As the halfway point of the 2024 Ohio high school football regular season draws near, as in later this week, games start to carry more importance each week in terms of league championship and playoff hopes.
League play began last week for many teams across the Columbus area, and that will continue to be the case over the next few weeks.
Here are five things we learned in Week 4, some of which comes from games that already featured potential league championship implications:
1. Lucas again comes up big for Walnut Ridge
Scots junior quarterback Marquis Lucas is hardly a hidden gem, given that he is in his third year as a starter.
But first-year coach Rob Wheelwright marvels at Lucas’ abilities. The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Lucas generates mismatches offensively with his size and defensively with his speed, and Friday night’s 36-18 win at Africentric – in the City League-South opener for both teams – was the latest example.
Lucas rushed for a 51-yard touchdown, returned a fumble 40 yards for a score and generally guided Walnut Ridge through a sometimes uneven performance to keep the Scots undefeated at 4-0.
“And that’s why we use him,” Wheelwright said. “He has a knack for the ball. He’s a ballhawk. Wherever he is, he wants the ball on offense and he finds the ball on defense. We move him around sporadically and try to put him in position to make him play well.
“Offensively, we did a great job of just managing the game. We didn’t score on a few of our (trips into the) red zone. (Africentric) did a pretty good job defensively. We have to hit the drawing board and find some more ways to score when we get down into the red zone.”
2. Grove City continues to roll
With losses Friday by Delaware Hayes, Newark, Olentangy Liberty and Olentangy Orange, Grove City is central Ohio’s lone unbeaten Division I team.
“Some of my coaches were telling me that,” coach Greg Waits said. “That’s great, but we have another game (this week at Hilliard Darby) and that’s the one that matters to us. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done these first four weeks. We have to be ready to play. Even though Darby is 0-4, I think Darby is pretty good. They have some size. They have some bulk on the offensive and defensive lines. They have some good skilled guys.”
The Dawgs turned in another dominating performance in beating Thomas Worthington 41-7 at home in Week 4.
Carson Welsh completed 19 of 25 passes for 203 yards and three touchdowns, and Ayden McKinstry rushed for 133 yards and one score on 14 carries.
Grove City has outscored its opponents 155-56. Half of those 56 points were allowed in a 38-28 win over Westland in Week 2.
“We have a lot of things to get better on,” Waits said. “Even (Friday night), after watching film (of the win over Thomas), we have to get better in a lot of areas. I guess that’s a good thing.”
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3. Teays Valley proves it belongs in OCC
One game makes for a small sample size, but the Vikings and their fans will not soon forget their long-awaited OCC debut.
Teays Valley trailed visiting Lancaster 21-7 in the second half but used two touchdowns and an interception from sophomore Carson Payne – whose last score came with 1:18 to play – to defeat the Golden Gales 35-28 in OCC-Buckeye action. The Vikings (3-1) have shined since an opening 42-7 loss to Grove City, with wins over Bloom-Carroll (28-10) and Watkins Memorial (35-12).
In its second season under veteran coach Brian Cross, Teays Valley is a win away from matching last year’s victory total.
The conference’s other new entrant, Logan (1-3), did not fare as well with a 54-0 loss to Pickerington Central (2-2), also in OCC-Buckeye play.
Both schools were admitted into the OCC in 2021.
4. Olentangy Berlin defeats school-district rival, but another awaits
Just a few hours after his team rallied to defeat visiting Liberty 22-21, Berlin coach Mark Nori went back to work, watching film of his team’s next opponent, Orange (3-1).
For Nori, now is not the time to savor a win.
“It doesn’t get easier,” Nori said. “The further in the season that you go, there’s more risk and more reward the later in the season you get. We’re going into Week 5 this week, and it’s a tough Orange team. … They have a really good quarterback (in Levi Davis) and some players around him. They’ll be a tough opponent.”
The Bears (3-1) edged Liberty on Aiden Eviston’s two-point conversion pass to Colton Less, which followed Eviston’s 14-yard scoring pass to Zach Siegrist with 1:18 left. The touchdown made it 21-20 after Berlin trailed 21-7 at halftime.
“The staff did a good job, especially on the defensive side of the ball,” Nori said. “We were able to shut them out in the second half. The defense figured some things out.”
Eviston completed 8 of 10 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed 58 yards and a score on 18 carries.
Berlin has won two consecutive games against Liberty after losing the first three in the series.
5. Grove City Christian bounces back with rivalry win
Third-year Grove City Christian coach Ben Schall picked up his first win against rival Fairfield Christian, as his Eagles (3-1) vanquished the host Knights (1-3) 49-0 in the MSL-Cardinal opener for both teams.
The series, which began in 2007, is now tied 9-9. Fairfield Christian won the previous two meetings, including 17-14 last season on a last-minute 20-yard field goal.
“When I first got there, I didn’t really understand how important the rivalry was to the kids and how important it was to the school,” Schall said. “I treated it a little bit like another game and found out real quick it wasn’t another game. Our kids really came out and got after it. They were focused and did what we were supposed to do.”
Douglas Housley completed 14 of 18 passes for 223 yards with four touchdowns and one interception, and Cayden Carroll rushed for 121 yards and a score on 14 carries.
The Eagles also rebounded from a 32-13 loss to Mount Gilead in Week 3.
“It felt good to get that taste out of our mouth,” Schall said.
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Publish date : 2024-09-15 23:04:00
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