The Indians (7-5) followed it up with a 49-21 second round victory at No. 3 Cincinnati Country Day last week.
“We’re excited, we’re ready to play and we just want to keep things rolling,” said Indians coach Brian Bogenschutz.
This week, they’ll look to make it three road wins in a row against second-seeded St. Henry (10-1). The winner will face either Marion Local or Fort Recovery in next week’s Region 28 final.
“The guys are excited to play, and it doesn’t matter where they are, what position they’re sitting in, they’re ready to go,” Bogenschutz said.
They were one of five teams seeded lower than No. 8 to advance to the regional semifinals, joining Mariemont, Carey, Danville and Fort Recovery. They entered last week’s regional quarterfinals as 22-point underdogs, according to Fantastic50.net, a site that compiles Ohio high school football rankings and game predictions based on computer simulations and historical data.
“In all honesty, we don’t really pay attention to any of the spreads or anything like that,” he said. “We just want to go out there and execute. We felt confident that we could run our stuff and play well.”
The Indians won first-round playoff games twice in their last three postseason appearances, but were never able to break through to the round of 16. Cedarville finished the regular season 5-5, but lost three of those games by 10 points or less.
They’re led by D-VII Defensive Player of the Year Isaiah Christian, a senior linebacker, as well as senior quarterback Will Mossing, who earned first team All-District honors.
They’ll face a tough task in St. Henry, whose only setback was a 21-14 loss to four-time defending Marion Local in Week 3.
“We’ve just got to execute,” Bogenschutz said. “When everyone does their job every play, good things will happen if you play as hard as you can.”
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
They’re led by quarterback Charlie Werling, who rushed for 159 yards in last week’s 14-7 win over New Bremen.
“Their quarterback is their focal point,” Bogenschutz said. “If we execute like we should, then hopefully it’s a good game.”
The Cedarville community has caught playoff fever during their historic postseason run, he said.
“The town’s been great, and they’ve been supporting us the entire way,” Bogenschutz said. “I felt like we had just as many, if not more, fans that went to Country Day than than Country Day had. They’ve been behind us.”
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