By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News Sports Editor

LOGAN — His-tor-ee.

Not only did the Logan Chieftains open their 2008 football season and brand-new Logan Chieftain Stadium in front of a huge crowd Friday night, but they did it in historic fashion over neighborhood rival and longtime nemesis Lancaster.

Friday night’s convincing 35-10 Logan triumph marked the first Chieftain victory over the Golden Gales in 17 games since 1945, not to mention their first win over a Lancaster football team in a game played in Hocking County since 1935.
And considering the Purple & White have made the post-season playoffs each of the last two seasons despite a season-opening loss to the Gales — Lancaster had won the first four matchups following renewal of the series, which had been dormant since 1957 — the sky could very well be the limit.

Logan coach Dale Amyx has often said he didn’t consider the series with Lancaster a rivalry because the Chieftains hadn’t broken through with a win.

Well, game on. Logan-Lancaster is officially a rivalry again.

“Coach (Rob) Carpenter said that to me after the game — ‘now it’s a rivalry’ — so I guess so,” Amyx said with a grin.

And he had every reason to be happy. With the exception of the opening drive — on which the Gales drove 66 yards on 10 plays but were held to a field goal — the Chieftains were in control.

In fact, limiting the Gales to just three points after geting pushed back on their heels for more than five minutes was just the pick-me-up the Chieftains needed in front of a loud, boisterous home crowd that was witnessing a Logan home game away from the Hilltop for the first time since 1924.

Following the Lancaster field goal and an exchange of punts — and aided by a 12-yard punt return by Mason Mays and a 15-yard Lancaster facemask penalty — it only took the Purple & White five plays and 46 yards to take the lead for good.

They did so using both the right arm and powerful, quick legs of junior quarterback Patrick Angle. His 20-yard keeper around right end set the tone for the drive, then three plays later he took a low snap from center out of shotgun formation and scrambled 15 yards for a first down at the Lancaster 6-yard line.

He then found Mays, his stepbrother and fellow junior, on a quick-in post pattern for a touchdown pass, giving Logan the lead with 1:45 left in the opening quarter.

Then, two plays later, came what might have been the game-breaker.

On the second play from scrimmage, junior Nathan Carpenter — son of the Lancaster head coach, who was playing in quarterback formation in place of regular starter Ryan Cheek, who didn’t dress due to an injury — had a quick pass over the middle tipped and then picked off by Logan linebacker Zach Adams.

Sprung by a crushing block from Clay Morgan, Adams went the distance — 29 yards — for six points. Logan led 14-3, getting touchdowns just 19 seconds apart.

Holding Lancaster to a field goal and then bouncing back on offense was huge, Amyx noted.

“That was big. To me, when I look back, I think (holding Lancaster to a field goal) might have been the difference in the whole football game… because if they scored there, how would we have reacted, and how would they have reacted? Our kids got a big lift off that… our kids were like ‘we stopped them’ and it gave our offense confidence.

“We put the hammer down on them right there,” he added, referring to Adams’ interception. “Obviously, the game wasn’t over, but from that point on — until that last touchdown (after Logan had built a comfortable 28-3 lead) — they barely even got a first down. That was a big lift for our kids defensively. You could see the confidence build in them as the game went along.”

Lancaster got four first downs and 66 yards of total offense on that field goal drive. After that, if you don’t count a 49-yard Carpenter touchdown pass with the outcome no longer in doubt, the swarming Logan defense held the Golden Gales to just 96 yards and eight more first downs.

It was an impressive performance by the Chieftains, particularly considering the quality of their foe as Logan won its season opener for the first time since beating New Lexington 13-12 back in 2001.

“(The Gales) changed their offense from last year and went to single-wing back, which I think makes it easier to read,” Amyx said. “We sold that to our kids… we had some things we put in to their motion and to where we thought they were going to be throwing the ball.

“I know it hurt them not having Cheek in there, but it allowed us to read better because we knew (Carpenter) was going to carry the ball a lot tonight. We really keyed on him all night,” he added. “Defensively I thought our kids really came out and played great, great football.”

Coach Carpenter knew his Gales would be in for a tough game for a lot of reasons.

“We were short-handed a bit, but not taking anything away from (the Chiefs),” Carpenter said. “It was a good effort and big doings here (at the new stadium) and it looks like we’ve got a rivalry going.

“We’re playing some new guys and really didn’t have a cohesive offense,” he added. “It’s been a week-and-a-half kind of deal. We just put the offense in for (Logan). We’ll get better. Logan’s a good team. Last year, after we beat them, they went out and won nine in a row, so maybe they’ll go undefeated this year and get a playoff game back here. That would be great.”

