“We may not realize it right now,” Logan coach Kelly Wolfe said after his Chieftains dropped a 24-3 non-league decision Friday night at Pickerington North, “but when you have to play against teams like this — when you have to play up every play — the kids may not feel it or see it at the time, but it’s going to help us down the road.”

 Wolfe then lifted his hand to eye level.
 “That’s because we’re going to be used to playing up here at this (high) level, and that’s going to help,” he continued. “It’s going to make you better.”

 The Pickerington North Panthers (1-1 on the season) were everything they were billed to be: big, quick and athletic. And they were something else, too: deep.

 “They have some hosses, to say the least,” Wolfe praised. “Even when they took their first-team guys out, they had enough depth with the guys they were rotating in. They have some serious ballplayers.

 “They’d have kids play for two series and they’d bring in fresh kids who were just as deep and just as good as their first-level guys,” he added. “It was an uphill battle all night.”

 Pickerington North broke a string of five-straight losses at the hands of the Chieftains, beating the Purple & White for the first time since 2004.

 Logan, meanwhile, is 0-2 at the outset of a season for the first time since 2006 — a year in which they lost to Lancaster and Chillicothe and then ran the table, winning their final eight regular-season games.

 Coupled with last week’s season-opening loss to Lancaster, the Chiefs should be battle-tested, to say the least, for the remainder of their ‘10 schedule. The Gales and Panthers are expected to be among the Division I elite this season not just in Central Ohio but around the state.

 Although the Chiefs started the game in a similar fashion as they did last week against Lancaster — Jordan Jurgensmier intercepted Pickerington North quarterback Zach Olszewski on the Panthers’ fourth play from scrimmage — the Chiefs couldn’t get much to materialize offensively.

 They had their moments, however. After Pickerington North took the lead for good when Olszewski took a keeper around right end for 16 yards and a touchdown with 5:58 left in the first half, the Chiefs drove from their own 16-yard line to the PN 17, getting close enough for Derek Montgomery to kick a 34-yard field goal for their only points of the night.

 Jurgensmier connected with Nate Poling on an 8-yard pass play and took a keeper 10 yards to start the drive, on which the Chiefs amassed nearly half of their 140 total yards on the night. Brandon Graham later had a nice 16-yard run around right end and the Panthers helped the drive along with a 15-yard facemask penalty.

 But after that, the Chiefs never really threatened. They reached the Pickerington North 42-yard line in the final minute of the first half when Jurgensmier teamed with Isaac Lindsey on a nifty 26-yard pass-and-run over the middle, but the drive stalled on down in the final seconds.

 Logan only crossed midfield twice in the second half, getting no further than the PN 40-yard line.

 The Panthers drove 72 yards on 9 plays for their second touchdown less than four minutes into the second quarter. Running back Alston Robertson broke off a 23-yard run and Olszewski connected with Seth Gamby on a 15-yard pass play to get the Panthers into position for Olszewski to hit Devin Lomax with a 16-yard TD pass in the back right corner of the end zone with 8:09 left in the half.

 Pickerington North could have done more damage, but the Panthers hurt themselves with 13 penalties for 105 yards on the night.

 That’s one area in which Logan improved from last week. The Chiefs committed only three miscues for 20 yards compared to 13 for 131 in their season opener.

 “We didn’t make as many mistakes,” Wolfe said. “That was one of the goals I posted on our board tonight for this week: we needed to cut down on the mistakes and we needed to get more guys to the ball. I think we did that. I think in that aspect of the game we got better.

 “We had moments on offense,” he added. “I thought we came out (and did) what we were trying to do offensively, with our trips package to the short side. Our option was working well in the beginning and we were getting Brandon out on the corner, which was what we wanted to do — and then the chess match started.

 “They adjusted in the second quarter, so we had to adjust. There was a lot of that tonight. They were adjusting to what we were doing, and we had to adjust to catch back up.”

 The second half was pretty much a stalemate except for a 13-second Pickerington North flurry in the third quarter.

 A 30-yard pass from Olszewski to Darien Bryant helped set up a 36-yard field goal by Pickerington North’s Tyler Ebright with 5:09 left in the third stanza. Then, on Logan’s first play from scrimmage after the ensuing kickoff, defensive back Tony Traylor picked off a Jurgensmier pass and ran it back 29 yards to paydirt.

 According to LHS football historian Spencer Waugh, it was the first defensive pick-six by a Chieftain opponent since Chillicothe’s Anthony Hitchens returned an interception for a touchdown in 2005.

 Logan did hold Pickerington North’s talented offense under 300 yards, a far cry from the 426 Lancaster amassed last week.

 “I thought our defense played better tonight,” Wolfe praised. Pickerington North “didn’t have as many big plays tonight (as Lancaster last week). They had some bursts, but you’re not going to hold down a team that talented the whole game.

 “Our defense didn’t give up the big plays and (the Panthers) had to work for everything they got,” he added. “Unfortunately, they had enough horses they could do that.”

 As mentioned, the Chiefs will eventually benefit from playing Lancaster and Pickerington North, especially when Southeastern Ohio Athletic League play commences Sept. 17 at Jackson.

 “It’s going to help — and that’s what we said about (playing) North last year, too. I don’t know if we’ll see anybody that big and that talented,” Wolfe stated. “We made progress. We did some things (and) got better.

 “We said (to the players) at the end of the game that we’ve just went through the toughest part of our schedule,” he added. “We play these (tough non-league) games for a reason: to make us better and to get us ready for the league. I think we will be ready for the league… and I think we will be ready for Reynoldsburg next week, too.”