Defenses came up big in the three Week 5 games covered by The Dispatch on Sept. 18. Read our takeaways from Gahanna Lincoln's 10-7 win at Hilliard Darby, Olentangy Berlin's 24-14 win at Westerville Central and Pickerington North's 51-7 win at Olentangy Orange.
Gahanna Lincoln escapes with win at Hilliard Darby
Although his team was able to hold on to beat Darby and improve to 5-0, Gahanna coach Bruce Ward believes his Lions were fortunate.
“I tell my team after every week – and I think we as coaches and as sports writers, we understand this – Ohio high school football is good and it’s tough,” Ward said. “It takes a lot of work every week. We were fortunate to get [the win].”
Gahanna rallied from a 7-3 third-quarter deficit, taking the lead for good on Grey Kegley’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Marki
Wallace with 10:54 remaining.
The teams traded interceptions in the closing minutes, and Darby lost the ball on downs near midfield with 1:23 left to end its last chance.
The Lions had chances to add to their lead but couldn’t convert. Jacob Ashton missed a 22-yard field-goal attempt with 6:55 remaining, and Kegley was intercepted by Cedric Holman Jr. at the Darby goal line with 3:23 left to end another threat.
“We can’t throw a pick in the end zone late in the game when you’re barely up,” Ward said.
Gahanna lost a key player early in the fourth quarter when leading rusher Leon Cummings suffered a left ankle injury. He missed the remainder of the game and was on crutches afterward.
Ward was uncertain of the severity of the injury.
“He had to come out of the game, so it’s not a good situation for us,” Ward said.
Hilliard Darby falls just short of signature win
Second-year Darby coach Brad Burchfield was confident his team could compete with the Lions and would have a chance to pull out a win.
The Panthers (3-2) fell just short, but not for lack of effort.
“It was a tight ballgame,” said Burchfield, whose team finished 3-7 last season. “We probably made one more mistake than they did, but it was a good football game – physical, tough and hard-nosed. We have a [run-oriented] style of play that is doing pretty well. You want to give yourself a chance in the fourth quarter. We played pretty good defense on them.”
Darby received the second-half kickoff and drove 59 yards in 10 plays, taking a 7-3 lead with 5:40 left in the third quarter on Braylon Griffith’s 14-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1.
Wallace’s go-ahead score was set up when Gahanna trapped Griffith, who also is Darby’s punter, in the backfield on fourth-and-2 at the Panthers’ 33-yard line with 1:20 left in the third.
“We didn’t block very well on the punt,” Burchfield said. “They sent the house. It wasn’t a fake punt.”
Darby saw another drive end minutes later when Gahanna’s Desmond Nelson recovered a fumble on a fourth-and-1 play from the Panthers’ 49-yard line.
Gahanna’s Mark Thorpe III intercepted a Jonah Marsh pass midway the fourth quarter.
–Frank DiRenna
Miller, Olentangy Berlin defense take control at Westerville Central
Berlin didn’t need a defensive overhaul after Central scored twice in the first quarter. It needed to stop giving its defense short fields.
Central’s first touchdown drive began at its own 47 after a 45-yard kickoff return. Its second began at the Berlin 6 after a snap sailed over the punter’s head.
Once the field-position problem was settled, the Warhawks never scored again.
Berlin (3-2) held Central scoreless over the final 38 minutes, limited the Warhawks to 66 yards in the second half and stopped them on fourth down three times after halftime. That included a stop after Devin Smith’s interception gave Central the ball in Berlin territory.
“If we give our defense a long field, we’ve got a fighting shot,” Berlin coach Mark Nori said. “I don’t think it was a change defensively.”
He added: “We seem to be better on fourth down than we are on third sometimes. You can scheme any way you want, but when it’s that tight, and you have to shut somebody down on fourth down, it’s just want to at that point.”
Owen Miller gave the defense enough offensive support. He carried 25 times for 129 yards, scored on a 27-yard run on Berlin’s first offensive play and converted a fake punt.
He did some of his most productive work late, carrying seven times during the 58-yard drive that produced the go-ahead touchdown.
Brandon Gray finished the drive with a 3-yard TD run, and Jackson Lewis later added a 48-yard field goal.
“We picked up what was working and what wasn’t at halftime and just fixed it,” Miller said. “We had a lot of fight after losing a big one last week [27-17 to Olentangy Liberty].”
