Logan Escapes Zanesville with 23-20 Win

Sept. 18, 2005

Zanesville - Friday night was deja vu all over again.  For the second straight week, Alex Hubbard's leg had to save the LHS defense.  Once again, Lucas Wright had to launch a pass to Nick Walter to get Logan in position for Hubbard to make things happen.  Hubbard's 35-yard field goal may have been the final difference, but Logan probably shouldn't have needed the kick to win the game.

Logan took a 20-7 lead with 6:23 to go in the football game on a 47-yard Justin Coakley touchdown run.  Coakley ran around or over all 11 Zanesville ball carriers, and drug cornerback Krys Bennett into the endzone.  Hubbard's PAT gave LHS a 13 point cushion.

The Chieftains struggled all night moving the football against a previously porous Zanesville defense.  The Blue Devils held Logan to 143 yards on 42 carries.  Zanesville got great running from Sophomore tailback Bryan Gaiters.  Gaiters ran for 116 yards and a touchdown.

Gaiters touchdown came midway through the 1st quarter, on a 4th and goal from the one yard line.  The score came after several Zanesville missed opportunities.  Logan's first mistake came on special teams, when Tony Ellis fumbled a bad punt snap.  Zanesville was able to drive inside the Logan 10-yard line, but was held on third down.  Zanesville's Ty Hardcastle entered the night 2-2 on field goals, but he would have his first attempt of the night blocked.

A fumbled snap by Logan set up ZHS's second scoring opportunity.  This time Hardcastle's kick fell short from 40+ yards, and Logan escaped again.  However, a fumble by Kevin Call set up Zanesville's only first half score.

Although the ground game struggled for the Chieftains, Michael Angle's arm helped Logan get on the board right before halftime.  Angle connected with Wright for a 35-yard gain, and again the same two combined for a 16-yard pass play.  Kevin Call finished the drive, plunge in in from a yard out.  Hubbard's PAT tied the score at 7 heading to the locker room.

Logan came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders, as they drove 45-yards on 14 plays consuming 8 minutes off the clock in the third quarter.  Logan's drive bogged down inside the 15-yard line when the Chiefs were charged with a costly holding penalty.  Following the hold, Zanesville's Tyler Finton came away with a blind side sack of Angle, and the drive came to an end.

Logan finally found pay dirt again early in the 4th stanza.  The Chiefs used a variety of runs from Call and Coakley, and on a third down play a perfectly executed screen pass to Call gave the Chiefs a 13-0 lead.  A bad snap messed up the timing, and Walter did an excellent job getting the hold down.  However, Hubbard was forced to kick from a dead stop and was short on the kick.

Coakley's score came just three minutes later, and looked like the fat lady was about to sing.  That's when Zanesville responded from their spread offense.  Senior QB Nick Martin, who finished the night 7-15 for 139 yards, connected with Senior Tyler Finton for a 44-yard play along the Zanesville sideline.  The play came on third down, and set of the first of two Tydell Butcher touchdown plunges.  Logan blocked Hardcastle's PAT try, and the score favored the Chieftains by a touchdown and an extra point.

Another Finton sack forced Logan to punt.  And on the ensuing ZHS possession, Martin connected with Sophomore Lucas Graham for the longest ZHS pass play of the season.  The pass went 62-yards, and Logan's Josh Clifton tackled Graham from behind at the Logan 5-yard line.  Two plays later Butcher had cut Logan's deficit to 20-19, and Hardcastle's PAT evened the count.  With just 1:20 to play and 80-yards in front of them, overtime seemed eminent.  But another dose of trickeration won Logan the ball game.

Wright made the game saving throw to Walter again this week, but it wasn't on the same play.  This time, Wright took a reverse and sold it beautifully to beat the ZHS defenders.  Walter's catch was between defenders, and deserves mention.  Logan picked up 7 yard on two Coakley runs, and called time out with only 5 seconds to play.  Hubbard's kick cleared the cross bar, and Logan moved to 3-1 on the season.

Coakley was the big gainer for Logan, racking up 105 yards on 13 carries.  Call added 74 yards on 23 carries, as well as a 23-yard TD catch.  Angle finished the game 7-16 passing for 108 yards.

Logan is currently ranked 4th in the Division I, Region 3 computer ranking according to Harbin Guru Joe Eitel from joeeitel.com.  Official rankings will be released this week.  Gahanna-Lincoln, Friday night's opponent, is sitting a top the rankings according to the same website.  Kick-off is slated for 7:30 PM at Bill Sauer Field in what is the biggest home game since the season opener with Lancaster last fall.

PASSING
Zanesville: Nick Martin 7-15-139-0TD-0INT
Logan: Michael Angle 7-16-108-1TD-0INT

RECEIVING
Zanesville: Tyler Finton 2-35, Caleb McFerren 2-26, Lucas Graham 1-62
Logan: Lucas Wright 4-67, Nick Walter 3-62, Kevin Cal 1-23 TD