11-21-25 CHRIS HOWELL - HS FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS

Chris Howell, the Lima News Sports Editor, joined Todd to look at tonight's Regional Finals.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
High school football. It's the regional finals now and things
are really starting to dwindle as far as local teams
to follow. But do we still have some games of interest?
And with that we bring in Chris Howell from the
Lineman News and we start with our broadcast game tonight
here on WIMA Columbus Grove and Lipsick. And these two

(00:22):
teams are in Putnam County and the Putnam County League,
but of course for football they're in different leagues, the
NWC and the BBC. So I guess, Chris, the first
thing you want to do is maybe try and find
common opponents or some commonality that you can draw from.
And clearly they both played Pandora Gilboa, although Grove played

(00:43):
them way back in Week one. Outside of that, not
really a lot of commonality between these teams.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
No, not really at all. I mean, when you look
at up and down Liftsick schedule, there's not a whole
lot of those BBC teams that run into a lot
of these NWC teams. You know, there's not a ton
there to go off of. Only thing we can go
off of is what happened to last week, and you
know Lipsick in what was a very different game this
time around, got its second winner of the season over

(01:12):
Pandora Gilboa. And that's like you said, you know, way
way way back in Week one, a team that got
a twenty two to twenty one went over Columbus Grove.
So I don't know, if you know, Joe Kirkandahl and
the group over there are using that that as you
know a little bit of you know, motivation or momentum,
I guess you would say coming into the game. But

(01:33):
you know, it's something to build on because this Lipsick team,
I mean, it does kind of fly unto the radar
a little bit because Liberty Benton gets all the credit
over there in the BBC until they exit. But Lipsick,
you know, they they've taken care of business every week
except for that week that they've played Liberty Bent. And
so they got the best passer in terms of yards

(01:54):
in the Blanchard Valley Conference. They got the best receiver
in terms of yards in the Blanchard Valley Conference. They
got a great running game to complement both of those things,
all of which Columbus Grove should have to account for
on Friday night.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Well, yeah, they do have that common opponent Libertyvent and
they both got bombed by the Eagles Lipstick fifty two
to nothing, Columbus Grove forty one to three. So that
is another common opponent. But when you think of this matchup,
then you just laid out some offensive weapons for Lipsick.
You know. On the other hand, when they've played better
teams of late, they've given up some points Liberty vent

(02:31):
and scored fifty two. PAG got twenty eight last week.
Does Lipsick have enough on defense to a matchup with
Columbus Grove.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, I think that's a good question. I think the
best way that they keep themselves in this game is
to keep Columbus Grove from scoring non offensive touchdowns because
we've seen, especially in the past three four weeks, they
get two kick return touchdowns. Okay, well they get an
interception return for a touchdown last week into LCC. So

(03:01):
you got to limit their opportunities. You got to really make,
you know, make that Columbus Grove offense be dynamic, put
the ball in the air a little bit more downfield
instead of instead of using so much of the running
game to tear you up in the backfield. And look,
you know, we're not surprised that these two teams at
this point are are here in the season, that they
were both here or at least around this round last

(03:24):
year for Lipstick two, And would you be shocked really
if they were back here again next year with a
third year starting quarterback on lip Stick side and just
a complete reload of Grove personnel on that side. So
you know, we can take all that into this matchup.
But another huge motivational factor, I'm sure on the Grove
side here is the fact that you know, we don't

(03:46):
know for sure yet, but they'll probably likely get the
winner of that Marion Local Saint Henry matchup. And I
don't think there's anybody else in Division seven who wants
another shot at Marion Local more than another MAC team
than Columbus Grove does. So a motivated and hot Grove
team going into this portion of the season is a
very dangerous thing. You got to account for everything Land

(04:08):
and Best can do back there as a veteran quarterback,
and you got to find number nine on every play,
like like we say almost every week at this point,
he's he's going to run the ball out of the backfield,
He's gonna maybe catch a deep one down the sidelines,
and he's going to cover your best your best weapon
on defense. So if you can find a way to
not let a Trevin Baxter erect the game, score a

(04:31):
defense or special teams touchdown, I think you give yourself
a shot at your websick.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Of course, Columbus Grove's only state championship was a win
over Marion Local in the title game back in two
thousand and three. But of late, of course, the Flyers
have dominated. Chris hawl of the Lineman News is with us.
Let's then pivot to Marion Local Saint Henry. They met
early in the season and it was the first escape
of three by Marion Local. Saint Henry had him down.

(04:57):
They won twenty one to fourteen. Later a one point
one over over Sales, a two overtime one point win
over Anna, a one point whenever cold Water a week ten,
so the winning streak survives. They are now at seventy
six in a row. But this is Marian Local team
clearly is as vulnerable as they've been maybe in five

(05:17):
or six years, as far as people have hope. When
you look back to week three, clearly Saint Henry probably
feels like that was a would it, could have, should have?
How do you look at this matchup now? What ten
weeks later?

