By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News
LOGAN — Plenty of complimentary words — explosive, exciting and dominating, to name just a few — have been used to describe the Logan Chieftains this season.

Conservative, however, is not among them.

So when the Chiefs, leading visiting Jackson 14-0 with 2:44 to play in the first half Friday night at Logan Chieftain Stadium, took over possession at their own 16-yard line following an interception, running out the clock was the last thing on their collective minds.
On the very first play, quarterback Patrick Angle aired out a bomb from near his own goal line. Speedy receiver Mason Mays made a tremendous lunging catch well beyond midfield and was tripped up at the Jackson 32 following a 52-yard gain, and more damage would soon be done.

Five plays later, Angle hooked up with Michael Snider on an 8-yard touchdown pass for a 20-0 halftime lead, and it all but put the Ironmen away as the Purple & White went on to register a 27-7 victory to clinch no worse than a tie for their sixth-consecutive Southeastern Ohio Athletic League football championship.

The unbeaten and state-ranked Chiefs (9-0 overall, 4-0 SEOAL) go for the outright title and the seventh undefeated regular season in school history next Friday when they host 1-8 Chillicothe in their regular-season finale.

Logan also clinched both a Division II Region 7 playoff berth and a first-round home game with Friday’s quality win over a much-improved Jackson squad (7-2, 4-2), which was playing for a share of the league title and some important computer ratings points of its own in a quest for a Division III Region 12 playoff berth.

“Oh, we’re going two-minute drill. Absolutely,” said Logan coach Dale Amyx of the game-breaking drive. “We practice that. We’ve got the quarterback and the receivers to do it, and the line was protecting well all night. This is a championship game, and we’re not holding back.

“We’re not playing conservative… and we haven’t all year. Sometimes to a fault, maybe,” he continued with a laugh, “but that’s our thing. That’s what we do.”

The Chiefs sure do that voodoo that they do so well.

Jackson, under first-year coach Andy Hall, gave the Chiefs as tough of a game as just about anyone all season.

“At times I thought (the score) was closer than it looked,” Hall said. “At halftime we’re down 20-0 (because) we didn’t make any plays the first half.”

Angle, who threw four touchdown passes to four different receivers — the fourth time in his career (and third time this season) he’s thrown a school-record-tying four TD passes in a single game — made a huge defensive play to set up the big score late in the second period. His spectacular interception of a Kruize Wandling pass cut short a promising Jackson drive.

“That was critical,” Hall said. “We were moving the ball down the field and had a kid open and (Angle) came over the top and made a great interception, and then they score. (It could have been) 14-0 at halftime, maybe 14-7 if we punch that in. It’s a whole different ballgame from 14-7 to 20-0.”

And it’s hard to rally from a 20-point deficit against the Chiefs. One team (Pickerington North) came back from a 21-point hole in the second week of the season, but the Chiefs survived 24-21 on Derek Montgomery’s field goal with seven seconds remaining.

“And then to come out and score on the opening drive of the second half was big, too,” Amyx noted. “I thought if we could score early in the second half we could bust the thing wide open.”

And that’s what happened.

A 10-yard run by Angle helped Logan survive a fourth-and-one on the drive to open the second half. Then, moments later, they faced fourth-and-five from the Jackson 26 when Angle hit senior Jordan Rutter with a medium-range pass on the right sideline.

But Rutter wanted more than a first down. He broke free from a would-be tackler, eluded a couple others, and scampered into the end zone with 8:07 left in the third period for a commanding 27-0 Chieftain lead.

“That’s a great football team. They’re ranked (third) in the state for a reason,” Hall said of the Chiefs. “But our kids didn’t quit. They played hard. We just didn’t make any plays in the first half, and that’s one thing against a good football team. You’ve got to make plays. You’ve got to do things that, when it’s your time, you’ve got to make that play. We really didn’t make that one play on either side of the ball that really could turn things around.”

Whereas Logan came up with those big plays, the Ironmen were unable to do so other than a terrific 55-yard bomb from Wandling to Kip Winchester for Jackson’s lone touchdown early in the fourth period. However, they were oh-so-close a couple times.

“It was just inches (from making a couple big plays). But this game is played with just inches,” Hall noted. “We had a couple guys open and we just missed them. We’d just miss one block, or something minute here or there.

“But against good football teams,” he added, “that minute stuff can get you beat.”

The Chieftain offense was crisp at the outset, marching to touchdowns on their first two possessions of the game to put Jackson in a 14-0 hole early in the second stanza.

Angle had a 27-yard scramble and a 13-yard run off an option play on which Jackson’s defense forced the Logan quarterback to completely change course and reverse his field, to help set up the first touchdown.

Angle then connected with senior Zach McDaniel over the middle, and the Chiefs’ leading receiver made a couple would-be tacklers miss en route to a 15-yard scoring play.

