By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News

LOGAN — As the season has progressed, the Logan Chieftains’ record-setting quarterback, Patrick Angle, has also seen more time on defense than originally expected.

“He’s the best athlete on this team, and you hate to not use him,” Logan coach Dale Amyx said after Angle was involved in a team-best 17 tackles (six solo, 11 assists) and have five tackles for loss last week at Ironton. “You just have to cross your fingers and hope he doesn’t get hurt.”

Angle is as tough of a kid as you’ll find. He’s played through a slightly-separated shoulder sustained early in the summer, and was a bit gimpy after getting hit on the calf during the Pickerington North game.
And he didn’t miss a play despite getting his bell rung by an Ironton lineman in the third quarter of last week’s game. The Chiefs called a time-out in order for him to shake off the cobwebs so he could remain in the game.

Angle and his step-brother, Mason Mays, are now manning outside linebacker positions, with Michael Snider still in the middle. All are seniors, and all of them like to hit people. Snider is the team’s leading tackler, and Mays and Angle have been gradually climbing the tackle ladder as well.

“We pretty much ran a 5-4 (defense at Ironton) and had nine guys in the box. We pretty much dared them to throw the ball,” Amyx noted. “We used that a lot against Lancaster and Gallipolis, too, teams whom we didn’t feel could throw the ball well or who just didn’t want to throw the ball.”

That was certainly the case with Ironton. The Fighting Tigers were reluctant to put the ball in the air — they didn’t attempt a single pass until 5:42 remained in the game — and resorted to a halfback option pass when they fell behind 13-7 with under four minutes remaining.

They threw four of their eight passes on the game’s final drive — two of them short dump-offs to running backs — and didn’t appear to play with a sense of urgency despite being down two touchdowns at the time.

You can expect Angle to remain on defense the rest of the season. How much he plays will be dictated by the score on a game-to-game basis.

“He’ll be out there until we can get him out of the game,” Amyx said. “He had a great game last week and Mason Mays played a heckuva game (on the other side).”

What in the wide, wide world of sports… ?: Officially, the Chiefs and Fighting Tigers were called for 13 penalties last week in Tanks Memorial Stadium. However, offsetting penalties were whistled four times, and some calls by the men in stripes simply left coaches, players and fans on both sidelines scratching their heads in puzzlement.

What particularly stands out is that, on at least three occasions, the Chiefs were called for not having enough linemen on the line of scrimmage… even though they had yet to reach the line of scrimmage to begin said plays.

“They said we didn’t have enough guys on the line, but they never did give us an explanation,” Amyx revealed.

The Chiefs quickly reached the Ironton 1-yard line on their first possession of the game but were called for a questionable illegal procedure penalty that backed them up to the Ironton 6. They had a touchdown pass called back moments later on a penalty and eventually came up empty after missing a 32-yard field goal attempt.

It looked from the press box — and from many other vantage points as well — that Ironton had jumped offside while no one along the Logan line moved.

“We played it back and forth (on the game film) and never did see anyone (on the Logan OL) move,” Amyx said.

ZHS and the SEOAL: Although Zanesville is no longer a member of the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League, the Blue Devils maintained most of what would have been their 2009 SEOAL schedule as non-conference games this fall. Those games would have been part of the second year of the league’s two-year schedule rotation.

The Blue Devils are playing five of the six teams (Marietta, Logan, Gallipolis, Jackson and Chillicothe) who would have been on their conference schedule. The other was Warren, which instead opted to play former SEOAL member Point Pleasant last week in place of Zanesville. Zanesville played Lisbon Beaver and rolled to a 42-point win.

Don’t expect a similar schedule next year, however. Keeping Zanesville on the schedule this season helped keep SEOAL athletic directors from having to deal with the headache of scheduling another team for a non-conference game for just one season.

The SEOAL goes to a full single round-robin schedule in 2010, and Logan (Oct. 15 at Zanesville) is the only conference team likely to keep the Blue Devils on the schedule. The all-time Logan-Zanesville series is currently tied 9-9 — with Logan having won the last nine.

Warriors on the warpath: Speaking of Warren, the Warriors are 5-0 and have two very winnable games coming up: this Friday at Meigs (1-4) and next Friday at Portsmouth (3-2).

If the Warriors can win those two games, they would enter a week-eight clash with the visiting Chieftains at 7-0. And 5-0 Jackson hosts 1-4 Marietta this Friday in an effort to go 6-0. The Ironmen might be 7-1 or even 8-0 when they visit Logan in week nine.

“A 5-0 team at this point in the season is a good football team,” Amyx said. “I don’t care who they have played.”