Week 5 of central Ohio high school football kicked off Sept. 17 with six City League games: Briggs 46, Eastmoor Academy 13; Centennial 38, Mifflin 0; Linden-McKinley 35, Beechcroft 6; Marion-Franklin 26, Walnut Ridge 12; South 35, Independence 8; and West 38, Africentric 8.
Read our takeaways from South and West’s wins.
Defense powers South to rout, 5-0 start
Perhaps it was appropriate that the Bulldogs’ first touchdown came on defense, when junior linebacker Chris Harris recovered a fumble by Independence quarterback Maxwell Hereford in the end zone late in the first quarter.
The Bulldogs entered the game boasting 11 defenders with at least 20 tackles and four with at least eight stops for loss, and the defense was allowing only 10 points per game – a figure that included two shutouts.
It is now 8.0 points per game after South reached 5-0 for the first time since 2022. The Bulldogs will try to equal their 6-0 start of 2019 – and improve to 3-0 in the City-South – on Sept. 25 at winless Eastmoor.
“I was just following my linebacker … watching the play as it went, I saw the ball pop up and I made the play,” Henry said of the fumble recovery. “It’s a team effort wherever we go. It’s about what we put in, accountability and responsibility.”
South forced three turnovers, the others being interceptions for senior cornerback Timothy Lipsey Jr. and junior defensive lineman Derek Stokes Jr.
Independence (1-4, 0-2) finished with 187 yards but had eight plays for negative yardage. The 76ers’ only touchdown came from Hereford, who scored on a 1-yard run on the first play of the second quarter then ran in the 2-point conversion for an 8-7 lead.
“Defense sets the standard and it did again. Once that happened, the offense picked it up and went from there,” South coach Adam Warren said. “We just do everything together. That’s been the mindset. We work together, we have one goal. Our focus has been to, at the minimum, win the City League-South.”
Henry said even he has been surprised at times by the defense’s dominance.
“We know how to communicate well. All we need to do is move even faster during plays,” Henry said. “I really wasn’t expecting this much, but as we went through the summer and saw everybody working, everybody was grinding. That’s how we got here.”
South’s offense has varied contributors, too
Four players scored as many touchdowns for South, but only one had a hand in multiple scores. Senior quarterback Leon Tilly tossed a 30-yard touchdown to junior Mar’kye McNair on a slant route midway through the second quarter and added a 12-yard run of his own to finish the scoring late in the third.
Junior Tray Bush Jr., who split time at quarterback with Tilly, scored from 2 yards with 23 seconds left in the first half to make it 22-8.
Another junior, running back Tramaine Petty, scored from 92 yards two plays after Stokes’ interception at the goal line.
“Last year we rode Gavin Griffin, who was first-team all-district, but this year we have been able to spread it out since we have multiple playmakers,” Warren said. “It makes it hard to defend us because you don’t know who will be our option when the ball is snapped. It could be Leon Tilly. It could be Tramaine Petty. You just don’t know. It makes us very difficult for us to defend. If we don’t turn the ball over, I don’t see us losing games.”
–Dave Purpura
West dominates Africentric to remain unbeaten
After three consecutive losing seasons to start his tenure at West, coach Eric Robinson could sense a change in attitude during this past offseason, and it has carried over to this fall.
The Cowboys have delivered their best start since 2016, improving to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the City-South with their rout of Africentric. The entire second half was played with a running clock after West led 32-0 at halftime.
In 2016, West started 8-0 and finished 9-2, losing to New Albany in the first round of the Division II, Region 7 playoffs. That was also the Cowboys’ last winning season.
West was 7-66 over the previous eight seasons. Robinson was 6-24 entering this season.
“I saw this coming a little bit,” Robinson said. “We started buying in on this in January. We had a really good turnout, and the kids just bought into it. The kids really like each other.”
Senior quarterback Del’navon Bailey, who transferred from Hartley before his sophomore year, has helped lead the resurgence. He scored on runs of 71 and 47 yards and threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Jayshawn Hall to help stake his team to its big first-half lead against Africentric.
Darius Gollman added a 50-yard TD run in the second quarter. Drayton Morris closed the scoring for West early in the second half with a touchdown run that he set up with an interception.
Africentric coach laments mistakes
Africentric coach Jamell Davis was disappointed with his team’s performance, pointing to early mistakes as a key to the loss.
“It was good not getting shut out, but we made a lot of mistakes, a lot of missed tackles, and a lot of missed passes," Davis said. "We just have to play with more energy.”
Africentric averted the shutout on Zyion Thornton’s 14-yard TD pass to Jordan Simmons with 3:30 remaining in the third quarter.
The Nubians (1-4, 1-1) will look to bounce back when they visit Marion-Franklin (2-3, 2-0) on Sept. 25.
“I’m going to tell them to keep their heads up,” Davis said. “We’re on to next week.”
–Frank DiRenna
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: South, West stay perfect with Week 5 wins in Ohio high school football
