By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News

LOGAN — As observers and Logan football fans watched the Chieftains and Pickerington North Panthers run through their pre-game paces Friday evening in Logan Chieftain Stadium, the words coming out of their mouths had to be pretty much the same.

Said of the Panthers: “Boy, they're huge.”

Said of the Chieftains: “Boy, they're not.” Not by comparison, anyway.

And the ensuing clash not only of size but of skill players was pretty much one-sided as the Panthers returned a kickoff, a punt and an interception for touchdowns in dealing the Chiefs a 42-14 setback.

“What do you say? That's an impressive football team,” Logan coach Kelly Wolfe said of the Panthers. “They have a lot of skill over there. We know going in we're going to be the smallest team on the field a lot (this season). We were (tonight), by far. They were huge... and they were definitely bigger than Lancaster.”

The Chiefs, now 0-2 on the season, opened with a 35-13 loss at Lancaster last week. Pickerington North is 2-0, having beaten defending state Division III champion Columbus Watterson 38-3 last Friday.

Pickerington North and a couple of its terrific skill-position players struck first when quarterback Zach Olszewski hit junior running back Godwin Igwebuike, a transfer from crosstown rival Pickerington Central, with a swing pass to the right sideline on the game's opening play.

Igwebuike turned the simple play into a 55-yard catch-and-run, eventually setting up a 1-yard scoring run by Olszewski just 80 seconds into the game.

But the Chiefs countered with some lightning of their own when quarterback Kelly Long connected with fellow senior Isaac Lindsey on a 67-yard bomb, with only a shoestring tackle by PN's Dylan Weigel saving a touchdown.

Three plays later, however, Long connected with Lindsey again, this time with a perfectly-thrown pass just inside the right-sideline corner pylon, for an 11-yard scoring strike and a 7-7 deadlock just 3:22 into the game.

But that's when special-teams play came to the forefront.

Igwebuike took the ensuing kickoff on his own 16-yard line, found a lane, cut down the right sideline and back against the grain with barely a finger laid on him for an 84-yard kickoff return.

“We kicked the ball to their best player (Igwebuike) and that's the last guy we wanted to have it,” Wolfe said afterward. “He should not have touched the ball. Special teams are big. We worked hard and got momentum on our side, and you just can't have mental breakdowns like that.”

It indeed proved to be a back-breaker for the Chieftains. Pickerington North, which won the battle of field position the rest of the second half, scored on every first-half possession except for two, on which they missed field goals of 23 and 30 yards.

“They gave us some chances to hang around in the first half. They really did,” Wolfe said. “Our defense kept scrapping, but they could have put us away a lot earlier than they did. They had two chances to score and missed two field goals. It was still 14-7 and we were still fighting.”

They were fighting, all right, but they were also wearing down at the collective hands of the bigger, more physical Panthers (who won a game in Logan for the first time in five tries) who didn't have nearly as many players playing on both sides of the ball.

Backed up against the shadow of their own goal line early in the second quarter, the Chiefs were forced to punt and Tabeal Radney returned it 40 yards to paydirt — the first punt-return touchdown against the Chiefs in 10 years and the first-ever varsity punt return for a score in Logan Chieftain Stadium's four-season history. That made it 21-7.

Then, after forcing the Chiefs to punt, Igwebuike broke a 25-yard run to begin a quick scoring drive that culminated on a 26-yard scoring pass from Olszewski to Jake Butt with 8:34 left in the half.

Pickerington North then drove 65 yards on 12 plays to make it 35-7 on a 2-yard scoring aerial from Olszewski to Alan Hunt with 2:06 left in the half. That was the halftime score.

Logan took full advantage of a miscue by the Panthers in the third quarter when Caleb Branson recovered a muffed Pickerington North punt at the PN 3-yard line. It took Logan four plays, but Cory McCarty scored on a 1-yard run with 7:04 remaining.

The Chiefs never threatened again. Pickerington North put the game away when Radney stepped in front of Long's intended receiver and ran an interception back 29 yards for a score with 7:52 to play in the game.

“That's the only score they had in the second half, the pick-six. And we scored. The second half was 7-7,” Wolfe said, “but it is what it is.”

What it was, was Pickerington North was well in command.

The Chiefs, who were held to minus-5 yards rushing in the first half, wound up with 186 yards of offense, including 158 yards passing by Long, who completed 11-of-24 passes, six of them going to Lindsey for 101 yards.

But Pickerington North, while running 14 fewer plays, gained 358 yards, including 200 on the ground, and had nine plays of 18 yards or better in addition to the kickoff, punt and interceptions that were returned for touchdowns.

In other words, the Chiefs were once again victimized by big plays.

“We gotta regroup for next week (at Reynoldsburg),” Wolfe said. “On the positive side, talking to (Pickerington North coach Tom Phillips), they got one kid from Reynoldsburg's team and Pickerington Central got five kids from Reynoldsburg's team” from last year.

Reynoldsburg beat the Chiefs 47-7 last season. The Chiefs are hoping to make amends for that next Friday night.