Then, on the next series, Rutter made a slick tightrope-like 20-yard reception along the Chieftain sidelines and also caught an 11-yard pass to keep the drive alive. A 16-yard keeper by Angle on fourth down drove the ball to the Jackson 10, from where Angle hit Mays with a strike directly under the goal post in the back of the end zone.

“We’ve been on them all week that we need to start fast, especially in this next stretch of games where you can’t have a slow start,” Amyx revealed. “You get behind here in a couple weeks and you may not get back into (the game). We’re really stressing getting off to a fast start offensively and playing lights-out defensively. I thought the kids did that for the most part all night.”

Other than Angle’s interception of Wandling’s long pass, the Jackson offense didn’t cross midfield until late in the third quarter.

Amyx noted Jackson did an excellent job mixing up its plays and it took the Chiefs awhile to adjust defensively. But save for the long touchdown pass, the Purple & White kept the Ironmen from making big plays and otherwise off the scoreboard.

“They had us a little off-balance on the first drive,” Amyx said of Jackson’s first two plays from scrimmage, on which the Ironmen chalked first downs. “Once we got things figured out we got them stopped. They didn’t run anything we hadn’t seen.

“I thought the kids did a good job all week with their preparation, and that’s something these kids have done well all year,” he added. “They’re real similar to last year’s team where they pay attention to the film work, the mental work, the stuff we put on the board… they know it come Friday night. Unless they throw in a new wrinkle, those (Logan) kids are out there calling the other team’s plays… and it takes a lot of time to put that kind of mental work in.

“A lot of kids aren’t willing to do that — but these kids are, because I think they’ve inherited that from last year’s team, who inherited it from the year before. They know the mental part is just as big as the physical part.”

Amyx also had high praise for the Ironmen.

“You have to give them credit. They played hard, they sacked us a few times, and they did a real nice job coming out and mixing up their formations,” lauded Logan’s 20th-year head coach. “When you were thinking they were going to run they would pass. They did a good job with that.

“It was a little bit of a chess game to match their personnel and our personnel,” he added. Hall “is a good coach. He has good athletes now, and as he gets better athletes I think you’re going to see Jackson stay on the rise. I saw a big change in them (since last) year.”

“It was a tough loss for our kids,” Hall admitted. “We probably had the best week of practice we’ve had all year. The kids really believed in what we were trying to do, and they played hard. These guys never quit, they’ve never quit all year, even in the two losses (Jackson also lost to Ironton last week) we’ve had against very, very good football teams. We’re not getting blown out or beat up. We hang in there and keep fighting.

“We came in with confidence, we weren’t intimidated, and we weren’t fearing these guys whatsoever,” Hall continued. “Coach Amyx does a great job with this team. Our kids stepped up in the second half, but if we just would have made one or two of those plays, it’s a whole different ballgame.

“We came out in the second half and I thought we played better defensively, and on offense we made a few plays. The touchdown throw to Kip Winchester was a great play. We had some bright spots tonight.”

Angle was once again the Chiefs’ bright spot. He now has 21 touchdown passes on the season to go along with 1,937 passing yards, he led the team in rushing (59 yards), and he was a nearly-perfect 18-of-20 passing for 250 yards before injuring his throwing hand late in the third period.

Not to worry, Logan fans.

“He got hit on the hand. It’s like a contusion. It’s not broken or anything,” Amyx revealed. “He could squeeze the ball. He’ll need to ice it.”

Angle came back in on the Chieftains’ next-to-last offensive series solely to handle the ball and to hand it off, a pair of tasks made all the more difficult by a driving rain. He did fine.

While there was some celebration in the locker room afterward, Amyx and his coaching staff reminded their charges they still have unfinished business.

The Chiefs need to beat Chillicothe next Friday for a 10-0 record, an outright SEOAL title, a league record-tying 34 straight SEOAL victories, a school record-tying 29-straight regular season wins, and to solidify their playoff standing.

“We’re excited about this. We’ve talked about clinching a share (of the SEOAL title) all week, and to be 9-0, but we don’t want to share (the championship) with anybody,” Amyx said. “We want to win it outright. Our big goal all year is to be 10-0. That’s important to these kids, and to win an outright league championship and go into the playoffs on a high note. That’s big for us.”

No doubt Chieftain Nation fans will be checking online all weekend for updates to see if the Chiefs have indeed officially clinched an unprecedented fourth-straight playoff berth and their third-straight opening-round home game.

Which they have, rest assured.

“I’m sure it will say ‘controls own destiny,’ but it would be nice to see ‘clinched home game (which it does),’ ” Amyx said. “But we don’t want to get all fat and happy. We want that (Chillicothe) game next week.

“The biggest thing is the outright league championship. Everything else is secondary,” he added. “That’s your number-one goal… you want to be league champions. That’s something we’ve instilled into these kids, and they’ve inherited it from the class before them and the class before them.

“Streaks aside, the (SEOAL) championship is what we want to win.”