Westerville Central’s offense fails to find its rhythm
The Warhawks’ offense never found a way to match the performance of the team’s defense.
Central (3-2) kept Berlin scoreless for more than 27 minutes and entered the fourth quarter tied at 14, but three second-half possessions reached Berlin territory without producing a point.
Coach Josh Franke said the problem began with Berlin’s speed up front.
“We really couldn’t get the run game going tonight,” he said. “Their defensive speed is tough on our big guys up front. They just play so fast, and by the time we’re trying to get off double teams, they’re sneaking right past us.”
That put more pressure on quarterback Nate Miller III, who completed 10 of 21 passes for 110 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
Franke said Berlin changed its defensive alignment frequently enough that Central’s blockers had to figure out what they were seeing after the snap.
“They give you a different alignment almost every time you line up,” he said. “It’s hard to coach and simulate that in practice. Your guys have to read and react on the fly, and that’s really hard for high school kids to do.”
–Scott Gerfen
Early safety sets tone in Pickerington North rout
It might not be often that the first play of a game actually sets the tone, but the second one did for the Panthers.
So did the fourth.
North freshman linebacker Jayden Weaver sacked Orange quarterback Colby Luling in the end zone on the second play from scrimmage, and moments later on North’s second offensive play quarterback Chase McKee’s short pass to Noah Dumas turned into a 76-yard touchdown.
That was the start of an avalanche that saw North (4-1) outgain Orange (2-3) 289-45 in the first half and 489-74 for the game. Only a Pioneers pick-6 prevented the Panthers from recording their third shutout in a row.
“We had a couple breaks go our way and we broke a couple plays, [but] our defense is lights out right now,” North coach Nate Hillerich said. “We should have had a shutout. That would have been three in a row, which would be a school record. [I am] just proud of being able to stay locked in and focused.
“Anytime we get a lead, it is tough against our defense with the pressure we can bring. Our defensive line is really good. Once we got up and they were playing from behind, they had to take some chances. We had a good plan.”
Linebacker Demetrius Curtis, lineman Tatum Hill and four-star cornerback Geo McKnight – all juniors – were just three of the standouts for a defense that racked up eight tackles for loss. Hill and Weaver each sacked Luling once.
North outscored Pickerington Central and Dublin Coffman 62-0 the past two weeks, and its defense did not allow a touchdown this week either. Brock Miller’s 40-yard interception return against McKee early in the second quarter and Tyler Gibson’s extra point provided the Pioneers’ only points.
“Week by week, we are just trying to get better every day,” said Hill, a transfer from Hilliard Bradley. “[The safety] set the tone. That’s all we want to do is make big plays like that to set the tone. … We just wanted to take advantage of all the opportunities we got.”
Dumas, Thomas’ big plays pace Pickerington North
For all of the defense’s headlines, Dumas’ huge first half was crucial in staking North to a 26-7 lead.
Dumas started the scoring with his first long touchdown, added a 63-yard score on a short out route midway through the first quarter and amassed all of his 150 yards on four catches by halftime.
“All credit to my guys – the play callers, coaches, my teammates, everybody,” Dumas said. “I caught [a pass on] a short hitch the play before [the first touchdown] so we tried it again. Nobody else was open, so I looked at the open space, my quarterback saw me, I caught the ball and went from there. …
“The guys set me up for perfect situations.”
Hillerich called Dumas the Panthers’ fastest player.
“He’s electric,” Hillerich said.
Ohio University running back commit Andyriq Thomas ran for touchdowns of 76 and 73 yards, the latter coming on the final play of the third quarter. Thomas finished with 182 yards on 13 carries.
Sophomore quarterback Demetrius Neal-Nesbitt, who splits time with McKee, found Dennis White for a 22-yard touchdown moments into the second half.
“We’re all growing and getting more confident, but our quarterback room is improving,” Dumas said. “They have been more confident throughout the season. The first few weeks they might have been more nervous, but they are settling in. Week 5, they’re throwing well. They’re very confident making plays.”
–Dave Purpura
High school sports reporters Frank DiRenna and Dave Purpura can be reached at sports@dispatch.com and at @DispatchPreps on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio high school football takeaways from Week 5 games in Columbus area
