By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News

LANCASTER — Neither Nathan Carpenter nor Mother Nature could keep the Logan Chieftains from their appointed football rounds Friday night.

Yes, Carpenter rushed for 182 yards and, yes, a bolt of lightning forced a 47-minute weather delay during the third quarter of Friday’s season opener between the Chiefs and Golden Gales at Lancaster High School’s Fulton Field.

But in the end, it didn’t matter. The talented, veteran Logan offense came through as expected and a young defense stepped up and set the tone for a convincing 33-14 Chieftain victory.
The Logan defensive line forced a Lancaster fumble on the very first play from scrimmage and the Chiefs capitalized, with Patrick Angle scoring on a 5-yard run a couple minutes later, to take command.

“My big concern coming in here was our defense,” said Logan coach Dale Amyx. “I thought our defense really stood up tall tonight. Look at the beginning of the game, forcing that turnover and setting up our first score.

“They’re a strong, football team and (Carpenter) is a really hard runner,” he added, “but I’m happy with the way we played on both sides of the ball.”

He should be.

A large crowd filled Fulton Field and a state-wide television audience on the Ohio News Network got a chance (on tape delay) to see Angle team up with step-brother Mason Mays on three touchdown passes as the Purple & White made it two straight victories over their backyard rivals from up U.S. Route 33.

Coupled with last season’s 35-10 season-opening and Logan Chieftain Stadium-christening victory, it’s just the second time the Purple & White have posted back-to-back wins over the Golden Gales in school history.

Logan defeated Lancaster in 1934 and 1935 — more than 70 years ago — and has never beaten the Gales three consecutive times.

Friday night, Angle was 16-of-31 passing for 252 yards, with Mays catching six aerials for 129 yards, as the Chiefs took advantage of a Lancaster team that simply made too many mistakes.

The Gales had nine penalties for 95 yards, including a couple major personal-foul infractions. They had two bad snaps from center on special teams, resulting in a botched extra-point attempt and a safety on a punt. And last but not least, the Gales had three turnovers, including the aforementioned fumble just 16 seconds into the game on their own 27-yard line.

And Lancaster coach Rob Carpenter let his Gales know how dissatisfied he was with them. As the Chiefs left the field to celebrate their victory, Carpenter lined his entire team up on the goal line and made them run sprints.

He had no comments to make after the game.

“Our offense, most of the time, performed like we expect it to,” Amyx said. “I think people are going to see that it’s going to be a formidable task to stop us. If we can get the defense caught up with them, which I think we’re starting to do, the pieces of the puzzle hopefully are starting to come together.

“This is a way of getting some big confidence, especially for those young kids along the line and some of those kids like Mason who are out of position playing linebacker where he’s always been a corner,” he added.

Lancaster finished with 273 yards on the ground, but considering Carpenter may very well be the best offensive back (and sheer athlete) they face during the regular season, that’s not too bad.

The son of the Lancaster head coach broke a few long runs, including a 53-yard touchdown jaunt in the second quarter… but to the Chiefs’ credit, they shrugged it off.

With 5:18 left in the second period, Angle went deep for Mays, who made a nifty over-the-shoulder catch, then juked his way past a couple Lancaster defenders to complete a 64-yard scoring play and a 14-0 Chieftain lead.

Lancaster bounced back just 20 seconds later, however, when Carpenter took the ball on the latter end of a double-handoff, found a hole and rambled the aforementioned 53 yards to paydirt. The Gales messed up the PAT snap, however, and trailed 14-6.

“That’s a play we worked on all week (defensively),” Amyx noted. “It’s a play they killed us with a couple years ago. That’s their number one play. We stopped them on it the majority of the night, but they did get some big runs on it.

“It’s a tough offense to read, that wing-T,” he added. “There’s so much to it, and this was a tough test to start off. If we can stop these guys (defensively), there are a lot of teams on our schedule we can stop.”

Lancaster then forced a Logan punt, but the Chiefs did likewise and called a couple time-outs to get the ball back with time to score. They took over on their own 29 with 1:37 left in the half.

