November 14, 2025 • 10 mins
Lima News Sports Editor Chris Howell joined Todd Walker to discuss tonight's high school football playoff games involving area teams.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's week three of the playoffs and tonight our w
MIM microphones will be at Spartan Stadium as LCC takes
on Columbus Grove and an NWC rematch. We're going to
talk about that game and more with our good friend
Chris Howell from the Lineman News. Chris, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Doing great, Toad? You know, good news news is that
we made it this far. But the bad news is
some of our teams are going to take out some
of our other teams this week, so it's about to
get pretty interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
There are three matchups that have two of our area teams,
and that includes our game LCC and Columbus Grove. Also
Pandora Gilboa at Lipsick and Fort Recovery at Marion Local.
Let's talk about the t Birds and Bulldogs. They played
a good one in Columbus Grove a few weeks back.
Bulldogs won at thirty three twenty five. T Birds had
(00:48):
no answer for Trevin Baxter. Trevin Baxter is the man,
and LCC got to figure that out if they're going
to turn that result around.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
He took the words right out of my mouth. You know,
if you're LCC, you got to find a way to
just not let Trevin Baxter wreck the game. I mean,
you know, every play, and I'm talking special teams and
talking offense and talking defense, you gotta find number nine.
If he takes a drink or you know, gatorade on
the sidelines, you better know which cooler he took it
out of. This is just this is kind of what
(01:19):
we saw from Columbus Grove last year where they just
had one guy who could really turn the game upside down.
And last year was Trent Barraza. But this year, you
know Baxter on both sides of the ball. I mean,
you know, you talk about the record setting performance that
he had against LCCA last time out with eighteen receptions.
(01:40):
Now you know several of those were those jet pop passes.
But no matter how you get the ball into his hands,
it's you know, it's the most important part of the
game for Columbus Grove is just to get the ball
into his hands, get him in space, and then you know,
if you're Brady Parker, when you're looking at the defensive lineup,
you got to be aware of what side of the
(02:00):
field he's on. Because of course he had that game
ceiling interception. I think you know, Columbus grow is probably
going to be a couple points favored by the computer
in this game, but I think it's more close to
a coin toss as you could possibly get. I think
if if LCCs has Brady Parker close to full health
as he can be this time of year, he's bound to,
(02:23):
you know, either carry them beyond or keep him in
it till late. I think if they win it, it's
got to be a big ground game from him and
Carter Lester, and then you got to you got to
kind of find a way to contain some of those
big plays that Baxter is just so customary and ripping off.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah. I was gonna say l CC's got to run
the football effectively to win this game, and they're gonna
have to use the quarterback run. But last week Carter
Lester had his hand banged up and that went over Eden.
I don't know if that'll affect him coming up tonight,
But all of that out there. That's our broadcast game tonight,
LCC taking on Columbus Grove. Our coverage starts at six
(03:02):
with the Friday Night Blitz. Meanwhile, in that same region,
it's PG at Lipsick the Vikings won a slugfest the
first time around back in Week four, twelve to seven.
I would imagine we'd have more scoring in this game,
but how do you see this one playing out?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I think we were all kind of taken off guard
by how that first game played out. Just a twelve
seven victory for Ellipsick and you know, not a whole
lot of offense, you know, and especially until Aaron Hazleton
ran in that game winner. But you know, when I
think of these two teams, I just think that they're
kind of almost mirror images of each other on that
offensive side, you know, with with gert and Meyer and
(03:39):
Berkeholder at Pandora Gilboa and then you know Kirkandal Paris
and Marquise Williams Ellipsi. So they both had the ability
to be very very balanced, and I think I would
I would definitely expect more offense this time around, because
you saw these teams that, you know, last week PG
put up sixty three, Lipsick put up thirty six, and
(04:01):
LIP six. You know that was that was really their
only closest game win or loss all season was that
game against Pandora Gilboa, And you got to think about
how long it's been since Week four. So these two
teams are two completely different iterations of themselves. I probably
would expect something in the more of a you know,
a thirty five twenty eight range. But you know this one,
(04:23):
is this just like the Columbus Grove LCC game that
you could make it a great case for both these
teams in this one.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Chris hal from the Lamban News is here. Meanwhile, Bath
goes over to Shelby tonight to take on the top
seed in that region, undefeated Whippets led by quarterback Braiden
de Vito, some people say will be mister football in Ohio.
He has committed to play an air Force Cats are
going to have their hands full here with the Whippets.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And count me among those people who say that Braidon
de Vito is probably going to be mister football, because
you know, this kid has just been nothing short of
incredible during during his entire career. He's now up to
twelve two hundred and one career passing yards, which is
third most in state history. And that's behind a couple
of guys we know very well, Ben and Matty Marker Kent.
