By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News

VINCENT — Long before any of the current Logan Chieftains or Warren Warriors were born, there was a popular after-shave television commercial that concluded with the line “it wakes you up like a cold slap in the face.”

Considering it was almost cold enough to snow Friday night at Warren High School, you might say Clay Ellenwood’s 72-yard touchdown pass to Grant Venham early in the second half — which pulled the Warriors within 10-7 — was the football equivalent to that cold slap in the face.

And, in about the length of a TV commercial, the Purple & White responded.
The Chiefs went 60 yards on four plays in just 79 seconds, with Patrick Angle scoring on a 34-yard quarterback draw up the middle, to take the momentum of that long TD pass away from the Warriors.

That began a run of 21 unanswered points as the Chiefs went on to defeat the determined and vastly-improved Warriors, 31-15.

Logan remained undefeated both overall (8-0) and in the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League (3-0) and also solidified its hold on a potential Division II Region 7 playoff berth.

“Once we scored a touchdown to make it 10-7, (the Chiefs) go right down the field and score. That was a backbreaker,” Warren coach Jim Pifer said. “I think our kids got down just a little bit after that.”

The Warriors, who started the season 6-0, have lost their last two games and are now 6-2 overall and 1-2 in the SEOAL. But no matter what they do the rest of the way, they’ve already put together their best football season since 1996.

“They’re a very good football team,” praised Logan coach Dale Amyx. “We knew that going in… at least I did, when I watched the film, and I was trying to get everybody else to believe that too. They have some athletes on that team, they’re tough and they’re physical.”

Not only did Friday’s victory mark the Chiefs’ 12th-straight win over Warren — the Purple & White are now 21-3 all-time against the Warriors — but it also pulled the Chiefs within two wins of tying a pair of prestigious league and school records.

It was their 32nd-straight SEOAL triumph, putting the Chiefs two away from the mark of 34 set by Ironton between 1971 and 1976.

It was also their 27th-consecutive regular-season victory, dating back to the second game of the 2007 season. The all-time LHS record for consecutive regular-season wins is 29, accomplished by the 1999 through 2001 teams.

The Chiefs can tie both records by winning their final two regular-season games — home SEOAL matchups against Jackson next Friday and Chillicothe the following week — as they close in on the school’s seventh-ever undefeated regular season.

Angle set two more LHS career records Friday night. After a slow start, he completed 15-of-26 passes for 213 yards and two touchdowns to become the school’s all-time leader in pass completions (410) and passing yardage (4,253).

“The teams we’ve played aren’t spread teams like Logan,” Pifer said. “Consequently, our kids were chasing the quarterback all night and got a little tired.”

Angle also led the Chiefs with 74 rushing yards on 16 carries, but the Warriors made him earn each and every inch of territory on a muddy, slippery field. None were bigger, however, than those 34 yards up the middle midway through the third period.

Despite starting five of their six first-half possessions in Warren territory — the Warriors punted six times in the first half alone, and their lone first down of the half came when the punter, Venham, scrambled for an 11-yard gain following a bad snap — the Chiefs led just 10-0 at halftime. They only capitalized on that great field position twice.

Logan went 27 yards on seven plays to take the lead with 7:24 left in the half on a 3-yard scoring run by Mason Mays, then got a 28-yard field goal from Derek Montgomery with 24 seconds remaining.

“That was so weird, too,” Amyx surmised. “We kept getting in scoring position, but then we’d get a penalty or something would happen and we’d be going backward. It didn’t seem like we could get anything going.”

It was a combination of the Warren defense, the field conditions, and the Chiefs taking some untimely penalties.

“We played a little different defense this week that I’m sure we hadn’t shown them on film,” Pifer said. “I hope we crossed them up a little bit. But they caught on.”

Although the Chiefs made some halftime adjustments, it took a little while to implement them.

“Everybody we play puts in a new (defensive) scheme. Everybody,” Amyx said. “We’re kind of getting used to adjusting on the run. I don’t think we’ve played a team lately that’s ran the same defense we’ve seen on film. They’re trying to come up with something to stop us, and I guess that’s a compliment. You have to adjust.

“We got off to a slow start,” he added. “I think the field conditions had a little to do with that, too — we weren’t getting very good footing — but my hat’s off to (the Warriors). They had a good game plan. Coach (offensive coordinator Kelly) Wolfe made some good halftime adjustments with the offense.”

After forcing Logan to punt on its opening series of the second half, the Warriors picked up a first down before Ellenwood aired one out for Venham. The pass was a bit under-thrown, but Venham came back to make a leaping catch at midfield, then made a couple Logan defenders slip and miss as he cut back to the middle and went 72 yards for Warren’s first touchdown.

