For the first time in school history the Salem Quakers footbal team will advance to the postseason (according to projections at joeeitel.com) with their 33-14 win at Patterson Field. Salem literally always led in this game as they won the toss, elected to receive, and ran the game’s opening kickoff back for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead, then recovered a “walk the dog” onside kick and drove the ball 48 yards for another score and it was 13-0 only 2:14 into the game. The Potters responded with a scoring drive of their own to cut it to 13-7 and recovered their own onside kick but that ensuing drive stalled in the red zone on downs. Salem scored twice in the 2nd quarter to take a safe 26-7 lead at halftime. The Potters really didn’t have a great answer on defense for Salem’s spread offense. Maybe more blitzing could’ve forced some mistakes. Or just caused getting killed more quickly. Oh well.

The Potters finish the season 4-6. Though the “on the field” record is only one game better than last season I thought this team showed vast improvements over the squads of the McNicol Era. They played hard, they played disciplined, and they showed skill for the game at times. Very young team so there were mistakes, and injuries took their toll as the season moved along, most noteable the absense of Willie Leavell most of the 2nd half of the season. And it was a tough schedule. With the exception of the Linsly game the Potters loses could potentially all be to teams that make the playoffs in their respective states; Steubenville, Maple Heights, Salem, and Martins Ferry I think are all shoe-ins in Ohio and Oak Glen in West Virginia was very alive with a couple weeks left in the WV regular season. I think there is great reason for optimism for the 2010 season. In the meantime good luck to the Quakers and other area teams that qualify for postseason play!

By winning 20-14 against Wheeling Park and soggy and chilly Patterson Field last night. I think the Patriots spread passing game was hampered by the soft and muddy field conditions, them being accustomed to playing their home games on field turf. Either that or the quarterback needs to work on accuracy. They key play was probably on the opening drive of the game. The Potters had a nice drive going but a negative play followed by an intentional grounding put them at 4th & 26 on the 35 yard line. You would think a fake punt would not be successful in that situation, but Park was completely caught off guard when it was a direct snap to an up back and he scampered around the left end of the line and went unmolested to the end zone. With the win the Potters are 4-4 with two games remaining. If they can beat Linsly this coming Saturday afternoon it would guarantee a non-losing season for the first time since the Bob Thayer era at East Liverpool. Go Potters!

21-20 was the final score at Patterson Field. The Potters got the early 7-0 lead then saw John Marshall respond but missed the extra point to make it 7-6. Later in the half the Potters had a great time consuming drive that ended with a TD w/ 10 seconds left for the 14-6 halftime lead. The Monarchs got a score latish in the 3rd quarter but failed on a 2 point attempt to leave the score at 14-12.

That rather mundane narrative picked up a bit the final few minutes of the game. John Marshall had a drive with about 6 minutes left stall inside the 20 on a turnover on downs. East Liverpool then picked up a few first downs and forced JM to use 2 of their timeouts but a couple penalties compelled a pooch punt with about 3 minutes left. And it was a beauty pinning JM at their own 2 yard line. The Monarchs used 4 plays, a lot of clock, and their remaining timeout just to pick up the initial first down around the 15 yard line. The the Potters committed an inexplicable blunder and let a JM receiver get behind everyone on a sideline go route, the JM qb threw about his only perfect pass of the night, and 85 yards later JM had the lead with 1:10 remaining in the game. They went for 2 points and converted to make it 20-14. A squib kick was quickly tackled by JM giving the Potters the ball at their own 32 with 1:07 and 2 timeouts. A sideline run by the quarterback Tompkins got a 1st down out of bounds. A bubble screen to Preston Foster got another first down out of bounds with :55 left. The exact same play was going to work again but for a dubious holding call. A running play gave 2nd & 1 and the Potters called a timeout, then the Potters threw a backward pass on the next play and then a flanker pass about 20 yards downfield. It was incomplete but drew a pass interference call putting the ball at the 13 yard line. Tompkins rolled left which was contained but broke backside contain on the right side and was able to manuever through the JM secondary for the touchdown with :16 seconds left. The Potters used their last timeout to make sure everyone was settled for the extra point which was converted. JM downed a squib kick, had a receiver drop an out route at midfield, then threw an intercept on the last play to end the game.

With the win the Potters improve to 3-4 and will entertain Wheeling Park next Friday night.

Well, its a good thing that Ohio St shut out Illinois to open Big Ten play, as my football teams otherwise had a bad weekend. No shame in East Liverpool losing to state ranked Maple Heights on the road though a closer margin would’ve been preferable. Ditto Bowling Green losing badly to nationally ranked Boise St in a game I personally attended with some old college chums. The Steelers dropping to 1-2 is another matter, though.