So you know this, this kid's ability to sling the
(05:11):
ball around. He's he's ran for nearly one thousand yards
this year. And and Todd, you know, when he was
a sophomore, I got the opportunity to see Bradon de
Vito play against Van Wert and that was a thirty
five to thirty four Shelby lead at halftime, and DeVito
turned the game on its head and the second halfened
to a seventy one forty one win for Shelby. So
(05:31):
you know, the moral of the story is your Bath
can't get into a showbout shootout with Shelby. Excuse me,
because this this team is prepared for shootouts. They they
averaged forty six points a game, and you know, it's
it's nothing new to have to put up a ton
of points. And they do play a good amount of
defense over there that you know, they've actually throughout their
schedule been very spectacular with eight point eight points per game,
(05:54):
one hundred and fifty yards. They got a couple just
like Bath has Jack Raider and LJ. Devn Or on
their D line. They got a couple of studs over
there and Shelby. Carter Kessler's a West Virginia commit, and
then Michael Sheppard is a kid who's also got some
some D one offers. That's kind of their one two
punch over there. If you're bath Man, you know you
got to take take advantage of the opportunities given. Maybe
(06:17):
maybe a score right before half and a score right
coming out of half. But you know, without Shelby getting
the ball and control that ground game like they've done
so well this year. You know, you saw Zach Welsh
and Mikey Hale really just power that that running game
last week in their win against Bellevue, and you know
that's the type of performance they're going to have to
(06:37):
have again. And you know a lot of really good,
long sustained drives that end in in seven points.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Meanwhile, over on our sister Station one O seven five,
the Big Buckets Wapa Ganetta taking on Toledo's Central Catholic
Of course, the Irish perennial state champions in Division two
or three. This year they're in D three. The Redskins
are undefeated. They get this game at home. They had
a week to get prepared with the buy and then
(07:04):
a week with a game where they pulled away from Shawnee.
It seems if you're ever going to pull an up
set if you're Wap Kennetta, this is the year, this
is the time they have a premier quarterback, wide receiver combo.
Do they have enough?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
You know, I'm hoping the answer there is yes, because
you know, this senior class just so historic. It came
in almost forty freshman deep. And you know, they they've
worked so hard and get garnered all the individual honors
and now they want the big one. And you know,
I think it's safe to say I'm not I'm not
breaking any news here, but you know, I think the
(07:41):
winner of this one has to be the favorite in
D three. These are these are by far and wide,
the two best teams in my eyes. But when you
look at Toledo Central Catholic, I mean, you know, walpok
knows exactly what it's up against. Is a team with
twelve Division one recruits. They got a couple of power
for commits. They about everybody on their rock got an
offer from the University of Toledos. So you know there's
(08:03):
gonna be a lot of prevalent Division one talent on
the field on Friday night. And let's just you know,
a couple of these key matchups. Okay, you know, obviously
we know Cayden Page so well from Walpak and Ohio commit,
a three star wide receiver, but he gets to go
up against Victor Singleton this week, who's a four star
corner head into Texas A and M. Now, he doesn't
(08:26):
have a whole lot of defensive stats because teams are
wise enough to not throw the ball at him, but
that's going to be probably by far the toughest corner
that Pages had to line up across from. On the
other side of the ball, for the Irish, you've got
a tight end Preston Frizell, who's a four star recruit
head into Notre Dame next year, and he does a
(08:47):
little bit of everything. He's a great blocker, but he's
also got about seven hundred yards and seven touchdowns in
the receiving game. I'd probably expect to see Darren Hauser
and a lot of those more athletic linebackers be be
tasked with. You know, the kind of impossible situation of
slowing down a kid who's who's going to continue his
(09:10):
college career at one of the most prestigious programs in
the country. You know, that's just top to bottom. You know,
we could go on and on about about the talent
on this uh, this Toledo Central Catholic roster, but it's
also to the fact that, according to Martin RPI, they
played the toughest schedule in the state of Ohio and
part of that is that Detroit based Catholic High School league,
(09:31):
which we all know so well. They actually started off
the season zero and three and then they ripped off
a couple of four game winning streaks. So, you know,
this Wallpawk team, do they have the talent to compete
with anybody? Absolutely, But you know, is this the team
that that they're gonna probably have to have to do
(09:52):
you know, every you know, scratch claw, fight thing that
they they know how to do to stay in it.
I also think so you know, I'm a little bit
of an optimist, and I think this game is going
to come down to the last few minutes of the
fourth quarter, and you know, I just want to see
with my own two eyes Caleb Morrier had the ball
(10:13):
with a couple of minutes left to go and the
chance to win a game, because it's just been a
fairy tale ending for this senior class at Walpalk to
go out on their home field with a win over
one of the toughest teams in the state of Ohio.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well, that'll be the game over on our sister station
one O seven five of the Big Buck. You can
follow Chris's work and the rest of their team there
at the Lima News at Lima Ohio dot com. Chris
always appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Hey, appreciate you, Todd. Great weekend.
