New Lex Cruises Past Logan, Ends Stat Long Winning Streak

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Coming into Friday's season opener, the Logan Chieftains were riding high. Winners of four consecutive SEOAL titles, playing in three straight post-seasons, and most impressive came in riding the state's longest regular season winning streak.

The opponent, the New Lexington Panthers, finished 9-1 (9-2) in 2001, finishing the season with nine-straight regular season wins themselves something had to give on Friday night. And give it did.

New Lexington pounced on the Chieftains early in the first quarter, taking the opening kick-off for a nice return, setting the stage for a drive starting on their own 42 yard line. Logan's defense came out flat, with only a few exceptions, and allowed Drew Cannon and Tyler Huffman to push them around and drive straight to the goal for an early 7-0 lead. Drew Cannon scored the first TD from 1 yard out.

The Logan offense came out raring to go though. The Panthers opening kick-off went out of bounds, allowing the Chieftains to start on their own 35 yard line. The offense clicked immediately, the line did their job and the skills players played well as well. A 5-yard completion to Jason Dicken started things off, and subsequent carries by Austin Rohr and Josh Bailey pushed the Chieftains all the way to the New Lex 30. Their the drive stalled though after two incompletions and a busted play on a New Lex blitz. Logan went for the final yard on 4th down, coming up just short.

Neither team could put together a strong drive until the second quarter, and both teams traded punts. The Panthers weren't done yet. Getting good field position off of a Logan punt, the Panthers put together another drive, once again behind Drew Cannon and Tyler Huffman, and used Cannon to put the Panthers on top 13-0. The PAT was blocked by Logan.

Thing went from bad to worse after that second TD. An Austin Rohr fumble on the subsequent offensive series gave the Panthers the ball on the Logan 26 yard line. The Panthers used one play, a TD pass from Tyler Huffman to stretch the lead to 19-0. Logan stopped Drew Cannon on the two-point conversion attempt. Logan's offense stalled on the following drive, and disaster would strike once more.

The snap on Logan's punt attempt sailed high over Jon Pippen's head. He made a heads up play, picking the ball up and running, almost for the first down, but New Lex took over at the Logan 28. The Panthers once again turned Logan misfortune to their advantage, using one play to cover the 28 yards on another Tyler Huffman TD pass.

Logan could not put a drive together, and the teams went to halftime with the Panthers leading 26-0.

The second half was not much to see, as it became obvious to both coaches that New Lexington had this game in hand. The Panthers scored their final touchdown after a fumbled Logan punt return set the Panthers up with great field position once again. A busted play allowed Drew Cannon to sneak behind the Logan secondary, and like the rest of the night Tyler Huffman was able to easily find him for the final TD.

Logan scored with under 3 minutes to go as the second team, led by Sophomore QB Corey Spackey, drove down the field behind 60 yards on 2 completions, culminating in a 4-yard Justin Pack TD run. The extra point was blocked.

The stats for the game are pretty deceiving. Both teams ran 45 plays. The Panthers gained 275 yards to Logan’s 209. The point is, Logan set the Panthers up with great field position so they didn’t need to gain a lot of yards.

Logan held Drew Cannon to 95 yards on 17 carries. He only carried the ball four times after halftime. Tyler Huffman finished 5-7 for 91 yards with 3 TD passes. He also dominated running the ball as well.

Logan’s Austin Rohr rushed for 53 yards on 13 carries with 4 fumbles, losing one of them. Starting QB Dave Ellis was 2-7 for 13 yards on the day.

Logan returns to action next week when they travel to Nelsonville-York. The Buckeyes were on the losing end of a 35-20 game with the Athens Bulldogs. Kick-Off is slated for 7:30 at Dave Boston Field in Buchtel.

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