Derrick Webb

Derrick is SOSA's chief content coordinator and has worked for the Chillicothe Gazette, the Portsmouth Daily Times and Eleven Warriors. He's a 13-time award-winning journalist, a self-proclaimed baseball purist, a suffering Bengals fan and has never met a stranger.

Sideline to Sideline: Digging into Week 1 HSFB action

Our Derrick Webb takes a deep dive into his notebook after Week 1.

Derrick Webb, Staff Writer

Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.

It’s cliche, but it’s the truth. There’s absolutely nothing like the Friday Night Lights.

Circleville’s Jude Blair ran for 153 yards and three scores in Friday’s win over Huntington.
CREDIT: *Marissa Spradlin/SOSA*

The 2022 season started on a picturesque evening. If you’ve never seen a sunset in Ashville, you need to make your way to Teays Valley. It’s stunning.

Teays Valley was indeed where my crew decided to go in Week 1 — my dad and uncle tag along on Friday nights. We witnessed Chillicothe hand the Vikings a 29-19 loss in a game that saw records broken, six combined turnovers and almost 800 yards of total offense.

But there’s plenty of other area excitement to highlight. Here’s this week’s edition of Sideline to Sideline.

Kickoff

1. Paint Valley started its year on the right foot and that’s an understatement. The Bearcats, who came into the season as the SVC title favorite, took no prisoners on Friday, trouncing Blanchester by a 42-26 final — and had a 35-12 lead at halftime. Quarterback Cavan Cooper passed for 211 yards and ran for another 137, scoring five total touchdowns. Meanwhile, Dom Chambers had himself a day as well, carrying the ball 15 times for 119 yards and a score. Carson Free is also a name to watch after hauling in five catches for 100 yards and a trip to the end zone. PV has skill kids that can match up with anyone. Step one is now complete. Next up is a home date against West Jefferson. We’ll find out a lot more about this team in Week 2.

2. It was business as usual for Jackson on Friday in a route of Logan. Many believe this is the year that the Ironmen can make a deep, deep run in the postseason. They lived up to that billing in a 35-8 victory. Running back Cade Wolford was, well, Cade Wolford. The junior collected 104 yards and two touchdowns on just six carries and added 178 receiving yards and two additional scores on three catches. Quarterback Jacob Winters was also stellar, completing 7-of-12 pass attempts for 234 yards alongside 58 rushing yards and a score. Next up? A big one. Ironton comes to Alumni Stadium for what has the makings of an instant classic.

3. If Chillicothe’s defense can find a way to stop the run, the Cavaliers are going to be much better than a lot of naysayers thought. The team’s offense has explosive tendencies with Maxwell Lee in the backfield paired with Tayvion Galloway, Quinlan Netter and Tre King in the receiving corps. Quarterback Mason Doughty throws a nice ball and does a good job of keeping it away from defenders. However, the team’s defense bent on Friday, allowing 480 yards of total offense — 253 of which came on the ground. Even while the team forced five turnovers, that can’t continue to happen. If Scott Bartholomew’s group can find a way to make its opponent one-dimensional, the wins are going to pile up. This group could be a legit FAC title contender.

Ironton’s Jaquez Keyes carries the football during Friday’s 12-3 win over Wheelersburg.
CREDIT: *Renee Nemeth/SOSA*

Offensive Juggernauts

Ironton’s backfield duo of Jaquez Keyes and Amari Felder carried the Tigers to a hard-fought 12-3 win over Wheelersburg in what your dad’s dad would call a “good ‘old fashioned slobberknocker.” Keyes and Felder totaled 104 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries. They just might be the area’s best one-two punch.

How about Harrison Payne’s performance on Friday? While his team suffered a tough loss, Payne set two Teays Valley single-game records with 13 catches for 187 yards. He scored once and gave the Vikings a viable option through the air moving forward.

There may have not been a better individual start to a season than that of Coal Grove’s Chase Hall. The Hornets’ running back ran for four touchdowns — 44, 29, 10 and 35 yards — in the team’s 43-6 shellacking of Berne Union on Friday. You can expect Hall to continue to give opposing defenses fits.

Video of the Week

Did anyone else see the ending to this game in Georgia? Just absolutely legendary.

The 🤯craziest🤯 football play of the season happened Week 1 in Georgia.
Loganville HS over Monroe Area in quadruple overtime … no look, backwards, over the head touchdown 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫
Via @TingznWingz https://t.co/o7dvdQC18N
— Justin Felder (@Justin_FOX5) August 20, 2022

Thrice as Nice

In a season-opening win over Valley, Portsmouth wideout Devon Lattimore put on an absolute show. The junior caught six passes for 159 yards and scored three times in a 42-28 victory. His speed and ability to go up and get it will set him apart all year long.

Circleville’s Jude Blair had a breakout performance to start the season, totaling 153 yards and three touchdowns on just 13 carries. That led his Tigers to a 47-0 win over Huntington.

Staying in Pickaway County, Westfall may be in for a turnaround season. After finishing just 1-8 last season, the Mustangs have already matched that win total after a 38-20 win over Madison Plains. In the victory, wideout Casey Cline caught seven passes for 119 yards and scored the team’s first three touchdowns.

In the Trenches

In a 33-0 win over Southeastern, Northwest’s offensive line kept their reputation intact. The Mohawks tallied 448 yards of total offense with 338 of those coming via the ground game. They moved the chains on 20 occasions and had the ball for 28:21 of the game clock. Defensively, Northwest held the Panthers to just four yards of total offense and two first downs.

Speaking of superb offensive line play, Waverly running back Jase Hurd may owe his big guys up front a steak dinner. Hurd amassed 210 yards on 32 carries in Friday’s wild 42-39 victory at Miami Trace — the team had 272 rushing yards in total on 44 attempts. We could see those types of numbers from Hurd all year and it’s because of his field vision paired with the Tigers’ talented offensive line unit.

Shot of the Week

This one speaks for itself.

Chillicothe’s Maxwell Lee hurdles a defender during the Cavaliers’ 29-19 win at Teays Valley in Week 1.
CREDIT: *Derrick Webb/SOSA*

A win is a win

There are two sides to Friday’s West-Fairland thriller. If you’re West, you have to feel like a win slipped through the cracks. If you’re Fairland, you have to feel like you escaped with a victory. The Dragons posted 155 yards of total offense, tallied just six first downs, and ran 43 plays from scrimmage. The Senators? 305, 15 and 67. Yet, Fairland walked away with a 14-13 win.

If you had told McClain that its offense would score just 14 points on Friday, hopes for a win might’ve been dim. However, that’s exactly what happened and the Tigers walked away with a 28-14 victory at Adena — thanks to two huge plays on the defensive side of the football. Emerson Yates logged a 30-yard interception return for a score before Conner Frazier followed suit. Those two plays were the difference in a season-opening win.