First of all, lets give the Bengals credit for keeping the 1st half damage minimal and sticking with things. And it was a perfectly constructed and paced final drive. But this makes two weeks in a row that the Steelers blew a game they should’ve won. Can I ask why the Steelers aren’t blitzing on those Bengals 4th quarter scoring drives? Pittsburgh is an attack defense, not a coverage play it safe bend don’t break defense. Attack Palmer, get a sack, get a turnover, harrass him, don’t let him do what he wants to do. And, if it backfired and they hit a big play, like the Cardinals did in Super Bowl XLIII, at least you’ve left time to respond, like Roethlisberger and Holmes did in Super Bowl XLIII. Don’t sit back and let the Bengals prick you until you bleed to death. Also, it would be nice if the Steelers stop putting Limas Sweed on the field. A wide receiver that cannot catch the ball is useless to me. Mike Wallace lets them be 3 deep at receiver and you’ve got two good pass catching tight ends with Miller and Spaeth. If he catches that easy touchdown ball it ices the game. Instead the Steelers don’t score and are left vulnerable to the Bengals comeback. And, the ironic thing is the Steelers ultimately screwed themselved by successfully defending that two point conversion that left their lead at 20-15. If its 20-17 the Bengals settle for the tying field goal when facing 4th & 10 at the 15 with 30 seconds left. Maybe the Steelers get a big kick return and win in regulation, or they have a 50-50 chance in overtime. But such is the luck of the draw sometimes. Now they are 1-2 and two games behind Baltimore in the standings. Which they are still okay if they can arrest this trend of lousy 4th quarters and win some games. They are at home with another stern test facing the Chargers on Sunday Night Football. If they can manage a win there maybe the Ravens lose at New England and they are back within one game of Baltimore and Cincinnati (assuming the Bengals beat Cleveland). At any rate, still have both games with the Ravens remaining and if they can manage to end up 11-5 or 10-6 that usually at least gets you a wildcard. But their play early in the year is not giving me strong positive vibes.

As for Bowling Green’s loss to Boise, the Broncos are clearly the better team. They only really tried in the 2nd quarter and that was all they needed to blow the doors off Doyt Perry Stadium. No shame in the loss and it was nice to see what a sellout crowd looks like in that stadium. The Falcons had a somewhat disappointing 1-3 non-conference showing, but it was against a strong schedule and they still have as good a shot as any at winning the MAC East. Need to get some wins starting this Saturday at home against Ohio. Still, I am concerned 4 games in about our red zone execution, and I am also concerned that Tyler Sheehan is if anything regressing in his quarterback play. Presumably though most of the defenses he sees the next 2 months won’t be as good as Boise so I will remain optimistic for now.

I didn’t see the Ohio St game as I was busy hanging out in a parking lot outside Doyt Perry, but that was the 2nd straight shutout for the Buckeyes defense which is obviously a promising sign. They have several games ahead that figure to be harder than Toledo and Illinois. Hopefully they take care of business and have an undefeated October heading into the last 3 games of the season at Penn St, hosting Iowa, and at Michigan.

I didn’t see the Potter game either in person, but I gather it was close for awhile before Maple Heights opened it up. At 2-3 the Potters are still on track for finishing somewhere in the 5-5 range which would be definite progress over the past few seasons. It doesn’t get much easier this coming Friday night heading down Rt. 7 to take on OVAC perennial power Martins Ferry.

Tiger Woods won the FedEx Cup. I hope no one is shocked by that development.

The big sports story this coming week will be the 4 game series between the Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers settling the AL Central title and the right to challenge the Yankees in the ALDS. Detroit enters the final week with a 2 game lead. Obviously, this gives them a real advantage entering this series. If the Tigers can win 3 games of the 4 they will clinch the division and can use this weekend to rest and set the rotation. Splitting the series means Detroit is 2 up with 3 to go and could clinch over the weekend as quickly as Friday night. Even Minnesota winning 3 of 4 simply means the two teams are flat tied entering the final 3 games of their seasons. Of course, if the Twins sweep the 4 then they grab the 2 game lead with 3 games to go. About the only other story right now is the NL wildcard race, where the Braves have pulled within 2.5 games (2 in the loss column) of Colorado.

***UPDATE*** A quick check of mlb.mlb.com reveals that the Twins v Tigers game has been postponed because of a rainy evening in SE Michigan. According to the Tigers website they will play a day/night doubleheader tomorrow at 12:05pm and 7:05pm to get back on schedule. Presumably people that held tickets for tonight’s game would now hold tickets for the day game tomorrow.

