By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News

LOGAN — Friday marks the Logan Chieftains’ first Southeastern Ohio Athletic League game of the season… and the first time putting their 29-game conference winning streak on the line.

The streak is second all-time behind — you guessed it — Ironton. The Fighting Tigers hold the all-time record of 34, set from 1972 to 1976, and you can bet they would love nothing more than to be the team that ends a string the Chiefs began back in 2004.

Ironton began conference play two weeks ago by beating Gallipolis 39-6, earning what was the 2,000th football victory in the history of the conference, before losing a non-league game last week at Ashland Ky.
Injury report: The Chiefs appear to be getting healthy at just the right time. Patrick Angle, Mason Mays, Zach McDaniel and Ralph Robinson, among others, have been nursing various injuries in recent weeks, but as the season reaches its midway point the situation looks better.

“I was getting worried about that early on. We’ve got two really tough games this week and next week (home against Zanesville), and we’re going to need everybody healthy,” said Logan coach Dale Amyx said.

Speaking of injuries, Gallipolis was missing four offensive starters (including two quarterbacks) last Friday night, and those hurts also depleted the junior varsity team, carrying over into the cancellation of a reserve game that had been scheduled for Monday night.

Lutz nears record: Ironton coach Bob Lutz, in his 40th overall season as a head coach, is just three wins shy of the state record for coaching victories.

Currently 357-81-5 for his career, he is 337-73-4 at Ironton and was 20-8-1 at Ironton St. Joseph, where he won two Ohio Valley Conference titles and finished second the other season.

One of his assistant coaches in 1971 was none other than Ironton St. Joseph graduate Steve Stirn, the current superintendent of the Logan-Hocking School District, who followed Lutz as head coach at St. Joseph and went 0-10.

The state record for victories is 360 by Terry Malone, former long-time coach at Hamilton Badin, who who has been retired for several years. The two coaching giants met twice: each time

Ironton won (21-6 in 1979 and 14-13 in 1980), and each time Ironton went on to win a state title.

Down the road: Friday’s game at Ironton brings to an end a three-game road swing for the Chiefs. Thus, after playing four of their first five games on the road, the Purple & White finish the season by facing four of their last five foes in Logan Chieftain Stadium, where they are 7-0 since it opened last August… the Chiefs’ six remaining foes are currently a combined 17-7 on the season, including three teams (Zanesville, Warren and Jackson) who are 4-0. Looking at the schedule, it’s very possible all three teams could be 5-0 at week’s end: Zanesville hosts 0-4 Lisbon Beaver Local, Warren entertains 2-1 Point Pleasant, W.Va., and 0-4 Gallipolis visits Jackson. Keep in mind, however, that Jackson-Gallipolis is a huge rivalry game (similar to Ironton-Ashland), and the Ironmen have traditionally struggled against Gallia Academy. The Blue Devils have beaten the Ironmen 10 of the last 11 times they’ve played, with Jackson winning a home game two years ago. GAHS won the previous nine matchups.

Jim Walker of The Ironton Tribune and Paul Boggs of The Jackson County Times Journal contributed to this report.