ZANESVILLE — Not only did the Logan Chieftains get beat Friday night by the Zanesville Blue Devils, but they got beat up as well.

 The Chiefs lost no less than four players, including three of their four captains, to injury during the Blue Devils’ 39-10 victory in Sulsberger Stadium.

 “This is what you don’t want to have happen, especially late in the season,” said Logan coach Kelly Wolfe, who saw captains Jordan Jurgensmier, Dylan Cavinee and Tim King leave with injuries in the first half and also lost senior Tyler Dement. “We got beat up a little bit. You don’t want to lose and then get beat up on top of it… you sure don’t want to lose three captains and maybe another senior.
 “We scrapped as long as we could,” he added, “but they just basically beat us down.”

 While the game was a little closer than the final score indicates, it also could have been much worse.

 Zanesville (7-1), which broke a 10-game losing streak at the hands of the Chieftains, had two touchdowns called back on penalties, missed a field goal, had an extra point blocked and failed to convert a pair of 2-point conversions. The Blue Devils may have left 21 points or so on the Sulsberger Stadium turf.

 Zanesville’s Braily Blair, a converted tight end, returned the opening kickoff 44 yards to the Logan 36-yard line and scored the Blue Devils’ first touchdown 9 plays later on a 3-yard run. It was the first of 3 TDs for Blair on the evening.

 The Chiefs (2-6) countered early in the second quarter with a 44-yard field goal by Derek Montgomery — the kick had plenty of distance and would have easily surpassed the school record of 47 yards (set by Josh Jackson in 1991 against Zanesville, ironically) had it been necessary — but that was the Chiefs’ only good scoring opportunity of the first half.

 Meanwhile, the Blue Devils not only put together a couple second-quarter touchdown drives to take an 18-3 halftime lead — Blair went up the middle and then cut down the left sideline for a 38-yard scoring run and J.T. McFarland followed moments later with a 12-yard scoring run when he went in motion and took an inside handoff around right end to paydirt — but they were in the process of physically beating up the Chiefs.

 Just as Wolfe predicted earlier in the week, the Blue Devils hit hard, and they hit often, both on offense and special teams. Senior linebacker/running back Gary Ransom especially dealt out plenty of punishing hits.

 Jurgensmier went down with a leg injury prior to McFarland’s scoring run and was unable to return. Junior Kelly Long came on to finish the first half and played the rest of the game at quarterback.

 Then King, followed by Cavinee and Dement, went down with injuries. Both Cavinee and Dement may have concussions… and, if so, “they won’t be playing next week,” Wolfe said.

 So when the Chiefs returned to the field to open the second half, they were, to say the least, somewhat short-handed.

 “Short-handed? We didn’t have three of our four captains on the field in the second half — three of our four leaders were out of the game,” Wolfe said. “Everybody in (the locker room at halftime) knew the situation — Cavinee had a bad concussion (he had to be taken to the hospital) — and that we had some adversity.

 “But I told the kids a lot of times when things look their bleakest, somebody steps up and makes a big play and things get going,” he added. “And we got that. Everyone needed to reach a little deeper and pull together and see if we could get something done.”

 Something did get done, at least momentarily.

 The Chiefs got a huge break on their first possession of the second half when, after being forced to punt on fourth-and-1, the ball hit the heel of a Zanesville player downfield who was not watching the play and Logan recovered on the Zanesville 33-yard line.

 Long — the Chiefs’ 2011 quarterback-in-waiting behind senior Jurgensmier — then connected with Brian Cook with a beautiful pass down the middle for 26 yards and a first down at the ZHS 7.

 On the very next play, Long connected with Isaac Lindsey, who was wide open at the goal line on the far side of the field, on a 7-yard scoring pass. Montgomery’s placement kick pulled the Chiefs within 18-10 with 9:30 to play in the third quarter… and the Chiefs were within one possession (a touchdown and 2-point conversion) of drawing even.

 Then, on the next Zanesville series, it all came apart for the Chiefs.

 The Blue Devils, facing third-and-4 from their own 41, handed the ball to Blair, who went around the left corner and down the sideline, cut back to the middle, eluded a couple Chieftain tacklers and again cut back to the left sideline for a huge run to the Logan 10-yard line. He ran about 70 yards to pick up 49.

 It took four plays, a Logan personal foul penalty and a fourth-and-goal run from the 2-yard line for the Blue Devils, specifically Blair, to get that Logan touchdown back with 6:21 left in the third period and make it 25-10.

 “We came out and got exactly what we needed in the beginning of the second half,” Wolfe said. “We drove down and got the touchdown and put ourselves within striking distance and made it a one-touchdown game. Kelly Long makes a great pass, Brian Cook makes a big catch to get it down there, and Ike Lindsey makes the touchdown catch. I’ll give the kids credit… when three captains go down, our kids came out with some spunk and scored to get back in the game.

 “…and then (Blair) zig-zags all over the field and makes a big play,” Wolfe added.

 The Chiefs had one more great scoring opportunity. Sean Wotring picked off a Weston Hudson pass at the Zanesville 43 — Logan’s first defensive interception in 81 opponents’ pass attempts since the second game of the season — and Long immediately connected with Lindsey on a 37-yard bomb to the Zanesville 5-yard line as Lindsey out-leaped two Zanesville defensive backs to corral the ball.

 But the Chiefs were unable to punch the ball across the goal line. On fourth down, Zanesville’s Austin Craig picked off a Long pass deep in the end zone and ran it back 52 yards.

 Logan never recovered. Zanesville’s Ian McFarland stepped in front of a would-be Chieftain receiver and ran an interception back 22 yards for a touchdown late in the third period, then Talen Hutchison scored on a 3-yard run with a little more than a minute remaining in the game.

 Blair (7 carries) and Hutchison (20 carries) both rushed for 101 yards for the Blue Devils, who survived shooting themselves in the foot several times with costly penalties and miscues to still come away with a 29-point victory.

 “They are a huge team, they are a physical team, and they are a good team,” Wolfe said of the Blue Devils. “I think they’re going to make the (Division II) playoffs and they’re going to make some noise in the playoffs.”

 Now it’s a matter of seeing how many of Friday night’s injuries carry over to the Chiefs’ final two games of the season, including a battle of beaten-up teams next Friday at Portsmouth. The Trojans, who have had injury woes of their own this season, were pummeled 63-20 last night by Gallia Academy.