I thought I had seen it all in high school football, but then something new comes along. About 15 minutes before kickoff an electrical short knocked out power to the light standards on the visiting sideline of Patterson Field, the scoreboard, the main concession stand, and I believe under the home seating bowl. They played the game anyway by the light from the light standards on the home sideline and with keeping time on the field. A cherry-picker from the electric company came during halftime and with 9 minutes left in the game full power was restored to Patterson Field.

In the garish lighting Youngstown Chaney and East Liverpool played the game as scheduled and offered a relatively entertaining game. Both teams scored on their opening drive with the Potters being better on the PAT to lead 8-6. Then the Potter D began clicking and getting a couple turnovers and the Potters led 21-6 at halftime, then drove the 2nd half kickoff to lead 28-6 and it was starting to look like a laugher. But Chaney kept battling and the Potters made a couple mistakes that let the Cowboys get back in it. By the time the scoreboard came to life it was 28-22. But with 3 minutes remaining the Potters were able to force a turnover on downs and then on 3rd & 8 Tompkins hit a big play action pass completion for the first down and plenty more yardage and the Potters ran out the clock.

With the win the Potters improve to 2-2. Week 5 is the longest bus trip of the season barring an improbable playoff run as the Blue & White travel to the Cleveland area to face Maple Heights.

Also, in a nice pregame ceremony Potter golfers Jason Dickey and John Auer were recognized for coming in 1st and 2nd at the OVAC AAAA golf championship held at Oglebay Resort’s Spiedel Course. The Potter duo both shot 76s and Dickey won on the 2nd playoff hole. Impressive playing for both to be sure!

Leading by 11 points and with time in the game set to expire, Steubenville chose to snap the ball one more time in order to throw a 15 yard TD pass. I was quite frankly shocked, as Big Red Head Coach Reno Saccoccia is not usually classless like that. I recall him going so far as to take knees on PAT plays to keep the score as deflated as possible. Maybe he just wanted the final margin of victory to be close to what was expected pregame?

At any rate I thought it was a very encouraging effort by the Potters to hang in there with mighty Big Red. The game was tied at 14 before Steubenville got a score late in the 1st half. Admittedly Big Red was without their starting quarterback and looked a bit flat at times coming off their big win last week against Woodland Hills (PA) but it was still a very game, encouraging effort by the Potters even though they lose and drop to 1-2 on the season. Try to bounce back at home next Friday night against Youngstown Chaney.

35-14 was the score Friday night in Newell.  Oak Glen just took it to the Potters from the opening play to the last play.  The Bears looked stronger and more enthused the whole night and I thought the Potters looked flat.  Frankly, if it weren’t for 3 first half Oak Glen turnovers this game would’ve been a rout on the scoreboard from early on.  But Oak Glen had 2 turnovers that killed drives (one on the goalline) and a turnover that game the Potters a 15 yard field for their 1st half score.  I’m not sure if the Potters were caught between the Beaver Local win and the Steubenville game seeing how the Bears were handled by Crestview in Week 1 and thought they had an easy win, but it was a disappointing performance either way.  Oh well with a ton of underclassmen in the lineup there figures to be ups and downs this season.  Boys will have to regroup for what figures to be an, um, challenging contest against Steubenville, the home opener, this coming Friday night.  East Liverpool is still the last team to beat Big Red in a regular season contest, Week 10 of 2002.

The milestone victory for the veteran volleyball coach at East Liverpool High School came Monday night against Struthers:

http://www.reviewonline.com/page/content.detail/id/518342.html?nav=5010

Congratulations Bob!  The article fails to mention it, but he has done plenty else in his 3 1/2 decades on the Hill, including directing the winter student play and spring musical each year, advising the Student Senate, administering fall and winter Homecoming festivities, and any number of other activities.  Whenever he decides to retire, it will leave a helluva void in Potter Country.

20-14 was the final score over rival Beaver Local at Fighting Beaver Stadium.  The Potters controlled field position most of the game starting with a failed onside kick attempt by the Beavers to open the season.  The first drive stalled after a procedure penalty against the Potters (a recurring theme) and resulted in a missed field goal, but Beaver Local had to punt and the Potters took the ball right down the field for a touchdown.  A fumble on the next drive gave Beaver Local a short field that they converted into a TD to lead 7-6, but the Potters were able to drive the ball down the field before halftime and scored with 50 seconds left to lead 12-7 at halftime.  To open the 2nd half Beaver Local fumbled and the Potters moved the ball before a 3rd and long interception at the 8 yard line.  However, the Big Blue Wrecking Crew forced a -4 yard 3 and out possession and the Potters got great field position off the punt and scored to go up 20-7.  Beaver Local did hit a big pass play in the middle of the 4th quarter to score and make in 20-14 and got the ball back late but weren’t able to move the ball very far before a turnover on downs and the Potters ran the clock out.

