LOGAN — Some numbers tell the truth. Others lie.

 The Marietta Tigers ran 60 offensive plays to the Logan Chieftains’ 33 in a Southeastern Ohio Athletic League football game Friday night in Logan Chieftain Stadium, not to mention they possessed the ball for 32:24 of the game’s 48 minutes, or that they held the Purple & White to one first down in the game’s first 30 minutes.

 Turns out those numbers were lying.
 When all was said and done, only one set of numbers mattered to the Chieftains: 13-0 — as in Logan 13, Marietta 0… the first victory of the season for the Purple & White.

 “Hey, this is a win, and we needed a win so bad!” exclaimed Logan coach Kelly Wolfe, who got his first victory as a head coach as the Chiefs broke a season-opening four-game losing streak. “We told our kids all week our backs are against the wall, so you need to come out and get it done, and anything less than a win was unacceptable. We just kept fighting.”

 For the longest time, things didn’t look good once again for the Chiefs (1-4 overall, 1-1 SEOAL), who were out-gained 163-42 in the first half by Marietta (2-3, 0-2), only had the ball for 6:49 of the first 24 minutes, and registered just one first-half first down.

 And the Chiefs saw their quarterback, Jordan Jurgensmier, leave the game with an injury when he picked up that elusive initial first down on a 15-yard keeper with just under three minutes left in the first half.

 “It’s 0-0 at halftime and our quarterback was down. Things looked a little bleak,” Wolfe admitted, “but we made some adjustments, got some motion going with our offense to open things up a little bit, and got what we needed.”

 And it was Jurgensmier himself who returned in the second half to turn in the biggest play of the game, a 60-yard run with just under six minutes left in the third stanza to not only finally get the Chiefs some field position but kick-start their first scoring drive.

 Up to that point, Marietta had controlled the ball for long stretches but only had two real scoring chances to show for it.

 Matt Morrison missed a 37-yard field goal early in the second stanza after the Tigers drove as deep as the Logan 10-yard line; then, after Marietta recovered a Logan fumble, the Tigers began a series from the Logan 19 but went backward as the result of a costly holding penalty.

 Logan noseguard Paul Wesselhoeft, who played a terrific game on defense, then pressured quarterback Justin Futrell into an incomplete pass. The threat then died when the Tigers fell short of a first down on fourth-and-15.

 That holding penalty was one of several costly mistakes Marietta coach Craig Farnsworth saw his team make in key situations. The Tigers began the game with an onside kick, but a miscue kept them from recovering the ball.

 “Most teams have guys up there (on the kickoff return team) who don’t touch the ball too much, and we almost got it,” Farnsworth said. “We were supposed to have someone block (Michael Simpson, who recovered the ball for the Chiefs) and, unfortunately, that set the tempo for the rest of the night… we have a (costly) mental mistake.”

 Jurgensmier’s 60-yard jaunt also set a tone for the Chieftains, allowing them to get onto Marietta’s side of the 50-yard line for the first time since the Tigers’ unsuccessful game-opening onside kick. Jurgensmier then guided the Chiefs into the end zone on four more plays to cap off a 6-play, 83-yard scoring drive.

 He hit Jordan Sharb for a 5-yard gain, Cory McCarty ran for 4 more and Jurgensmier then connected with Simpson in the left flat for 4 yards to the MHS 1. From there, Dylan Cavinee scored off left tackle with 3:27 left in the third period.

 Derek Montgomery’s PAT kick caromed off the left upright, but the Chiefs led for the first time since taking a 3-0 edge over Lancaster 5 minutes and 30 seconds into the season opener a month ago.

 After an exchange of punts — Montgomery boomed a season-best 52-yarder in the final seconds of the third period to pin the Tigers on their own 5-yard line — Marietta put together a time-consuming (7 minutes and 37 seconds) drive, converting 4 first downs, before the Logan defense stiffened.

 Marietta had second-and-7 at the Logan 32 when Futrell fumbled a snap from center to make it third down, then Matt McKitrick took a pitchout around the left side, where the Logan defense strung him out and eventually threw him for a huge 11-yard loss. Futrell’s fourth-and-18 pass then fell harmlessly incomplete.

 The Chiefs followed with a game-clinching 57-yard, 9-play scoring drive, capped by a 1-yard QB sneak by Jurgensmier with 41.6 seconds left in the game.

