By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News Sports Editor

ZANESVILLE — Many high school football pundits expect the Louisville Leopards to win the state Division II championship.
            But to do so, the Leps still have to vanquish three opponents... and you can bet your bottom dollar any and all future Louisville foes will line up get their hands on a video of Friday night's regional semifinal game against the Logan Chieftains.
            That's because the Logan defense, which has been outstanding all season, was stellar Friday night. The Chiefs held the high-octane Leopard offense to a scant four first downs — including just one in the second half — and under 200 yards of total offense.
            However, because the Louisville defense proved equal to the task by forcing seven Logan turnovers and put far more pressure on Logan quarterback Patrick Angle than he or his teammates had seen all season, it all came down to which team would make a big play.
            That team would be Louisville.
            The Leopards made a 74-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Neal Seaman to end Brandon Mathie early in the second quarter stand up for a harrowing 7-0 victory before a crowd of over 6,000 fans at Zanesville High School's Sulsberger Stadium.
            Louisville (12-0), a state finalist last season, gets a regional final rematch with Columbus DeSales (12-0) next Friday night back at Sulsberger Stadium in a meeting of the top two teams both in Region 7 and in the state. DeSales finished first and Louisville second in the final Associated Press poll of the regular season.
            Meanwhile, the Chiefs saw one of the most successful seasons in school history come to an end at 11-1.
            “The big difference was their defensive line against our offensive line — we couldn't do anything all night,” said Logan coach Dale Amyx. “We couldn't run the ball, and when they came after us we couldn't stop them.”
            That was the Leopards' game plan, according to their head coach.
            “Our number-one goal was to take their running game away and make them a complete passing team — which is what we did in the second half — then we pinned our ears back and tried to send more (defenders) than they could block,” Louisville coach Paul Farrah stated. “I don't think they've seen a defense as quick as ours, and that was the difference.”
            And so it was. For the first time in several years, the Chiefs were held to negative rushing yardage (-13) and, as Farrah said, had to depend totally upon their spread offense and their defense.
            Angle was rushed, harried and harassed all night long. Not only did the Leopards sack Angle five times (for 47 yards' worth of losses), but 14 Logan plays went for negative yardage, 20 others were incomplete passes, and Louisville intercepted five Logan aerials.
            The Leopards threw Angle for a 15-yard loss on the Chiefs' very first play from scrimmage to set the tone on a rainy, wind-swept night at Sulsberger Stadium. Logan never crossed midfield until the final minute of the third quarter.
            Meanwhile, with the exception of one fateful play, the Chiefs bottled up Seaman and his excellent corps of receivers all night.
            Facing third-and-four from his own 26-yard line, Seaman went deep down the right sideline for Mathie. A Logan defender bit on the play and tried to get back but couldn't, and Mathie made the catch in stride and went the distance with 9:59 left in the second quarter.
            That play resulted, statistically, the Leopards' second first down of the game. They would earn no more the rest of the night; their last two came as the result of Logan penalties. That's how good the Logan defense was Friday night... with or without downpours and wind gusts.
            “It came down to one play,” Amyx said. “We're in man coverage all night — it's what we've done all year. You live by it and you die by it. (Mathie) got a step on (the Logan defender).”
            Still, even at that, no one expected a 7-0 game.
            “I really thought we could score,” Amyx said. “I didn't think we could stop them, but maybe slow them down. I don't know how much the weather had an effect, but our kids just played lights out.
            “Our philosophy was to be aggressive and I think that helped us all night long,” he added. “With man coverage, you're playing with a double-edged sword... eventually, if you don't play smart, something's going to bite you and it happened on that one play.”
            “We ran a stop-and-go and hit (Mathie) on it,” Farrah revealed. “We run the stop to Brandon a lot, and if we see the corners are going to be nosy, we're going to try to pump and go... and if (Mathie) is not open (Seaman) is taught to throw it out of bounds.
            “The wind and the weather was tough for both teams,” he added, “but it's like I tell the kids, when we play in this weather it's like playing on Thanksgiving with your family at home.”
            There was method to the Chiefs' defensive madness, and to be sure it's what future Louisville foes will want to copy.
            “Other than stay in our man coverage — which is something we always do — we sent a lot of people,” he said. “We put in a couple fronts we haven't ran all year... we ran a 6-1 (front) and we crossed both inside tackles, and that gave them trouble all night. A lot of crosses up front, a lot of blitzes, and we tried to mix it up as much as we could.”
            It worked. After scoring their touchdown, the Leopards missed a 34-yard field goal attempt on their next series after picking off an Angle pass — Logan's Seth Sigler deflected the kick — and came up empty on their last 10 possessions of the night.
            Not that Louisville didn't have some chances. Twice the Leopards dropped a potential touchdown pass — once in the end zone, and once when a wide-open receiver bobbled, and then dropped, a fourth-quarter bomb well behind the Logan defensive secondary — and one other time the Chiefs got a fingernail on a pass into the end zone that threw the receiver off just enough to drop it.
