Week one is here, week one eve . Nothing about it seems the same , there will be no roaring ,chanting ,smack talking, and snarky signs displaying student sections. It will feel more like filing into a elite music recital where only parents or grandparents are interested in listening. A middle school play on a Saturday afternoon but is held outside. One group of participants get a few more tickets than the others .
OK , of course week one is district rivalry week heavy. Instructions of 'Blocking out the noise " and just play isn't necessary here. I am wondering if it will feel like a youth soccer game with the sparse smattering of parents making it possible for players to actually hear their own parents voices lol. Will fans find the experience a bit eerie in week one ? Will they enter the stadiums like they are entering church of a library thinking they need to be quiet as well? Will fans keep their masks on in humid weather for 4 quarters ? I am thinking not . Will there be ushers who roam the rows looking for resistors ?
Coffman vs. Jerome happened in week one two different times. This is the fifth meeting between the schools. Coffman is 4-0 , but Jerome as I have said many times has had about 5 straight stronger classes from their feeder schools than Coffman or Scioto. beating them up very badly in many instances. Grizzell as been KING of the Dub MS football scene for quite a while now. Of course the Coffman Seniors are the last superior group to Jerome's classes. 8th through 11th { Probably 7th again } it's ALL country Clubber bludgeoning of poor Sells and Davis . Karrer is neutral , but leans Jerome in numbers now but Coffman gets some of those kids as well . They document their dominance at the 7th through Frosh levels the last small handful of years. You see some of the footage and it's men vs little boys in many cases . They mature early on the country club .
Now of course when it comes to rivalry schools , I tend to tweak a bit and poke them in the ribs with the hyperbole . I am not making it up though , Jerome has big strong kids , is in the 6th year of a successful program build under an excellent young coach who seems will be here for the long term with a young family. Done a great job and has stacked classes . Wil it translate to the varsity level further ? They are not just up and coming now. They have arrived at this point . Max preps has them at number 22 in Ohio , not D-1 , IN OHIO . it's one ranking , but they aren't out of place in this company.
They work extremely hard , have good schemes , are well coached , and do the little things. I was very impressed with them last year in week 4 in Coffman's 31-14 win which was tied at 14 at the half . They have their two and half year veteran starting QB back a D-1 athlete{ baseball } with a good arm, good size, and runs fairly well. Not fast , more corner infield or left field like athletic like but can move the chain when necessary . 2-3 reliable veteran receivers { Martin and Stoner made contributions last year vs .DC} AND I am not sure who the main back will be but John Aziz who played at Coffman as a Freshman and did well may be the guy? 5-9 170 and shifty. Don't think they have a better option.
A couple returning O- and D lineman , some decent LB's and a couple stud Sophomores will make the scene. Larosa is rumored to be a beast and a D-1 certainty and has at least Cam Craig potential { Some say more} who is at Purdue. Hole is a sturdy physical player [ DE - RB- LB?} 6-0 205 ?
Week one 2012 , initial meeting. 2012 Rocks team definitely had final four potential. Were killing everyone they played until the last few weeks of the season. Liberty in week 9 was a sloppy rainy game the Rocks only won by 8 points. then got upset in week 10 to a decent but not really good UA team by 9 turning the ball over 7 times { 6 offensive and one a muffed pooched Kick off } then losing to a good by not real good Davidson team losing the battle 4-0 setting up Davidson with 3 short fields losing 17-14 , after dominating them 33-10 in the regular season.
A bit of a mismatch here as the Rocks rolled with a mostly Senior group 48-6 . James Walsh ran and threw for a ton of yards, RB Bilal Williamson , Receivers Tony Woodford, Austen Rankin, and Zach Fouche were too much for the Celts. Jerome had a stud RB in Donovan Wilson who was heading to Ga Tech { Transferred to Bowling Green } . a 200 plus pound back ,had little room to maneuver . Rocks physical front 7 had a great night . Miles McCollum Vinny Jones , Ian Flinders et al were all over the field .
2013 opening night at Coffman was a different story altogether. Coffman was much less a favorite and had their least experienced team in the Crabtree 20 year era. ONE returning starter on Offense. [Guard Jared Nunn} and only a few on defense . One of the returning starters on defense DB Juan Jennings actually transferred to Jerome for his Senior year. The country Clubbers smelled blood and had more returning guys who had taken a bad beating the year before and wanted revenge. Steve Kidwell was a horse in the first half at RB and the CC's took a 14-10 lead into the break after Coffman had gotten off to a 10-0 lead.
Rocks would eek out a 16-14 win on a beautiful night as John McGue kicked a 40 yard FG his third of the night with about 3 minutes left . Jerome gained 40 yards on a screen pass in the last seconds setting themselves up for a potential game winning 47 yard FG on the last play . Junior Safety Reagan Malas { Dayton } would block the FG and the Jerome kid whose name escapes me had the leg to get it there.
The Rocks exhaled deeply and little did they know that if they had lost that game they would started the season at 0-4 . They lost to Scioto the next week , Canton McKinley week three and Davidson in week 4 to start 1-3 . They would get revenge on all three in 2014 , 35-7 48-0 and 24-9 respectively. In what was the staffs best coaching job IMO , they then ripped off 6 straight wins to end the regular season to just make the play offs and winning a play-off game hammering Centerville by 28 , a team that had beaten them up in a scrimmage two months before .
The programs didn't play in 2014 through 2017 , getting back at it in 2018 . Week four the Rocks won 45-14 at Jerome in a game they were behind 14-10 at the half .Second half was all Rocks as they made some nice adjustments and weren't hurt by the deep throw it up pass in the second half as they were in the first . Rocks also cleaned up the mistakes on offense and executed to perfection really . Drennan was a beast , Diallo was strong until he broke his arm on a 30 yard breaking 5 tackles run . QB Brown was outstanding making a few throws and running for some big first downs. Defense was outstanding in the second half with a couple picks and sacks shutting them down completely.
Safety AJ Kirk as a Sophomore was a beast with the hardest hits of the night. That was the last year he played for the Rocks , sitting out last year and transferring to Hoban this year. Jr. Bramonte { Moved to Florida for is Senior year} had a few sacks . Soph. Cincinnati signee and Rock leader Bryon Threats had a late pick 6 .
Last year the game was played on a very warm sultry night but it was windy as if the fans ordered a fan to cool them. First half was especially windy adn both teams scored with the wind as it played a huge factor . Rocks went up 14-0 with a very short field on one TD drive as it was tough to punt the ball into that wind. The Country Clubbers came back strong converting on some 4th downs , completing some nice crossing routes against some first year Rocks starters at Corner and no Kirk at safety to worry about going over the middle. Rocks had chances to make plays and get off the field but didn't . Again like the year before the second half was ALL Rocks.
Dominant run game , QB Mathews keeping was huge , Diallo was big as well . 17-0 in the second half and like 2018 the defense made the adjustments and shut out the Country Clubbers for the second straight year in the second half. 52-0 the last two years combined after halftime.
Rocks have a handful and a few more back . Jerome has some folks back and is not sneaking up on anyone anymore . Physical program kids who compete and are in no way intimidated at all here. Rocks need to do better in the first half of these games and the Celts can't be happy with the way the second half's have gone . Probably have a final prediction later today /tonight . Really tough to get a handle on some of these games with the limited scrimmage time and not much deeper info .
Kramerica ? Where are you? We need your take on the Tangy double feature this weekend . GOOD LUCK to your Berlin Bears vs. Liberty .