 “Hat’s off to Marietta,” lauded Wolfe. “We knew that offense was going to be hard to stop. They were averaging 26 points a game, and our guys bent but didn’t break. They moved the ball (the Tigers out-gained the Chiefs 228-189), then we would make a play and would stop them.

 “We were pinned deep the whole game and it kind of put the clamps on us, but once we got the chance we got (Marietta) moving on defense a little bit and Jordan found the running lane and took off.”

 After the game, Farnsworth was asked a hypothetical question: what would have been his reaction had he been told in advance his defense would allow the Chiefs only 13 points and 6 first downs?

 “I would have been really excited about that, the way we’ve been playing defense,” said the first-year Marietta mentor. “I’d be happy with that — and I would have thought we would have won the game, too. It was disappointing that we didn’t move the ball better, but (Logan) did a good job preparing for us.

 “(The Chiefs) know what we could do and what we can’t, and they took away what we were best at,” he added, “and then we had to run the things we’re not real good at. That led to situations where we had to throw the ball and they got a good pass rush on us.”

 Take away Jurgensmier’s 60-yard run, and a 24-yard McCarty scamper on the final series of the night, and Marietta held the Logan offense to just 80 yards. So, on a night the offense struggled, Logan’s beleaguered defense stepped forward in a big way… with a shutout.

 “Hat’s off to the defense! Hey, that’s a shutout — they came through,” Wolfe praised. “When we needed a play, we made it. We simplified our (defensive) reads for the guys this week, and I thought for the most part it helped. We were getting to the ball. When you get a shutout you can’t complain.

 “It would have been very hard to regroup had we lost this game, no doubt about it,” he admitted. “This is what we needed. The kids are excited, the kids are up. A win’s a win. Our kids played hard and didn’t quit. When you pitch a shutout, there’s nothing bad to say about the defense.”

 Farnsworth apparently has the Tigers, who played the Chiefs for the final time in the immediate future — Marietta High School leaves the SEOAL for the East Central Ohio League at the end of the current school year — turning the football corner.

 “We’re coming off a 1-9 season and trying to get something going here,” the first-year Marietta coach said. “We’re 2-3, which for us is pretty good. We’ve lost by 13, 13 and 19 (points), so no one’s running the clock (continuously) on us this year.”

 A running clock was played in the second half each of the last two seasons when the Chiefs defeated the Tigers by an aggregate score of 97-17 when the Tigers were short-handed due to a rash of injuries and illnesses.

 They’re still playing shorthanded — the Tigers only have 31 players on their roster, but only about 26 dressed for Friday’s game on a rainy, windy night in Logan Chieftain Stadium — but now there’s one big difference.

 “We’ve made major improvement,” Farnsworth said. “Our kids are really upset because they think they can win now. They put in the effort, so now they’re disappointed than they’re losing rather than be disappointed that they got embarrassed. Our guys expect to win now, and that’s good for us.

 “We’re kind of ahead of schedule on that,” he added. “Now we’re to the point where it’s 6-0 in the fourth quarter against Logan. We’re very pleased with that. Why shouldn’t we expect to win? The effort is there, and I’m proud of that — but we have to step back and say ‘where did we come from?’ We’re playing very respectably and we’re competitive.”

 For the Chieftains, who broke a 5-game losing streak — including last season’s Division II regional playoff game setback at the hands of Columbus Brookhaven — it was time to let out a collective sigh of relief.

 “The monkey’s off our backs now,” Wolfe said. “You can feel it.”

 And he and the Chiefs also felt the love and support of the Chieftain faithful even before they stepped onto the field Friday night.

 “When we came out of the locker room to start the game and that sidewalk was lined with (Logan) football fans on both sides, and they were cheering and yelling for us as we came down (to the field), that gave our kids such an incredible rush,” Wolfe beamed. “I don’t know whose idea it was, but it was unbelievable — and I want all of them to know how much it meant to us and how much we appreciated that.

 “That was an awesome feeling: a tunnel before the real (field entrance) tunnel!” he added. “That was cool as heck!”

 So was the Chiefs’ first victory of the season… and they’ll try to make it two in a row next Friday night when they host Gallia Academy in the annual Homecoming game in Logan Chieftain Stadium.