Here are four things to know heading into the state semifinal round of the high school football playoffs:
Defense matters
The cliché states defense wins championships.
Defense has been at the forefront for several of the remaining teams.
None of the four Miami Valley teams left, nor their opponents, are allowing more than two touchdowns per game.
Tippecanoe (13-0) leads the group, allowing 6.5 points per game this season. Its opponent, Bishop Watterson (12-0), follows closely behind at 6.7 ppg.
Middletown’s 8.1 ppg includes four shutouts. St. Henry is allowing 9.2 ppg and Coldwater (10-4) allows 14.4 ppg, which includes giving up 48 points to eventual Division IV regional finalist Valley View in its season opener.
Both Middletown (11-2) and St. Henry (12-1) hold the advantage over their respective semifinal opponents in scoring margin, and Coldwater and Tipp trail their opponents.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Who is favored?
Using the ratings provided by Drew Pasteur’s Fantastic50.net — a site that compiles Ohio high school football rankings and game predictions based on computer simulations — we can look at how each of the teams match up on paper.
St. Xavier (10-2) is a 13-point favorite in its matchup with Middletown.
Bishop Watterson is a 24-point favorite against Tippecanoe.
Coldwater is a 1-point favorite over Hopewell-Loudon (12-1).
St. Henry is a 10-point favorite over Columbus Grove (10-3).
Pasteur’s ratings have an accuracy rate of more than 84 percent this season and has maintained that success rate during the postseason. The ratings system successfully picked 26 of the 28 winners last week.
How far will you go?
The OHSAA uses geography to determine the best venues to use as neutral sites for state semifinal games. A site of equal distance between the two schools is not the final determination or even always readily available, especially during a holiday weekend, as schools must be willing to host postseason games.
Some teams will have to travel farther than others.
Middletown has a 30-minute drive to Welcome Stadium. St. Xavier is double the distance from Dayton, but the trip up Interstate 75 should be roughly 15 minutes longer.
Bishop Watterson will drive 90 minutes down I-71 to Mason, whereas Tipp’s trip down I-75 will take an hour.
Wapakoneta is about 30 minutes from Coldwater maneuvering around Grand Lake. Hopewell-Loudon will drive about 75 minutes to get to the stadium.
St. Henry and Columbus Grove will both travel close to an hour to get to Troy.
Ticket information, streaming options
Playoff ticket prices have increased for the final two state rounds of the postseason. Tickets are $16 for adults and $10 for students. All children 5-and-under are free. All tickets are available at ohsaa.org/tickets.
Several local games will be available to stream on both the Spectrum News 1 and OHSAA websites.
The Middletown-St. Xavier game will be televised live on Spectrum News 1 in the Dayton market.
All other area games — Tippecanoe vs. Bishop Watterson, Coldwater vs. Hopewell-Loudon, St. Henry vs. Columbus Grove — will be available to stream at spectrumnews1.com and OHSAA.tv. Spectrum customers can stream on the Spectrum News App or SpectrumNews1.com or games can be purchased for $10 at OHSAA.tv.
Check out how all four Miami Valley teams made it to the state semifinals below.
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