LOGAN - Last season’s 24-7 victory over Pickerington North at Bill Sauer Field wound up being one of the more competitive games on the 2007 Logan football schedule.

Chieftain coach Dale Amyx expects more of the same Friday (7:30 p.m. kickoff) when the Purple & White make the first of back-to-back trips north on U.S. Route 33 (they venture to Obetz next Friday to play Hamilton Township) for a non-conference game with the Panthers.

“They gave us all we could handle last year,” Amyx recalled. “It took us better than a half to adjust to what they were doing - we didn’t do a good job as coaches or players making adjustments in that game.”

Logan trailed 7-3 midway through the second quarter and held a precarious 10-7 lead almost five minutes into the fourth quarter when Lucas Wright returned a punt 64 yards for what proved to be a game-breaking touchdown.

That game also marked the last time Logan was outgained on offense (236-162) in a 2007 regular-season game. The Chiefs survived despite turning the ball over five times.

“They have got good size and numbers,” Amyx said of the Panthers. Pickering-ton North coach Tom Phillips “had a lot of success at Bexley and is in his second year with the program. He’s doing a really good job.”

Phillips certainly did a good job last fall as the Panthers went 5-5 and tied Marysville for the Ohio Capital Conference Capital Division championship. This year, they’re a member of the OCC Ohio along with Logan opening-game foe Lancaster as well as sister school Pickerington Central.

“They’re a lot like last year,” Amyx revealed. “They have a lot of kids back and their quarterback is quick with a good arm. Offen-sively they run just about everything out of the spread, including their I-formation. Overall they’ll pass more than they run, but not much. It will be a tough test for us.”

Amyx said the two teams have a lot of similarities.

“On defense they run a base 4-3 but will walk a linebacker up over the tight end and give different looks,” he said. “They’re similar to us on both sides of the ball. I have to give them a little bit of an edge size-wise - we’re a little small on the offensive line right now - but if we had our two (regular) tackles we’d be pretty even.”

The O-line was certainly a bright spot for the Chieftains in their 35-10 shellacking of Lancaster in their Logan Chieftain Stadium and season opener last Friday night.

The Logan coaching staff had to make some adjustments along the line to replace tackles Weston Andy and David Schneider, both of whom are out due to illness and injury, respectively.

“I’m really proud of those guys,” Amyx said of the offensive line’s performance against Lancaster. “We threw Mac (Cary Maclaughlin) back in there (Maclaughlin, who has originally been scheduled to rotate in as a fullback, is now the starter at right guard) at the last second since he had already played (on the line) and we moved Derek Shirey over (to right tackle). The tackles (Shirey and sophomore Tim King) did a really good job.

“The linemen moved their feet really well. The pass blocking was excellent.”

The Chieftains also minimized their mistakes. They were penalized five times ?” all of which were five-yard flags and committed two turnovers, neither of which wound up hurting their cause.

That’s because while Lancaster didn’t score off those Logan’s miscues, the Chieftains turned the Golden Gales’ two turnovers (a pair of interceptions) into 14 points.

“You never want to turn the ball over twice - we were on their end of the field both times and in scoring position but we got away with them,” Amyx said. “We didn’t have any holding penalties or mistakes like that, and that really concerned us coming out of our second scrimmage (at Sheridan). We had a couple procedure penalties late in the game when we were running out the clock.

“We always emphasize (limiting penalties),” he added. “That hurt us in both scrimmages - too many penalties - but we did a good job last week.”

Conditioning also came into play on the new Logan Chieftain Stadium artificial playing surface. While a couple Logan players cramped up, the playing-field heat didn’t bother the Chieftains as much as it did the Golden Gales.

“They started cramping up a little earlier than we did,” Amyx said. “A couple of our skill kids who play both ways had some (cramping) problems. We’ll do the best we can to make sure they take in enough fluids and hydrate themselves this week.

“We put a lot of time into conditioning,” he added. “We tell the kids that good conditioning pays off.”

That was certainly the case last Friday.

More bests vs. Gales: The 35 points Logan scored against the Golden Gales was the all-time best for any Chieftain team against their Fairfield County counterparts, with a 30-0 win over Lancaster in 1934 being the previous mark - those 35 points also bettered the Chiefs’ combined total (28) from the four games since the series resumed in 2004.

The defense doesn’t rest: Four Chiefs had double figures in total tackles against Lancaster, led by linebackers Michael Snider (four solos and eight assists for 12 total) and Zach Adams (3-8 - 11), defensive end Jon Neff (3-7 - 10) and Seth Sigler (3-7 - 10), with Clay Morgan (4-5 - 9) and Cary Maclaughlin (0-9 - 9) both being involved in nine -  Neff and Patrick Angle were both credited with two pass break-ups.

Chieftain notes: Friday night marks the first of just two regular-season games the Chiefs will play on a grass surface this season, with the other being their season finale at Chillicothe. In addition to five games on the new Logan Chieftain Stadium turf, Logan also plays on artificial surfaces at Hamilton Township, Marietta and Jackson this fall?- Logan opponents got off to a good start last week, winning six of 10 games, a figure that includes Lancaster’s loss to Logan - all Chieftain football games are being aired on The Net WWTL, located at 106.7, 104.7 and 99.3 on the FM dial.

Read More in the Logan Daily News.