The Potters are far from a polished and finished product but there was a lot to give a fan hope that things are moving back in the right direction.  I thought the line play was solid on both sides of the ball, save several procedure penalties on offense, but that is correctable.  The running backs had holes and the defensive line made several great plays to stuff Beaver Local.  The Potters showed a varied and multi-dimensional running game with Willie Leavell, Preston Foster, Marky Thompkins (at quarterback) and others getting productive carries.  They ran it up the middle, they ran it wide, they ran counters, they ran draws, they ran options.  The passing game OTOH is a work in progress as Thompkins looked a bit rough delivering the ball.  But he had one nice downfield pass to Andrew English to convert a key 3rd down (English did a great job hanging onto the ball while a Beaver defender was undercutting him) and with practice and experience (Thompkins only being a sophomore) that part of the game should get smoother and make the Potter offense more dangerous.  They’ll need to work on consistency as several drives were stalled by false start or illegal motion penalties, guys getting anxious type things.  But once the play started they were clean except for one roughing penalty that I thought was a bit borderline, unlike the McNicol era when you could pretty much count on at least 2 egg-headed late hit fouls a game at least.  Conversion attempts are another worry as the Potters kicker didn’t get either the field goal or the extra point elevated at all, no chance at success, forcing them to go for 2 after the last couple scores.  And, quite frankly, there are teams on the schedule that will test this team more than Beaver Local, who looked rather ordinary.  But it was a good and promising start.

Speaking of Beaver Local, how much patience did those great teams earlier this decade buy head coach Rich Wright from his fans?  I thought he made several tactical blunders in this game.  I have no idea what he was doing at the end of the 1st half after the Potters scored with 50 seconds left they got the ball at the minus 28 with 3 timeouts and the Potters having 1.  Beaver Local has little in a passing game, so I thought he might run the clock out, or perhaps take one shot downfield and then run the clock out if it didn’t work.  And, it appeared they were running it out, but then he called timeout on 3rd & 1 with 13 seconds left.  Why?  If that play gets stuffed the Potters could call their timeout and force the 4th down play.  As it is they converted on the qb sneak and then called another timeout with 6 seconds left the ball near midfield.  To throw a hail mary you figure?  No, to run the ball for 6 yards again as the half ends.  But more substantial was at the end of the game, facing a 4th & 9 with about 90 seconds left having all 3 timeouts (running clock).  He needs to call timeout right away, this is their last realistic chance at winning.  And, if the play fails the Potters have 85 seconds to kill and he has two timeouts.  No, he lets the clock dwindle to about 1 minute even .  . .  and then calls his timeout.  So now after the play fails the Potters only have to kill about 50 seconds against 2 timeouts.  As it is the Potters got a 1st down, but even if they didn’t the 4th down play was going to be with little or no time left (3rd down play ended with 36 seconds on the clock so highly questionable if the ref would’ve even made the ball ready for play above or below 25 seconds).  Also, the offense showed very little imagination even though, as a couple plays in the 4th quarter most noteably their 2nd touchdown shows, they are physically capable of completing forward passes.  But he’s the winningest coach in Beaver Local history so he probably has some leeway.

Anyhow, the Potters are 1-0 and will next contest the Battle of the Bridge on September 4th at Oak Glen, 7:30pm kickoff.

Published reports have former Notre Dame et al and East Liverpool native Lou Holtz pondering running for an Orlando-area Congressional seat as a Democrat in the 2010 elections.  Holtz and current employer ESPN are mum on the subject.  I would assume that he wouldn’t announce anything until late in the college football season, as he would pretty much have to leave ESPN once he became a declared candidate.

Its an interesting notion.  The district is currently represented by a freshman Democrat and while I don’t know the specifics of that riding, the I-4 corridor in general is a swing area with the heavy doses of transplanted retired northerners.  You know, people like Lou Holtz.  Age could be a factor in the campaign as he is I believe around 75 years old at this point.  But I do know this much; I have heard him speak in person a couple times and he is an excellent public speaker and motivator.  I have no problem at all picturing him maneuvering well around a campaign rally or on a paid TV spot.  Would be interesting.