By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News

LOGAN — It was both an understatement and a pretty good analogy.

“Defensively, we're pretty good. We can hold water back with our defense,” Jonathan Alder coach Steve Coate said after his Pioneers shut out the Logan Chieftains 42-0 Friday night in Logan Chieftain Stadium.

Pretty good? Probably the best defense the Chiefs have seen in several years.
“They're a great football team. Their defense is everything it was advertised to be,” said Logan coach Kelly Wolfe, whose Chieftain offense was on the opposite end of that JA defense, which has only allowed 49 points all season and has now won five games via shutout.

“They're well-coached and they understand the game,” he continued. “They make their reads and they fly to the ball. It didn't matter if we faked or what we did; they read their keys and they reacted.”

Jonathan Alder (8-0) showed why it's ranked fourth in this week's state Associated Press Division III poll as Coate made a triumphant return to his old stomping grounds.

Coate was Logan’s head coach from 1982 to 1984, compiling an 11-18-1 record in his three years at the helm of the Purple & White. He’s had much more success at Jonathan Alder, including last night.

However, the undefeated Pioneers got a little more than they bargained for in the first half from a beleaguered Logan defense that entered the game allowing more than 34 points per game, managing just four first downs and 138 total yards. They led led just 14-0 at the intermission.

But Jonathan Alder’s defense was more than up to the task against the Logan offense, limiting the Chieftains (1-7) to just 78 first-half yards and 125 for the game.

And with placekicker Nick Smith booming kickoff after kickoff into the end zone, the Chiefs found themselves starting from the 20-yard line nearly all night. They were never able to win the game of field position, only starting a drive outside the 20 once.

Logan really only had one good scoring chance all night, but it occurred while the score was still close.

Jonathan Alder took the lead to stay midway through the opening period when quarterback Nate Squires found a wide-open Alex Randall on a post pattern for 33 yards and a touchdown.

After an exchange of punts, the Purple & White took over at their own 34 and worked their way to the Jonathan Alder 35, thanks to converting a fourth-and-1 situation when Josh Fridley took a fake-punt direct snap three yards for a first down.

However, Alder's Luke Foster tackled the Chiefs' Cory McCarty on fourth-and-two to thwart the effort, and the Pioneers then set out on getting a score of their own.

The Pioneers had a long touchdown run by Nick Wrightsell called back on a penalty. He got credit for 44 yards deep into Logan territory as the Pioneers were called for a block in the back behind the play.

But the Pioneers simply shrugged it off and punched it in on a seven-play, 63-yard drive, with Wrightsell doing the honors on a 5-yard run with 4:34 left in the half.

“At halftime it was 14-0. I was proud of our kids,” Wolfe said. “Last week (Jonathan Alder's) game (with Washington Court House) was 42-0 at halftime. Obviously the game got out of hand at the end, but it was 14-0 at halftime and I was excited and our kids were excited.

“We hung with one of the best teams in the state,” he added, “but you have to make plays. We needed a couple big things to happen, and it didn't. We didn't make plays.”

And the Pioneers then broke the game open in the second half.

The Chiefs defense, which played so well in the first half, stopped a Jonathan Alder series deep in Logan territory when Paul Wesselhoeft and Jordan Sharb threw Derritt Potts for losses of 12 and eight yards on back-to-back plays.

But, moments later, a 30-yard run by Potts put the Pioneers into position for Tyler Parker to score on a 4-yard run with 5:54 left in the third period. Then, less than three minutes later, 37-yard pass from Squires to Randall led to a 2-yard Squires scoring run and a 28-0 edge.

The Chiefs lost Wesselhoeft, their nose guard, to a leg injury late in the third quarter. He never returned and was on crutches during the Chiefs' post-game huddle.

The Pioneers got a 22-yard TD pass from Squires to Randall less than two minutes into the final quarter, then less than two minutes later Foster picked off a pass and bulled his was 35 yards to paydirt to round out the scoring.

Coate wasn't surprised the Chiefs came out and played so well on defense.

“I saw a pretty good (Logan) team on film,” Coate said of his former team. “They have good strength, they play hard and they're well-coached.

“We also caused some of our problems with our penalties and failed to convert some situations and didn't convert some third downs,” he added. “We lost some of our composure with the penalties, but we got (composure) back.”

The Chiefs' came up with a game plan of trying to drill the ball up the middle, where they felt they had found about the only weakness in the Jonathan Alder defense.

“Watching them on film, we felt like they were weak inside,” Wolfe said. “Not their middle linebacker (Foster). He's a stud. We felt they were weak at nose guard. We saw him get pushed back by two or three teams. So that's why we came out with a brand-new formation for this week... we felt if we lined up and got a push, and (kept giving) the ball to Cory and get four yards, four yards and four yards, we could keep their offense off the field. That was our plan.

“We told Cory he may have 55 carries,” he added, “and if he gets tired we'd put (Nick) Maniskas in there and do the same thing.”

At times it worked, but the Chiefs either hurt themselves with penalties or fumbling the snap... or the JA defense simply buckled down and swarmed whoever had the ball.

“I didn't have any more plays to call,” Wolfe said. “I ran everything we put in this week against them and ran all of our base stuff. I called everything we've got — and they stuffed everything we had.”

Logan was shut out for the first time since losing 7-0 to Louisville in the 2008 Division II regional semifinals. However, the Chieftain defense played much better than allowing 42 points (actually 35, not counting the Pioneers' pick-six in the fourth period) would indicate.

“Their running back (Potts) had us scared to death,” Wolfe said. “He's fast as lightning. But he didn't hurt us. (Wrightsell) hurt us, and that's what they bring to the table. They have three or four guys. I thought our kids did a good job containing (Potts).

“We made them work for everything,” he added. “I know they had a tougher game tonight than they had the last couple weeks. And Jordan Sharb had his best game of the year tonight at middle linebacker.”

They say you can't go home again... but that wasn't the case for Coate or his wife, Jamie, a Logan High School graduate.

“It's like I said the other day; I knew I had to keep the team focused on the game,” Coate said, “but walking in here and seeing Keith (Myers, his quarterback at Logan), Ron (Janey, an assistant coach on his Logan staff) there to meet us, and seeing (former players) D.J. Conrad and Scott Whalen and just guy after guy, it was pretty special. It was special for us (he and his wife) to come back.”

And he knows his former running back is dealing with some tough times in the shoes he once filled as head coach of the Chieftains.

“I know it's eating at Kelly. I've been there,” Coate said. “You just have to keep plugging away and do the right things.”

The Chiefs have two games remaining — next Friday at home against Portsmouth and the following Friday at Chillicothe — and they still have a lot left to play for.

With Chillicothe pulling off a 15-13 upset last night at Warren, the Chiefs find themselves in a position where they have a legitimate chance to finish second in the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League by winning out.

“I told (the players) I felt like we're making some strides as a football team,” Wolfe said. “We need to finish 2-0 to show we have made some strides as a program and as a team, because I think we have.”