Speaker 2 (05:32):
You know, you look at that Week three matchup a
little bit, and then you just realize it was on
September fifth, and you realize that these two teams are
completely different. They're they're more dynamic, they're they're more probably mature.
At this point, I think if you're Sat Henry, you
you know, you paced up on the bulletin board like, hey,
you know, this is a game we should have won,

(05:54):
you know, earlier in the season, because they probably feel
that way, and you know, maryon Local, they'll be motivated
by the by the fact that you know, they're they're
back at this level again and and this is a
this is a place they expected to be, and you know,
it kind of gives you a little bit of de
ja vous because this time last year, this was the
same version of this Marion Local Minster rivalry, and now

(06:16):
you know, now Saint Henry is this year's version of Minster.
Sane Henry. You kind of worry a little bit because
you think that to win this game, they're probably going
to have to be a little opportunistic with the past
maybe hit one, two, maybe three, big pass plays in
that game, and that's something that Saint Henry just doesn't
do a lot of. It's a dangerous thing to be

(06:37):
one dimensional. So you're going to have to find a
way to catch them on their heels at least once
or twice during this game. But if you're marrying local,
I mean, you're very comfortable here. Obviously, this is this
is nothing new to these kids. You know, I just
look at when when you look at their offense this
year and how they've struggled at certain times. You know,
only six points against Cold Water, you know, it's a

(06:59):
lot differ than it was this time last year and
stuff like that. But they've really leaned on Camden Eiffert
out of the backfield. And I don't think that's a
kid that got nearly enough postseason recognition that he probably
should have. You know, he got the ball twenty times
last week, he got four touchdowns, He's carried the ball
late in some of those close games that you mentioned previously,

(07:20):
and they're gonna probably really lean on him against this
Saint Henry team on Friday Night. So Saint Henry finds
a way to contain Camden Eiffert, makes Brendon has to
make some decisions in the passing game. I think you
give yourself an opportunity to make a play on defense
and stay in this game until he gets.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Late, and of course marian local defensively. They've only allowed
three touchdowns over the last four weeks, so that includes
a couple of shutouts, and last week against Fort Recovery
they won thirty five to nothing. So let's move to
Region twenty four, Division six. It's an all MAC matchup
there as well with Coldwater and Anna. They met way
back in Week four, with Anna winning fourteen to seven.

(08:02):
This is a cold Water team with four losses on
the season, so certainly the least successful season in that
regard in quite a while for them. What do you
think about the Rockets and the Cavaliers?

Speaker 2 (08:14):
You know, I think this is a little bit of
a surprising matchup from two standpoints, and the fact that
we look at everything that cold Water lost last year,
but we also look at everything that Anna lost last year,
and the fact that both these teams are back to
the postseason is not necessarily a surprise, but it may
be the best coaching effort on both sides that Chip

(08:35):
Aten and Nick Mariano have done in quite a while.
You know, this is trip number twenty five to the
regional finals for cold Water. That's that's almost unfathomable by
a lot of schools around here. But you also can't
forget that this is Anna's third straight regional appearance. And
you know, I don't know that you know, after losing

(08:56):
the important players they did last year, that they that
a lot of people preseason picked him to be here.
Whereas with cold Water, you know, we're never shocked if they,
you know, lose two or three back games and then
run the table and win a state championship. So you know,
in a huge part of that too is you know,
no surprise here Ben logan Zig and Bush at quarterback,
just to talk about one of the better dual threat

(09:18):
quarterback options in the area. And he's really developed into
a nice player over the course of the season. And
if you're Cold Water, you really hang your hat on
what you do on defense, because that's something that's really
kept them in some games where they've struggled with with
a lot of young pieces on offense this year. They
gave up twenty nine to try Village last week, but

(09:40):
I think that kind of tells you more about how
strong that that Try Village team was. But over the
course of the season, you know, this Coldwater defense has
limited teams to nineteen or fewer in eleven games. It's
a pretty impressive stat. And on the other side of
the ball, they really leaned on the running game. And
one of the most important parts about that, I believe

(10:00):
is Derek due'es being healthy and being back in the
mix here because it takes the pressure off a guy
like Carson Homan who's playing his most important games as
a relatively inexperienced young quarterback. But those two combined for
three hundred on the ground in five touchdowns last week
against Tri Village, so they're going to obviously try to

(10:20):
replicate that performance. Look, you know, as I said before,
not a lot of people would be surprised if cold
Water ran the table and won a state championship.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Press always appreciate you joining us.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
I appreciate you, Todd. I enjoy the football.