By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News
REYNOLDSBURG — For a second-straight year, the Logan Chieftains finished 0-3 in season-opening non-conference play against Ohio Capital Conference Ohio Division foes.

And for a second straight season, it was the Reynoldsburg Raiders who dominated game three of that OCC trifecta, this time dealing the Purple & White a 30-6 setback Friday at Reynoldsburg High School in a game that wasn't as close as the score would even remotely indicate.

Reynoldsburg (2-1), which pounded the Chiefs 47-7 last fall in Logan Chieftain Stadium, used a dominating defense to hold the Chiefs to a grand total of one first down and five total yards of offense in piling up a 24-0 halftime lead.

“They're another good OCC team,” said Logan coach Kelly Wolfe. “It was their home opener; they were fired up and we came out a little flat. And once they got up, it was tough for us to recover.”

The score could have been much, much worse. Reynoldsburg scored on two of its first three offensive series, and only a diving interception by Kelly Long at the Logan 12-yard line kept the Raiders from chalking another six-pointer.

Reynoldsburg missed three extra points (two of them hit the uprights), had a field goal blocked, and had two second-quarter touchdowns returns — a 69-yard free kick return Mykel Traylor-Bennett and a 45-yard punt return by Jimmy McKeon — nullified.

Traylor-Bennett, who later brought back a punt 48 yards for a score in the second half (the second half turned out to be a 6-6 draw), had his called back as the result of a Reynoldsburg holding penalty. McKeon's return was whistled dead at the Logan 17-yard line when his helmet came off... by rule, resulting in an immediate stoppage of play.

But what was most discouraging for Wolfe and the Chiefs was the mistakes and the loss of composure in several different ways... something very unlike a Logan football team.

“I can't make any excuses. They whipped us,” Wolfe said. “The thing that was more disheartening to me was the chaos — (the) times we only had 10 guys (on the field) — and” the loss of composure.

“That says we're going in opposite directions and we're not in here together, (not) focused on what's going on,” he added.

In all fairness to the Chieftains, however, they've been out-manned playing Lancaster, Pickerington North and Reynoldsburg, three very large Division I schools, to open the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

As a result, it's really difficult to get a good read on how good the 2011 Chiefs are simply due to the talented teams that have lined up across from them the first three weeks.

“Offensively we were struggling,” Wolfe said. Reynoldsburg's “defensive game plan was pretty good; they kept us off-balance (and) they were changing their defense almost play by play. On first down they would run one defense and on second down they would run another defense.”

The Chiefs never crossed the midfield stripe until late in the third quarter, during their lone touchdown drive of the night, capped by a Cory McCarty 6-yard run with 10:53 remaining in the game.

Logan had seven offensive possessions in the first half that started, on average, on its own 20-yard line. Four of those possessions wound up with punts, one ended with a bad snap from center that Reynoldsburg recovered at the Logan 22, one wound up on a safety when Long was sacked the end zone, and the last one concluded when the first half mercifully came to an end.

By comparison, Reynoldsburg's average starting position in the first half was the Logan 40-yard line.

A freshman who wasn't even on the roster, Jordan Jones, capped off the Raiders' opening drive with a nifty 10-yard touchdown run around left end, finishing off an opening possession on which Reynoldsburg broke off four-straight double-digit runs from scrimmage, the first two by 225-pound junior Kumar Collins, a bowling ball of a running back, for a combined 30 yards. That drive set the tone for the evening.

After Long thwarted the Raiders' second drive, Reynoldsburg took advantage of a short field after recovering Logan's bad snap from center to go 22 yards on just six plays, capped off by De'Von Bollinger's 1-yard scoring run.

The Chiefs were fortunate Reynoldsburg scored only 12 points in the second quarter — on a touchdown, field goal, safety and extra point kick — and that they were only down 24-0 at the intermission.

But the good thing now is that OCC play is behind the Chiefs and Southeastern Ohio Athletic League play is straight ahead, beginning with a home game next Friday against defending champion (and 3-0) Jackson in Logan Chieftain Stadium.

And the Chiefs, who were beaten up physically in game three against Reynoldsburg last season — from which they never fully recovered — seem to be okay physically this year heading into the Jackson showdown.

“It's us and big red (Jackson) now in our house,” Wolfe said. “You have to be excited to start the league. I'm excited. I still think we're a better team than what we've shown.

“When you're playing up (against bigger schools) every week, and when it's a struggle every week, you just really don't know what you're capable of,” he added. “Our big thing as coaches is that we have to keep our kids' confidence up (and) keep believing in them.”

How good the 2011 Chiefs turn out to be is a question still to be answered, of course, but Wolfe thinks the Chiefs will come out a different team against Jackson.

“I believe we do have a good football team,” he said. “We've seen it; we've just been beaten around for three weeks (by huge Division I schools). We can't let the kids give up on themselves. That's the big thing this week — to keep them positive.”