Week 2 Elder(1-0) at Pickerington Central(1-0)

Who will win?

  • Elder Panthers

    Votes: 23 33.8%
  • Pickerington Central Tigers

    Votes: 45 66.2%

  • Total voters
    68
  • Poll closed .
Facility shortcomings are offset though by the hospitality the fine Pick Central football fans will show you. Very knowledgeable group of dudes (and even moms) that have a high level of respect for the traditions of Ohio’s blue blood programs.

Combustion also has wicked good beer.
Truth. Lets Go Tigers!!!
 
I'm expecting a great game! I bought tickets on line. I could never get through to a human voice in the PC athletic dept. to see if tickets would be available at the gates. Never got a response to my voicemails either... PC websites were also non-helpful. My unscientific prediction:

Elder - 24
PC - 31

Expecting big plays from both teams. PC secondary better be ready. Big Boy football at its best!
 
This was a fun one to take in, as someone with no irons in the fire.

Central's defense has much of the "right tools" for another good November season. The D-line is scary good and with the level of talent in the LB corps & secondary both the front and back fed into each other's success all night long. How many "coverage" sacks did PC have? At least two? Always hear about Styles (rightfully so), but closer to the LOS the Tigers have some dudes. UC is getting a steal in the player that CJ Doggette is along with his teammate Gillison. I admittedly paid closer attention to Doggette throughout, so I can't speak too much on Gillison's game and what all he's got but man... CJ is good. That whole unit is tough. Big, fast and lengthy. It's also neat to see some "aggressive" (subjective term) play-calling defensively in HS football -- Central's got speed and utilizing it off the edge for free blitzes (even the ones that missed) was creating nightmares for Elder's offense, and PC got aggressive defensively at the right times toward the end to slam the door shut.

Stating the obvious, here, but Central was fortunate to not have turnovers hurt them as bad as they could have. First play from scrimmage; muffed punt; another fumble deep in their own territory... and if you want to get really "there", also counting the fumble that came on the Elder turnover (that Elder would then force and recover.)

I don't feel qualified to speak much on Central's offense, other than Mantooth is a good athlete (probably not a "great" athlete) and seems to have the right head for being a QB (half of the game itself being a QB.) Also has some grit. Blown away by how resolved, patient and quick-thinking he was on that 4th down conversion run that set up one of Pick Central's first half scores. Kamara is a nice runner. Very gifted.

...Elder might have regretted not kicking that FG in the 4th in PC territory, when it was 14-10? Kicking into the unpredictable south-to-north wind, I get it, but they looked like they had some legs.

Drew Ramsey for Elder being the "wears multiple hats" type of player -- recall reading about this on here (might not have been this thread.) This was fun to see (no irons in the fire.)

Also: lot of missed opportunities for Elder and that has to hurt.

Always cool to see the GCL-South "in person." Not too many opportunities that they're up here in the Columbus area. Fun night at PC, great crowds.
 
This was a fun one to take in, as someone with no irons in the fire.

Central's defense has much of the "right tools" for another good November season. The D-line is scary good and with the level of talent in the LB corps & secondary both the front and back fed into each other's success all night long. How many "coverage" sacks did PC have? At least two? Always hear about Styles (rightfully so), but closer to the LOS the Tigers have some dudes. UC is getting a steal in the player that CJ Doggette is along with his teammate Gillison. I admittedly paid closer attention to Doggette throughout, so I can't speak too much on Gillison's game and what all he's got but man... CJ is good. That whole unit is tough. Big, fast and lengthy. It's also neat to see some "aggressive" (subjective term) play-calling defensively in HS football -- Central's got speed and utilizing it off the edge for free blitzes (even the ones that missed) was creating nightmares for Elder's offense, and PC got aggressive defensively at the right times toward the end to slam the door shut.

Stating the obvious, here, but Central was fortunate to not have turnovers hurt them as bad as they could have. First play from scrimmage; muffed punt; another fumble deep in their own territory... and if you want to get really "there", also counting the fumble that came on the Elder turnover (that Elder would then force and recover.)

I don't feel qualified to speak much on Central's offense, other than Mantooth is a good athlete (probably not a "great" athlete) and seems to have the right head for being a QB (half of the game itself being a QB.) Also has some grit. Blown away by how resolved, patient and quick-thinking he was on that 4th down conversion run that set up one of Pick Central's first half scores. Kamara is a nice runner. Very gifted.

