Oak Harbor vs Liberty Center at Clay Memorial Stadium at Ted Federici Field (Clay High School)
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Not exactly where I expected the game to be. Patrick Henry and Hopewell-Loudon got BG, but there wasn’t really a reason not to go with Perrysburg (unless they declined the offer to host).
Oak Harbor has been a dominant force all year long, lead by back of the year Jaqui Hayward and linemen of the year Jacob Ridener. The Rockets are coming off a 41-7 win over Highland, a team that was battle tested and upset the 5 seeded Liberty-Benton Eagles a week prior. Oak Harbor’s best wins have come against NBC foes Eastwood (35-21) and Genoa (21-0).
Liberty Center has been the equivalent of putting Georgia in the MAC. Led by a hard nosed run attack Colton Kruse and a dominant defense that has outscored their opponents by an average of 42 points. Their best wins have come against Archbold (42-14) and Napoleon (47-6).
If Oak Harbor wants to win, they’re going to have to play the best 4 quarters of football they’ve played all season. If they want to make it out of the entire region, this may be the toughest game of football they’ll have to play all the way up until the state finals. They’re going to have to be able to put together drives against LC and stop their rushing attack.
Another aspect to this game: Do we go 0-7 against the NWOAL in 2023? Is our league down this year compared to other conferences in Northwest Ohio? Or is the NWOAL just that good??
My prediction for this game: Oak Harbor spends the first half keeping it somewhat close, but the physicality of their rushing attack and their hard hitting defense will pull away in the 2nd half, knocking the NBC out of the playoffs and send Coach Mike May to the drawing board this offseason, looking for ways to get his team back there next year.
Liberty Center 41-14
I would say it’s safe to say this year the NWOAL is a better conference. Even last year I thought they were better top to bottom. But that stuff changes every 2-3 years as different classes and kids come and go.
The NBC really has no where to go but up. They have quite a few teams that are in rebuilds (Maumee, Lake and Rossford?!). Oak Harbor will be Oak Harbor next year, Eastwood likely good again. I think Genoa is still probably a 6-7 win team. Maumee likely becomes a 6-7 win team as well next season. Lake should be improved and a 5 win team. Otsego and Rossford are on declines. Fostoria is Fostoria. But every conference has one of those teams.
As for the NWOAL, Liberty Center and Archbold will always be good. Wauseon is similar to Genoa. Patrick Henry and Bryan will take a step back next season because they had a ton of seniors and then Evergreen, Swanton and Delta really haven’t been consistently good at football for quite sometime.
If you went down the top and bottom, it’s closer than you would think:
- LC vs Oak Harbor (we will see on Friday, but I think it’s LC by 2 scores)
- Archbold vs. Eastwood (think this would be a coin flip, I believe they scrimmaged before the season and it was tied at half 14-14).
- Patrick Henry vs. Genoa (Genoa would likely be a slight favorite)
- Wauseon vs. Otsego (Wauseon favored big)
- Bryan vs. Maumee (played this year and it was a 1 score game)
- Evergreen vs. Lake (Another 50/50 game)
- Delta vs. Fostoria (Delta favored)
- Swanton vs Rossford (Rossford favored, played last season and Rossford won big. Swanton might be the worst team in NW Ohio).
So at best, the NBC would be 4-4 (wins: Eastwood, Genoa, Lake, Rossford) against the NWOAL if you matched up based on league standings. The leagues are similar outside of Liberty Center being strides above everyone else.
I would be curious what others have to say.