Running their two-minute offense, Angle scrambled to avoid a sack and hit Zach McDaniel with a medium-range pass that the senior end turned into a huge 34-yard gain and a first down. Angle then connected with Ryan Sigler (13 yards) and Jordan Rutter (10) to get inside the Gale 15 with less than a minute remaining.

A bit later, with 32.6 seconds remaining, Angle hit Mays on a crossing pattern and Mays broke the plane of the goal line to complete a 19-yard scoring play before having the ball knocked loose.

The officials ruled touchdown (and TV replays appeared to show they were correct) and the Chiefs took a 21-6 halftime lead.

“Lancaster was throwing 3-4, 4-3 (defenses), blitzing off the corner, up the middle, and our guys were communicating well and were able to get passes away,” said assistant coach and offensive coordinator Kelly Wolfe. “We came out in the two-minute no-huddle, and for two weeks in a row (including last week’s OHSAA preview game against Sheridan) we go no-huddle and we completely slow the defense down.

“It wasn’t the effect I was expecting, but it happened two weeks in a row and that was a key,” he added. “When we answered with that score, you could see Lancaster was hanging their heads a little bit.”

They were hanging lower still when, on fourth-and-6 from their own 37, the snap from center sailed over punter/quarterback Nolan Flowers’ head, and eventually found its way out of the end zone for a safety with 5:26 left in the third stanza.

Within seconds, a bolt of lightning appeared in the sky north of the stadium and, after the officials conferred, they sent both teams to their respective locker rooms at 9:30 p.m. The game didn’t resume until 10:17.

Must be something about playing football in Fairfield County — the Chiefs dealt with a two-hour weather delay last season at Pickerington North, though this delay didn’t bring a drop of rain. However, it’s an OHSAA rule that officials must halt play for 30 minutes upon seeing a flash of lighting and 30 minutes from each flash afterward.

“I knew one thing… I wasn’t going to let the kids do in the locker room what they did last year,” Amyx revealed, “but that was a lot longer break, too. I told them we’re going to stay focused, and we did. I said whoever comes out of the break mentally ready to play the game was going to have the advantage. And we had the momentum with the safety kick.”

And they scored just two plays after the ensuing free kick. McDaniel returned it to the Lancaster 33, then took a pass from Angle for 20 yards to the 13, before Angle and Mays covered the rest of that yardage with a hookup down the left sideline. Mays again faked a Lancaster defender and scored standing up to give Logan a commanding 30-6 lead.

Carpenter scored on a 1-yard run with 7:52 remaining to cap a 14-play, 38-yard scoring drive, but it was too little, too late.

Logan junior Derek Montgomery, who was a perfect 4-for-4 on extra-point kicks, capped off the scoring by drilling a 34-yard field goal — which would have been good from about 20 yards further out if necessary — with 4:12 remaining.

“There were some times where we kind of let down a little bit emotionally and intensity-wise, and those were the times they got big plays on us,” Amyx said, “but I think when we were ready for (the Gales’ wing-T), we stopped it.”

“We had a lot of different looks tonight and I was very very pleased with our guys up front,” Wolfe praised. “Lancaster in the first half was throwing a ton of stuff at our guys up front. With running our (offense) the way we do, our guys had to communicate well. I’m going to grade our offensive linemen pretty high because they had a lot of pressure put on them.”

There was one cause for concern as senior lineman Ralph Robinson was taken off the field in the fourth quarter with an injury. Amyx wasn’t sure of the extent of the injury, but said it appeared to at least be a major contusion.

But the Chiefs otherwise left Fulton Field in a great mood — and with a win in Amyx’s 200th game as Chieftain head coach.

Well, some players didn’t want to leave at all.

“I’m so happy right now I don’t want to leave,” grinned senior center Bobby Russell. “We played our game tonight and played to our full potential. I think the key was spreading the field. (The Gales) were dead (tired) on the field.”

“To win on their field, and to beat them two years in a row… I’m very happy and pleased,” Amyx said. “But we still have a lot of work to do. I see the potential of this team — I think everybody does tonight — of what this team can do if we stay focused and take them one game at a time.”

Logan hosts Pickerington North next Friday at Logan Chieftain Stadium. The Panthers’ game with Dublin Scioto was suspended Friday night due to weather and will be resumed today.