»RELATED: Greenon pays tribute to student athletes at home opener
Greenon hosted Community and Teacher Appreciation Night for the home opener. The team also honored the families of David Waag and Connor Williams, students who died following a car crash in August. Williams' family asked Greenon sophomore Luke Downing if he would wear Connor's No. 25 jersey for the game.
Donning the jersey of his childhood friend, Downing dominated, catching seven passes for 218 yards and four touchdowns and averaging 31.1 yards per catch. Freshman quarterback Cade Rice threw five TDs in completing 14-of-33 passes for 330 yards. The first touchdown came on a fade route.
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“You talk about putting it in a basket, Cade did that,” Wooten said. “Luke just had to stick his arms out. It was a great throw. A couple of his other catches he made in traffic. He made a couple people miss. He’s not the fastest kid, but he’s long and lanky and once he gets in stride they didn’t catch up with him.
“We’ve got a tight-knit community. Luke grew up with Connor and played sports together. They lived in the same area. … It’s an unfortunate situation, but for Luke to have the jersey on of a good childhood friend and to catch four touchdown passes. The kids fought and battled. It was a good night.”
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While his players celebrated, including 10 seniors who had never walked off the field with a varsity victory, Wooten and his staff got back to work. Up next for Greenon (1-2) is undefeated West Liberty-Salem (4-0). A Tigers team that returned four starters on both sides of the ball is currently ranked No. 4 in the Division VI, Region 24 computer points. The top eight teams qualify for the postseason.
“It’s a great system and their kids know it well. And they’re tough-nosed kids,” Wooten said of his respect for the Tigers’ tradition that includes six straight playoff appearances. “Year in and year out they’re going to compete for the OHC (Ohio Heritage Conference) title. It doesn’t surprise me. … I tell our kids that’s where we want to be. It’s not going to happen overnight. As much as everyone wants that to happen, it’s a process. It doesn’t matter who our opponent is, we’re still going to try to win, compete and get better.”
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As for that win Friday, the first since beating Benjamin Logan 14-7 during Week 9 of the 2013 season, Wooten is happiest for seniors Sam Adkins, Cavan Banks, Derek Brown, Adam Campbell, Garrett Camden, Cooper Chaffin, Dylan Edens, Tyler Hamilton, Seth Simon and Zach Wilson.
“These kids stuck it out,” Wooten said. “I think it’s a testament to their relationship with each other. And you have to love the game of football. To go 0-32 and still want to come out and compete, I’m more excited for the seniors. Growing up here and the passion and love I have for the school district and kids, it was great for the community.”
Bouncing back: Springfield (3-1) looks to rebound from its first loss with a road game at Lebanon (2-2) on Friday. The Warriors beat the Wildcats 28-27 last season when Springfield's two-point conversion run failed after scoring with 17 seconds left.
“We’re going to have to play real good, sound football,” Springfield coach Maurice Douglass said. “Last week we did a better job as far as penalties. (Lebanon) has a good defense. Last year they held us to 27 points. I think we’re a much better team this year but we just have to go out and play our game.”
Lebanon averages 251 yards and 34 points and goes up against a Springfield defense playing well this season. The Wildcats are allowing 309 yards per game and 12 points. They’re also holding opponents to 22 percent (13 of 58) on third-down conversion attempts.
Springfield’s offense averages 366 yards and 28 points compared to a Lebanon defense giving up 368 yards and 29 points.
Douglass thinks the setback to Centerville could end up being a positive and refocus the Wildcats, who are No. 7 in the Division I, Region 3 computer points.
“Just gotta be focused on the task at hand. Capitalize on our opportunities in the red zone,” Douglass said. “(Centerville) was good for us. There’s no such thing as a good loss but I believe if we would have won that game we wouldn’t be able to tell our guys nothing. … They’ve shown resiliency this season. We’ll bounce back this week and keep swinging.”
New streak?: Mechanicsburg (3-1) looks to start a new regular season winning streak Friday against Madison-Plains (2-2).
Greeneview snapped Mechanicsburg's 26-game, regular-season streak that dated back to Week 7 of the 2014 season with a 17-14 win last Friday. It was a rare close game for the Indians.
Starting with the 2015 season opener, Mechanicsburg had played 23 straight regular season games with a running clock. That means the Indians won 23 straight games by 30 points or more. Including playoff games since the start of the 2015 season, Mechanicsburg had won 27 of 29 games by 30 points or more.
WEEK 5 GAMES
Friday, all at 7 p.m.
Bellefontaine at Ben Logan
Catholic Central at West Jefferson
Cedarville at Triad
Fairbanks at Southeastern
Greenon at West Liberty-Salem, ChampaignSportsAuthority.com
Jonathan Alder at Indian Lake
Kenton Ridge at Graham
Mechanicsburg at Madison Plains
Northeastern at Greeneview
Spg. Shawnee at Northwestern, WIZE-AM (1340)
Springfield at Lebanon
Urbana at Tecumseh
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