            The Chiefs came up empty on all 15 of their offensive possessions on the night and had few good scoring chances.
            Jon Neff took a catch-and-run from Angle in the waning seconds of the third period 41 yards to the Louisville 38-yard line — marking the Chiefs' first penetration into Louisville territory — before a sack ultimately ended the threat.
            When Mason Mays returned a Louisville punt 22 yards to the Louisville 37 midway through the final period, the Chiefs began their best drive of the night.
            Angle hit Zach McDaniel for a 16-yard gain before three-straight passes fell incomplete, the last a deep ball that Bobby Swigart batted away from Mays deep in the corner of the end zone.
            But on fourth-and-10, Angle hit Jaushua Huntsberger on the right side and the senior made a nice catch before being brought down at the Louisville 9.
            However, on the ensuing play, Angle's pass over the middle was picked off by Swigart at the goal line to end the threat. Swigart and Mathie both picked off two passes on the evening, and this one was a killer.
            After forcing Louisville to punt — the Leopards did manage their only first down of the second half when Logan jumped offside as Louisville was preparing to punt on fourth-and-five — the Chiefs took over with 3:27 to play. Two plays lost nine yards, then the Chiefs called a timeout to set up a gadget play but Swigart picked off a long option pass by Neff at midfield.
            Louisville still couldn't seal the deal with a first down and the Chieftain defense forced Mathie to punt. His ninth kick of the night rolled dead at the Logan 12 with 40 seconds remaining.
            The Chiefs made the Leopards squirm. Out of timeouts, they went with short sideline passes to Huntsberger, who caught three balls as Logan worked its way to its own 36-yard line, then Angle threw a ball over the middle that Neff somehow juggled and caught and turned it into a 26-yard gain to the Louisville 38.
            Angle spiked the ball to stop the clock with 4.4 seconds to play, then his last-second desperation pass was knocked down by a Louisville defensive back inside the 10-yard line.
            “They have a great football team,” Farrah praised of the Chieftains. “We were able to get to the quarterback, hurry him and pick them off five times, and that was the difference in the game.”
            For a team averaging 38 points per game, seven was enough on this rainy night.
            “Our kids made plays,” Farrah said. “We didn't make the plays on offense, so we might as well do it on the defense, and our kids did.
            “It's like I said last week: (the Chiefs are) a mirror image of us — they're quick, they're fast, they have great skill (and) their quarterback is really a super football player. We knew that coming in and that this was going to be a hard matchup for us,” he added. “We respect everybody, but we don't fear anybody. This was a great game.”
            Amyx agreed.
            “It was a great football game between two great football teams,” he said, “and I can see them going on to win (the state title). I'm very proud of the way our kids played on defense — I think we shut them down better than anybody who played them, but offensively we really couldn't get anything going.
            “The story of the game was their defensive line against our offensive line,” Amyx added. “Their defensive line was more athletic than our offensive line, more physical. When they wanted to get to the quarterback they pretty much did. We had guys open many times tonight but their pressure was just too much.”
            Angle still finished 19-of-38 passing for 194 yards, with Huntsberger catching six balls for 48 yards to lead the way. Meanwhile, take away Louisville's touchdown play, the Leopards managed just 116 yards of total offense. Seaman was just 6-of-20 passing for 123 yards — 49 without that big play.
            Problem is, that big play counts.
            “To hold a team like that to seven points...,” Amyx said, his words trailing off. “I at least would have liked to have gotten to overtime and see what would have happened.
            “I think we were playing behind the (field position) eight-ball all night long,” he continued. “In the second half, we finally got ahead of it a little bit and got that one drive going. All year long we've taken advantage of that and scored, but this time we didn't. Obviously we hadn't played a defense like that, either, and I have to say that's one great defense.
            “They're probably saying the same thing, but they had that one big play.”
            “If Louisville is a state-championship football team,” Amyx was asked, “what does that make the Chieftains?”
            The 19-year Chieftain head coach thought about that for a moment.
            “I think you'll see this (Louisville) team go on and win (the state title) — and there's no doubt in my mind we could have, too,” he said. “Had we gotten by these guys, I think we could have, and I think the kids believe that. Hopefully that's something to build for the future... they know they can play with a team like that.
            “(Louisville's) goal was to get back where they were last year and win (the state championship), and ours was to get there for the first time,” he added. “It's a heartbreaker, but that's the playoffs. You're either going to win a state championship, or you're going to lose somewhere down the line.”
            Amyx knows the loss will sting the players and coaches for a little while.
            “It's kind of a bummer, but I think in a day or so it will kick in... now we can look back and see what we accomplished this year,” he said. “An undefeated (regular) season, SEOAL champions (and making the) second round of the playoffs.
            “It'll be disappointing for awhile,” he added. “It always is. But there's a lot of pride here.”
            And Chieftain Nation is most certainly proud as well.

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