It's week three of the playoffs and tonight our w
MIM microphones will be at Spartan Stadium as LCC takes
on Columbus Grove and an NWC rematch. We're going to
talk about that game and more with our good friend
Chris Howell from the Lineman News. Chris, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Doing great, Toad? You know, good news news is that
we made it this far. But the bad news is
some of our teams are going to take out some
of our other teams this week, so it's about to
get pretty interesting. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
There are three matchups that have two of our area teams,
and that includes our game LCC and Columbus Grove. Also
Pandora Gilboa at Lipsick and Fort Recovery at Marion Local.
Let's talk about the t Birds and Bulldogs. They played
a good one in Columbus Grove a few weeks back.
Bulldogs won at thirty three twenty five. T Birds had
(00:48):
no answer for Trevin Baxter. Trevin Baxter is the man,
and LCC got to figure that out if they're going
to turn that result around.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
He took the words right out of my mouth. You know,
if you're LCC, you got to find a way to
just not let Trevin Baxter wreck the game. I mean,
you know, every play, and I'm talking special teams and
talking offense and talking defense, you gotta find number nine.
If he takes a drink or you know, gatorade on
the sidelines, you better know which cooler he took it
out of. This is just this is kind of what
(01:19):
we saw from Columbus Grove last year where they just
had one guy who could really turn the game upside down.
And last year was Trent Barraza. But this year, you
know Baxter on both sides of the ball. I mean,
you know, you talk about the record setting performance that
he had against LCCA last time out with eighteen receptions.
(01:40):
Now you know several of those were those jet pop passes.
But no matter how you get the ball into his hands,
it's you know, it's the most important part of the
game for Columbus Grove is just to get the ball
into his hands, get him in space, and then you know,
if you're Brady Parker, when you're looking at the defensive lineup,
you got to be aware of what side of the
(02:00):
field he's on. Because of course he had that game
ceiling interception. I think you know, Columbus grow is probably
going to be a couple points favored by the computer
in this game, but I think it's more close to
a coin toss as you could possibly get. I think
if if LCCs has Brady Parker close to full health
as he can be this time of year, he's bound to,
(02:23):
you know, either carry them beyond or keep him in
it till late. I think if they win it, it's
got to be a big ground game from him and
Carter Lester, and then you got to you got to
kind of find a way to contain some of those
big plays that Baxter is just so customary and ripping off.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah. I was gonna say l CC's got to run
the football effectively to win this game, and they're gonna
have to use the quarterback run. But last week Carter
Lester had his hand banged up and that went over Eden.
I don't know if that'll affect him coming up tonight,
But all of that out there. That's our broadcast game tonight,
LCC taking on Columbus Grove. Our coverage starts at six
(03:02):
with the Friday Night Blitz. Meanwhile, in that same region,
it's PG at Lipsick the Vikings won a slugfest the
first time around back in Week four, twelve to seven.
I would imagine we'd have more scoring in this game,
but how do you see this one playing out?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
I think we were all kind of taken off guard
by how that first game played out. Just a twelve
seven victory for Ellipsick and you know, not a whole
lot of offense, you know, and especially until Aaron Hazleton
ran in that game winner. But you know, when I
think of these two teams, I just think that they're
kind of almost mirror images of each other on that
offensive side, you know, with with gert and Meyer and
(03:39):
Berkeholder at Pandora Gilboa and then you know Kirkandal Paris
and Marquise Williams Ellipsi. So they both had the ability
to be very very balanced, and I think I would
I would definitely expect more offense this time around, because
you saw these teams that, you know, last week PG
put up sixty three, Lipsick put up thirty six, and
(04:01):
LIP six. You know that was that was really their
only closest game win or loss all season was that
game against Pandora Gilboa, And you got to think about
how long it's been since Week four. So these two
teams are two completely different iterations of themselves. I probably
would expect something in the more of a you know,
a thirty five twenty eight range. But you know this one,
(04:23):
is this just like the Columbus Grove LCC game that
you could make it a great case for both these
teams in this one.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Chris hal from the Lamban News is here. Meanwhile, Bath
goes over to Shelby tonight to take on the top
seed in that region, undefeated Whippets led by quarterback Braiden
de Vito, some people say will be mister football in Ohio.
He has committed to play an air Force Cats are
going to have their hands full here with the Whippets.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
And count me among those people who say that Braidon
de Vito is probably going to be mister football, because
you know, this kid has just been nothing short of
incredible during during his entire career. He's now up to
twelve two hundred and one career passing yards, which is
third most in state history. And that's behind a couple
of guys we know very well, Ben and Matty Marker Kent.