...Elder might have regretted not kicking that FG in the 4th in PC territory, when it was 14-10? Kicking into the unpredictable south-to-north wind, I get it, but they looked like they had some legs.

Drew Ramsey for Elder being the "wears multiple hats" type of player -- recall reading about this on here (might not have been this thread.) This was fun to see (no irons in the fire.)

Also: lot of missed opportunities for Elder and that has to hurt.

Always cool to see the GCL-South "in person." Not too many opportunities that they're up here in the Columbus area. Fun night at PC, great crowds.

Was there. Nice write-up.
 
Much closer game than the score would indicate. PC's defense will definitely have to carry the load right now. I'm hoping the offense can get things figured out soon. Highly unusual for a PC team to have that many fumbles. Kamara is a good runner - not special - but very good. Really the only threat on offense for now. Simply cannot afford his fumbles though. I was pleasantly surprised that PC's inexperienced DBs only got burned once. (Although Elder did have a wide open receiver drop what would have been a TD pass). I haven't seen the game stats yet, but it seemed like Elder had more overall yardage gained. Fun game! Hoping PC gets to play at Elder next season.
 
Much closer game than the score would indicate. PC's defense will definitely have to carry the load right now. I'm hoping the offense can get things figured out soon. Highly unusual for a PC team to have that many fumbles. Kamara is a good runner - not special - but very good. Really the only threat on offense for now. Simply cannot afford his fumbles though. I was pleasantly surprised that PC's inexperienced DBs only got burned once. (Although Elder did have a wide open receiver drop what would have been a TD pass). I haven't seen the game stats yet, but it seemed like Elder had more overall yardage gained. Fun game! Hoping PC gets to play at Elder next season.
Elder only had 146 yards of total offense with 55 coming on one play.
 
I haven't seen the game stats yet, but it seemed like Elder had more overall yardage gained.

According to this article Elder only had 146 yards of offense. I’m guessing they had near zero rushing yards if not negative when sack yardage loss is factored in. And keep in mind Elder had 55 yards on one play. That means they 91 yards of offesne the rest of the game. Elder started most of the night on a short field. I think they started at least three possessions inside the Tigers 35 and maybe 3 or 4 more at mid-field.

The Tigers’ defense was lights out!
 
PC defense if outstanding . No way around it . How they improve against a ST X will be their benchmark . Not many others will move it easily on them
 
PC is still in the process of putting the right players in the right positions. They stack the best athletes on defense. They also changed their base defense and are using an extra DB.
At 6’4 215, Styles is a hybrid player. Raheem Biles #13 (2023) is a pure dawg that nobody outside Pickerington knew about but word is getting out. Troy Lane #27 (2023) is another player that has been waiting his turn and he finally got his opportunity last night. He’s the fastest player on the team (3rd in the state 100M as a Sophomore) and hasn’t really been used. There are a few other players that will start to see more time.
On offense, way too many penalties and fumbles which must be cleaned up. They are actually throwing more than in recent years. Their QB is really good and will get better as the season progresses. His only loss since the 6th grade was when the Pick Central Freshman team played Pick North “JV B” team. In that game, North said they didn’t have enough Freshman to have a Freshman team so they created a JV B team. Most of the actual Freshmen didn’t even get in the game and PC lost 9-0. For what it’s worth, the PC coaches, players and parents haven’t forgotten about that game. Let’s just say, the players are very much looking forward to the game on 9/10.
 
PC is still in the process of putting the right players in the right positions. They stack the best athletes on defense. They also changed their base defense and are using an extra DB.
At 6’4 215, Styles is a hybrid player. Raheem Biles #13 (2023) is a pure dawg that nobody outside Pickerington knew about but word is getting out. Troy Lane #27 (2023) is another player that has been waiting his turn and he finally got his opportunity last night. He’s the fastest player on the team (3rd in the state 100M as a Sophomore) and hasn’t really been used. There are a few other players that will start to see more time.
On offense, way too many penalties and fumbles which must be cleaned up. They are actually throwing more than in recent years. Their QB is really good and will get better as the season progresses. His only loss since the 6th grade was when the Pick Central Freshman team played Pick North “JV B” team. In that game, North said they didn’t have enough Freshman to have a Freshman team so they created a JV B team. Most of the actual Freshmen didn’t even get in the game and PC lost 9-0. For what it’s worth, the PC coaches, players and parents haven’t forgotten about that game. Let’s just say, the players are very much looking forward to the game on 9/10.
Sounds just like Pickerington north Lol
 
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