rival Parkersburg, W.Va.
All Logan records noted in this story were researched and compiled by LHS football historian Spencer Waugh.
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