Division 1 State Finals: Elder(12-2) vs. Pickerington Central(13-1)

Wishing you guys well tonight. I have a ton of respect for coach Ramsey and your program, and despite a comfortable margin of victory back in week 4, I suspected my Eagles would be getting a rematch from the Panthers down the road. I was not excited about having to see Royer again. Didn't work out on our end, but I hope you guys deliver. Safe travels to those making the trip. I remember being blown away by the Purple Nation back in 2003.
 
THis will hopefully be a great game...since the cathedral game I have always been impressed by this teams poise, when they get down they don’t rattle easily and the D has improved every week. Win or lose I still feel this team exceeded expectations. Hope the panthers can pull out the win tonight to cap off great season.
 
If anyone remembers the ‘08 game, E threw a pick on the first drive and spent the entire game trying to catchup. PC has players who’ve played in a title game, the game won’t be too big for them. It would be a big boost to E’s confidence to score early and put some pressure on PC.
 
The agony of defeat. Had chances, just couldn't quite get it done. It was a fun season, hang your head high, fellas!
 
Elder averaged 6.0 yards per play and PC averaged 5.7. It was about as even a game as you can get; probably split 5 each if they played 10 times. Difference was Elder came up with 0 points when they were inside the 10. Bummer.
 
If Elder scores before half or stops PC on that 4th and long it's a different game. You have to hand it to the PC QB though, they were 5/5 on 4th downs. Clutch player and never really had anything close to a turnover.
 
This may have been the best, most complete game Elder played all year. PC made two big plays that ended up being the difference in the game. Congratulations to both teams for a very entertaining championship game. Great season Elder!
 
First off congrats to the Panthers on a great season. However I will never agree that this was their best played game or w/e. Fact is penalties killed thier drives. Missed Field goal hurt them. Then you have a sack and let the QB get away on fourth down. Next you get a stop but and Pickerington is punting you the ball with 5 minutes left and the game tied but you have a personal issue and take a timeout allowing Pickerington to reconsider and then get the first down and eventually the game winning td. Personally I think Elder made way to many mistakes and it cost them a state title.
 
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Congrats to pick central. I’ll just say this I don’t think anyone expected elder to be playing in week 15. It was a hell of a season and they won some pretty memorable games throughout the year. My hats off to the defense for really stepping up in big moments throughout the playoffs. They’ve been fun to watch especially these past 4 weeks.
 
To reiterate I am upset for the players and feel terribly for them and want to congratulate them for getting to this point. However please spare us all the “they played a great game and just came up short”. That’s just not true. Elder should have and could have easily won this game.
 
Great season despite the excruciating loss. E had their chances, but Pick Central made a few more plays. I think the game turned on that 4th down Crenshaw somehow managed to avoid getting sacked. Elder didn’t even do anything wrong on that play, that was just an unbelievably skilled play to make. Not that my opinion carries any weight, but E has nothing to be embarrassed about. I know they’re upset, and that’s normal, but they didn’t just show up to “do their best.” They outplayed PC 1/2 the game

Hopefully, the infrastructure is in place for the Program where they can compete at this level more frequently. It definitely feels like they’re set up better than 10 yrs ago. Unless you’re ‘04 Colerain, expectations can’t be a title. That’s certainly the goal, but it’s so frickin hard to win, you’re setting up your team for failure if they’re only measured by Titles
 
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CincyHSFootballFan said:
Did you watch the game? Pickerington is about to punt with the game tied yet Elder can’t get players lined up. So they take a timeout a second before they are about to get the ball back.
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I’m not so sure PC was ever going to punt. After the TO, I noticed the PC Offensive Personnel was already huddled around the HC when the Punt Team was heading to the sidelines. IMO, that’s a dead give away that they were going to try to get E to jump or take their last TO, then go for it.
 
vonnie said:
PC had a great pass defense, Elder did not.
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They did have a great game plan on D. I could be wrong, but I think they bracketed Royer using a DB and LB. I know the fact Royer didn’t get more targets is a going to be a pain point, but I’m not sure he was open a lot of those plays.
 
Omar said:
Great season despite the excruciating loss. E had their chances, but Pick Central made a few more plays. I think the game turned on that 4th down Crenshaw somehow managed to avoid getting sacked. Elder didn’t even do anything wrong on that play, that was just an unbelievably skilled play to make. Not that my opinion carries any weight, but E has nothing to be embarrassed about. I know they’re upset, and that’s normal, but they didn’t just show up to “do their best.” They outplayed PC 1/2 the game

Hopefully, the infrastructure is in place for the Program where they can compete at this level more frequently. It definitely feels like they’re set up better than 10 yrs ago. Unless you’re ‘04 Colerain, expectations can’t be a title. That’s certainly the goal, but it’s so frickin hard to win, you’re setting up your team for failure if they’re only measured by Titles
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That 4th down was absolutely the turning point. That and not answering and putting the defense right back on the field shortly after was pretty much the ballgame.
 
BTW, did anyone else feel like this was one of the fastest (in terms of time) games in recent memory? I think it was barely over 2 hrs in real time. Both teams controlled the ball and ate up a ton of clock on drives.

Elder did well for having the Passing game stymied. Catania, Johnson and the OL probably had their best collective game
 
Not the ending we all wanted but I don't think anyone at the beginning of the season thought this team would go to state.....

not too bad of a season though considering this team was made of "feeder" kids from the west side....
 
Elder Defense played well, they were making first contact on qb or ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage all night. The passing game just wasn’t there. Guys weren’t open and when they were Qb was either under pressure or not hitting targets.

I don’t blame Elder for the TO, I think PC was going to go for it on fourth down either way. PC always has an edge to them: pushing after plays, taunting, going for it on fourth, and even running the ball with the QB on the last drive when they just had to kneel (when he fumbled but they called him down). Going for it on 4th down with a giant QB didn’t surprise anyone.
 
It’s a shame because I think the last 3 teams we played and beat in the playoffs were just as good or better than PC. Cheers to them though, they got the W’s.
 
ELDERfbfan said:
Not the ending we all wanted but I don't think anyone at the beginning of the season thought this team would go to state.....

not too bad of a season though considering this team was made of "feeder" kids from the west side....
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You’re going to make go down that route? This was the last big class Elder will have from the feeders. All of those grade school rivalries you guys are so fond of have dissolved bc half of those schools combined teams. They can’t win with just feeders, it’s not going to happen. The numbers aren’t there, and frankly screw you for that dig.

I don’t want to take away from what this team did, but this isn’t the model for future success. Look at the competition moving forward: X will always be competitive, I don’t think anyone believes Moeller will stay dormant, West is a burgeoning power house, and Colerain is still going to be solid. Elder Is going to need more athletes.
 
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Omar said:
You’re going to make go down that route? This was the last big class Elder will have from the feeders. All of those grade school rivalries you guys are so fond of have dissolved bc half of those schools combined teams. They can’t win with just feeders, it’s not going to happen. The numbers aren’t there.
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Wonder why I got an alert you responded to my post and it directed me to this one? Weird.
 
eastside_purple said:
Wonder why I got an alert you responded to my post and it directed me to this one? Weird.
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I don’t know, but I won’t back off my stance on this. Speed matters. Look at how great Luebbe was, a big part of his success was his speed. I know he’s a Feeder kid, but how many other Feeder kids had his level of speed?
 
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