It was the first touchdown allowed by the Logan defense since the second quarter of the Ironton game back in week five — more than 12 quarters.

“I was real happy going in up 10-0 at halftime,” Amyx said. “When we came out (for the second half) I really felt confidence in our defense. (The Warriors) weren’t moving the ball, and then what do they do? They throw that pass (to Venham) and they score.

“I didn’t see them moving the ball on the ground on us, so I knew it would have to be a situation where they had to throw the ball,” he added.

The Chiefs turned that cold slap in the face into a 21-point wake-up call.

They started the ensuing drive from their own 40-yard line and, three plays later, were at the Warren 34 when Angle made the blitzing Warren defense pay. A huge hole opened in the middle, Angle found it, and outran the rest of the Warrior defense to the end zone for a 17-7 lead.

“We finally got a chance to use some of our halftime adjustments, which was running the football up inside, and our kids did a good job with the blocking schemes we came up with at halftime,” Amyx revealed.

Then, after forcing Warren to punt, the Chiefs went 61 yards on just five plays to take a 24-7 lead when Angle hit Mays with a 50-yard touchdown bomb. The Warren defensive backs bit on a terrific pump-fake by Angle and Mays streaked behind them for a relatively easy touchdown.

The Chiefs then put the game away with a nifty 12-play, 63-yard drive that spilled over into the fourth period.

Angle kept the drive alive by a completing a fourth-down pass to Brandon Graham for a 15-yard gain off a fake punt, then moments later connected with Jordan Rutter, who made a tremendous diving, stretched-out TD catch in the right corner of the end zone.

That 30-yard touchdown, on fourth-and-25, was the pass on which Angle broke the career record for passing yardage.

Warren came back with a 73-yard, nine-play drive of its own, culminated on a 5-yard scoring run by Austin Henthorn with 4:28 remaining, and made it 31-15 on a two-point conversion pass from Ellenwood to Kyle Pritt.

The Warriors then forced the Chiefs to punt, but Mays iced the victory by picking off an Ellenwood pass with just over two minutes remaining.

“The one where he pumped the ball, our backside corner was supposed to rotate to the center and didn’t get there,” Pifer revealed. “That (Logan) offense can score from anywhere on the field.

“I was telling coach Amyx ‘we can defend you 58 out of 60 times and get beat, because two plays can cost you.’ ” he added. “And that’s exactly what happened: two big long (TD) pass plays, and this is an even game.”

Amyx agreed.

“With a quarterback and receivers like we have you’re going to get some people open,” he said. “Overall I’m pleased with our performance. With the field conditions and everything, I thought we came out and did what we had to do. I would like to have had a faster start on offense, but we didn’t. And that’s not taking anything away from (the Warriors)… that was their game plan. They were physical. (Pifer) has done a good job with this program, and you can see that.

“The defense played pretty good all night (and) we finally got some things going on offense,” Amyx added. “This game was good for us. I think maybe we needed a good, hard, physical test where we had to run the ball some, and once we started running that helped open up the passing game.”

Logan rushed for 117 yards on 37 carries and, in the second half, was in possession of the ball for more than 16 minutes while Warren’s offense had it for less than eight.

“I thought we played well the second half most of the time but we still continued to struggle on offense,” Pifer said. “We couldn’t generate continuous first downs… and you can’t let Logan have the ball all the time. They made big plays (with) those two long touchdown passes.

“Our kids played hard,” he added. “We wanted to win so bad, and we wanted to make a good showing. Sometimes we played pretty well. We just weren’t consistent on offense, and I think we got a little tired. We have a lot of kids playing both ways.”

Both teams had several players going both ways and the Warriors wore down as the game progressed. The SEOAL’s leading rusher, Kaleb Wolfe, gained just 29 yards on 12 carries before leaving the game in the third period with an ankle injury.

However, the Chiefs may have suffered the biggest blow when offensive/defensive lineman Ralph Robinson went down with a knee injury in the first quarter and never returned.

“It’s going to be this way again next week with Jackson coming in. We’re going to have to do it all over again, and probably without Ralph,” Amyx said. “We’re going to have to have some other people step up. I’m hoping it’s just a sprain and we’ll get him back, but with knees you just don’t know.

“I hate to say it was a war of attrition with as many kids as we have going both ways on both sides of the ball, but we wore them down a bit,” he added. “Their kids did a great job. They played well and they played hard, and I know their coach has to be real proud of them.”

The Chiefs did likewise… and their coaches and fans were proud of their efforts as well.