After a scoreless second quarter — Logan drove into Lancaster territory three times but came up empty, once on a fumble inside the Gale 25 — Lancaster opened the second half with some trickery and caught the Chiefs napping.

The Gales went for an onside kick and it appeared they had recovered but, after a long consultation, the officials gave the ball to the Chieftains.

“The official told me I should have told them about (the onside kick) because they weren’t ready for it,” Carpenter said wryly. “Okay, that’s a quote and something I’ll tell (OHSAA commissioner) Dan Ross because he’s sitting right up there (in the press box). But that’s the way football is.

“Dale has a good staff and their kids work hard,” he added. “I’m not happy for them, if you know what I mean, but that’s high school football. They were pumped and ready to go and we told our guys all summer these guys would be sky-high and pumped to the max, and they were.”

Logan senior defensive end Jon Neff, who put a huge amount of pressure on Nathan Carpenter all night, said the opening Lancaster drive helped the Chiefs understand what they needed to do defensively.

“It wasn’t so much a boost as we figured out what we needed to do on defense,” he said. “We finally started doing some stunts and creating some havoc, and we stuck with it.”

And the Chieftains were also playing with a mission… for someone who wasn’t there.

“We came out knowing we had to do this for Corey (Kissling, Logan’s all-Ohio linebacker of a year ago, who died tragically earlier this summer),” Neff said. “A lot of us had a true friendship with him on this team. We definitely felt his presence. We knew what we had to do and we got it done.

“It was about time (to beat Lancaster), and this was the place to do it,” he added.

After dodging the onside kickoff bullet, the Chiefs went on an eight-play, 68-yard scoring drive that spelled the beginning of the end for the Golden Gales.

Angle and Mays hooked up on a pair of 11-yard pass plays and Lancaster committed a huge 15-yard facemask penalty to keep the drive moving before Angle hit Zach McDaniel for a seven-yard touchdown pass with 8:49 to play.

Then, after forcing Lancaster to punt, a big 38-yard run on a keeper by Angle set the Chieftains up in scoring position at the Lancaster 11. From there, Angle hit Mays in the right flat, Mays quickly juked a Gale defender and made a move past a second, and went the distance to make it 28-3 with 2:20 left in the third period.

Nathan Carpenter and Jentzen Rohr hooked up on a fourth-and-one touchdown pass from the Logan 49-yard line with 9:03 left, but Logan put together a time-consuming drive that pretty much left the Gales short on the clock although they punted the ball away.

Michael Snider then picked off a Carpenter pass and returned it 20 yards to the Lancaster five-yard line, Morgan scored two plays later, and Ronnie Burcham followed with his fifth successful placement kick of the night.

“Our game plan was to put our skill kids out in space against their skill kids, and I think it worked,” Amyx revealed. “We have a lot of good kids and (offensive coordinator) Kelly (Wolfe) did a great job with the offensive game plan, like he has the last couple years. I’m really proud of what he’s doing. I would hate to have to defense us and come up with a scheme.”

“The two (offensive tackles) we brought in today, Tim King and Cary Maclaughlin, stepped up and the linemen did a great job,” Wolfe said. “The game plan tonight was to spread them out. We were going to make them chase us, get the ball to our kids out there and let them do what they can do. I think they showed that tonight.

“We knew we had a good (scouting) film… what they would do to a spread, and they did exactly what we were ready for them to do,” he added. “They played the defense we thought they were going to run against us, then we just reacted.”

The game plan was quite effective statistically as well. Logan wound up with 313 yards of total offense, including 218 on the ground as Angle gained 119 yards on 15 carries and Morgan added 61 yards on 16 attempts. Angle also threw for 95 yards, hitting Mays six times for 56 yards. Logan held Carpenter to 56 yards rushing.

“We didn’t play particularly well in our scrimmage (at Sheridan) last week, but we got hit hard and we needed that,” Amyx said. “I was a little worried about our confidence going into this game, especially if they had scored (a touchdown) on that first drive, but I think stopping them, scoring and then getting that pick and scoring again, our kids believe in themselves now.”

Any chance of a letdown next week at Pickerington North, guys?

“Absolutely not,” Amyx said. “These kids know me and we’re not going to let that happen. We’re going to practice even harder next week. I guarantee it.”

“It’s not going to happen,” Wolfe agreed. Pickerington North was “a good team last year and our offense had a difficult time against them last year… but I think our offense is a little different than last year.”

And there’s this note, which an emailer pointed out late Friday night while this game story was being written: the 35-10 final score adds up to 45… Corey Kissling’s uniform number.

Read More in the Logan Daily News.