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Cardinals keep OHC title hopes alive

Triad can share title with win over West Liberty-Salem in Week 10.

Randy Hilt Triad's Tre McIntyre gets wrapped up by Southeastern's Evan Joos during Friday's game. Contributed photo by Randy Hilt

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By Jeff Gilbert, Contributing Writer 12:06 AM Saturday, October 22, 2011

SOUTH CHARLESTON — After defeating Southeastern 26-7 Friday night, Triad’s football season comes down to this: beat West Liberty-Salem and the Cardinals share the Ohio Heritage Conference title and go to the Division V Region 20 playoffs.

Cardinals coach Payton Printz wants his team to concentrate on the beat West Liberty-Salem part.

“It puts a lot of pressure on kids to talk about playoffs,” Printz said. “Kids have enough on their plate when they’re 17 and 18 years old. We have a shot at a league title, and the playoff aspirations will take care of themselves.”

A win over unbeaten WL-S would leave the Tigers and Cardinals (7-2 overall) tied for first at 6-1. If Catholic Central avoids an upset against Cedarville, there will be a three-way tie for the championship.

“We want to win the league, and the playoffs would just be the gravy on the mashed potatoes,” Printz said.

Triad’s offense was anything but meat and potatoes against Southeastern (4-5, 1-5), which saw its faint playoff hopes disappear. The Cardinals’ spread offense rolled up 349 yards with a passing attack the Trojans rarely contained.

Colton Young completed 18-of-27 passes for 255 yards and two touchdowns. Tre McIntyre caught seven passes for 153 yards, and Addison Ford caught six for 63 yards.

Young and McIntyre connected three times on the Cardinals’ first scoring drive, which ended with a 2-yard run by Ford for a 6-0 lead with 8:24 left in the first half. A 52-yarder from Young to McIntyre set up Young’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Seth Collier with 2:52 left in the half for a 12-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Southeastern’s use of the spread had a new look with a run-first game plan that surprised Printz. The Trojans ran the ball 19 times in the first half, and QB Luke Pavlatos threw the ball only 10 times. An interception in the end zone and some penalties kept the Trojans scoreless.

“We felt like we needed to establish the run, because we hadn’t been able to run the ball all year,” Trojans coach Greg Bonifay said. “But we’ve got to play mistake-free football.”

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