So you know this, this kid's ability to sling the
(05:11):
ball around. He's he's ran for nearly one thousand yards
this year. And and Todd, you know, when he was
a sophomore, I got the opportunity to see Bradon de
Vito play against Van Wert and that was a thirty
five to thirty four Shelby lead at halftime, and DeVito
turned the game on its head and the second halfened
to a seventy one forty one win for Shelby. So
(05:31):
you know, the moral of the story is your Bath
can't get into a showbout shootout with Shelby. Excuse me,
because this this team is prepared for shootouts. They they
averaged forty six points a game, and you know, it's
it's nothing new to have to put up a ton
of points. And they do play a good amount of
defense over there that you know, they've actually throughout their
schedule been very spectacular with eight point eight points per game,
(05:54):
one hundred and fifty yards. They got a couple just
like Bath has Jack Raider and LJ. Devn Or on
their D line. They got a couple of studs over
there and Shelby. Carter Kessler's a West Virginia commit, and
then Michael Sheppard is a kid who's also got some
some D one offers. That's kind of their one two
punch over there. If you're bath Man, you know you
got to take take advantage of the opportunities given. Maybe
(06:17):
maybe a score right before half and a score right
coming out of half. But you know, without Shelby getting
the ball and control that ground game like they've done
so well this year. You know, you saw Zach Welsh
and Mikey Hale really just power that that running game
last week in their win against Bellevue, and you know
that's the type of performance they're going to have to
(06:37):
have again. And you know a lot of really good,
long sustained drives that end in in seven points.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Meanwhile, over on our sister Station one O seven five,
the Big Buckets Wapa Ganetta taking on Toledo's Central Catholic
Of course, the Irish perennial state champions in Division two
or three. This year they're in D three. The Redskins
are undefeated. They get this game at home. They had
a week to get prepared with the buy and then
(07:04):
a week with a game where they pulled away from Shawnee.
It seems if you're ever going to pull an up
set if you're Wap Kennetta, this is the year, this
is the time they have a premier quarterback, wide receiver combo.
Do they have enough?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
You know, I'm hoping the answer there is yes, because
you know, this senior class just so historic. It came
in almost forty freshman deep. And you know, they they've
worked so hard and get garnered all the individual honors
and now they want the big one. And you know,
I think it's safe to say I'm not I'm not
breaking any news here, but you know, I think the
(07:41):
winner of this one has to be the favorite in
D three. These are these are by far and wide,
the two best teams in my eyes. But when you
look at Toledo Central Catholic, I mean, you know, walpok
knows exactly what it's up against. Is a team with
twelve Division one recruits. They got a couple of power
for commits. They about everybody on their rock got an
offer from the University of Toledos. So you know there's
(08:03):
gonna be a lot of prevalent Division one talent on
the field on Friday night. And let's just you know,
a couple of these key matchups. Okay, you know, obviously
we know Cayden Page so well from Walpak and Ohio commit,
a three star wide receiver, but he gets to go
up against Victor Singleton this week, who's a four star
corner head into Texas A and M. Now, he doesn't
(08:26):
have a whole lot of defensive stats because teams are
wise enough to not throw the ball at him, but
that's going to be probably by far the toughest corner
that Pages had to line up across from. On the
other side of the ball, for the Irish, you've got
a tight end Preston Frizell, who's a four star recruit
head into Notre Dame next year, and he does a
(08:47):
little bit of everything. He's a great blocker, but he's
also got about seven hundred yards and seven touchdowns in
the receiving game. I'd probably expect to see Darren Hauser
and a lot of those more athletic linebackers be be
tasked with. You know, the kind of impossible situation of
slowing down a kid who's who's going to continue his
(09:10):
college career at one of the most prestigious programs in
the country. You know, that's just top to bottom. You know,
we could go on and on about about the talent
on this uh, this Toledo Central Catholic roster, but it's
also to the fact that, according to Martin RPI, they
played the toughest schedule in the state of Ohio and
part of that is that Detroit based Catholic High School league,
(09:31):
which we all know so well. They actually started off
the season zero and three and then they ripped off
a couple of four game winning streaks. So, you know,
this Wallpawk team, do they have the talent to compete
with anybody? Absolutely, But you know, is this the team
that that they're gonna probably have to have to do
(09:52):
you know, every you know, scratch claw, fight thing that
they they know how to do to stay in it.
I also think so you know, I'm a little bit
of an optimist, and I think this game is going
to come down to the last few minutes of the
fourth quarter, and you know, I just want to see
with my own two eyes Caleb Morrier had the ball
(10:13):
with a couple of minutes left to go and the
chance to win a game, because it's just been a
fairy tale ending for this senior class at Walpalk to
go out on their home field with a win over
one of the toughest teams in the state of Ohio.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well, that'll be the game over on our sister station
one O seven five of the Big Buck. You can
follow Chris's work and the rest of their team there
at the Lima News at Lima Ohio dot com. Chris
always appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Hey, appreciate you, Todd. Great weekend.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com