Ohio Cardinal Conference

WH 56-14 Madison gets a couple even with the running clock in the second half
Ashland 42-3. Mt. Vernon is really bad. I wouldn't be surprised if they are shut out.
Wooster 42-7 Lexington just smoked Mt Vernon and they are not much better. Wooster should run away with this one.
Mansfield SR and New Philadelphia is a toss up. Neither team has much offense but both have solid Defense. Whoever can score 10 pts first?
 
Pretty safe picks this week.. I was definitely off on Mansfield and Ashland last week!

West Holmes over Madison (49 - 7)
- Running clock game. Madison score in garbage time?

Ashland over Mt. Vernon (35 - 14)
- Could be running clock, could be close.. Ashland QB situation scares me, Very Hot/Cold team

Wooster over Lexington (48 - 7)
- Running Clock

Mansfield Senior over New Phila. (28 - 0)
- Close game 1st half. New Philly just doesn't have an offense
 
jmill03 said:
Pretty safe picks this week.. I was definitely off on Mansfield and Ashland last week!

West Holmes over Madison (49 - 7)
- Running clock game. Madison score in garbage time?

Ashland over Mt. Vernon (35 - 14)
- Could be running clock, could be close.. Ashland QB situation scares me, Very Hot/Cold team

Wooster over Lexington (48 - 7)
- Running Clock

Mansfield Senior over New Phila. (28 - 0)
- Close game 1st half. New Philly just doesn't have an offense
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West Holmes over Madison 56-0
Ashland over Mt Vernon 53-7
Lexington over Wooster 22-21
Sr over New Phila 21-10

Lexington with the upset!
 
It was the Brayden Fogle show in the 4th quarter of Lexington win over Wooster. The 6'5 Freshman is a heluva athlete! Can't wait to see on a basketball court for the Minutemen.
 
spirit454 said:
I believe Shelby did it a few years back for 11 or 12 straight games.
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They had one in their first 12 games in 2017. I had a friend who ran the numbers for that season, and Shelby had the highest average point differential in the entire state across all divisons. Roughly 50-5 average score.

If memory serves me right, seven of those running clocks began at the second half kickoff. The 62-0 halftime lead against 5-5 Port Clinton comes to mind, a half in which Port Clinton had more first downs than Shelby. Hard to get 1st downs when every other play was a 50+ yard TD. The schedule that year was weaker than we wanted, but the 40-0 halftime lead over eventual Regional Runner Up Bellevue made it clear that Shelby could have dropped 100 if the starters ever played more than one series in a 2nd half...which was not the case until the playoffs.

Where it fell apart was an ACL injury to a 3-year starting linebacker, a broken wrist to an eventual collegiate lineman, and a week 12 rolled ankle for our 2000+ yard RB. It was one thing to have Brennan Armstrong that year, it was another to have a RB who would have been the best playmaker for any other team in northwest Ohio.

Steubenville was always going to be a force for Shelby that year, but losing that RB is the biggest What-If in Shelby athletics history (number two may be the canceled 2020 track season when Shelby had a pretty good chance of winning state, but with other track state titles in 2003, 2004, and 2019, I'm not so torn up over that). Now one might argue that Shelby had them both in 2016 against Steubenville, but a stupid altercation in garbage time against Philo led to a suspension for an all Ohio lineman and an eventual Ashland University commit who was Armstrong's favorite WR target. Everyone gets injuries and excuses, but it flat out stinks to have never faced Steubenville with a full strength team.
 
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Yes in 2017 Shelby went 12 games with a running clock and then in game 13 they won by 21 point before losing in game 14.
 
Halfway through the season my take on the Ohio Cardinal conference
1. West Holmes do what you’re supposed to do and you’ll be undefeated and league champs for the second straight year. I’m gonna put West Holmes on upset alert because if I’m not mistaken the last two times West homes went to Wooster undefeated they did not stay undefeated
2. Mansfield senior is still the second best team in this league but wow have a Lot of problems If they are going to make noise in Division III playoffs they’re gonna have to do some fixing up
3. I’m gonna pretty much say tied for third is Wooster Lexington Ashland and New Philadelphia and in no particular order
Wooster were they looking past Lexington to the West Holmes game maybe?
Ashland Had what I expected a week
New Philadelphia got to give you credit you gave Mansfield a game
Lexington didn’t see that coming way to go for two to pull the upset
7. Madison don’t worry about last nights game I still think you’re on your way to improving
8. Mount Vernon are you sure you should have stayed in the Ohio capital conference
 
ryan11677 said:
Halfway through the season my take on the Ohio Cardinal conference
1. West Holmes do what you’re supposed to do and you’ll be undefeated and league champs for the second straight year. I’m gonna put West Holmes on upset alert because if I’m not mistaken the last two times West homes went to Wooster undefeated they did not stay undefeated
2. Mansfield senior is still the second best team in this league but wow have a Lot of problems If they are going to make noise in Division III playoffs they’re gonna have to do some fixing up
3. I’m gonna pretty much say tied for third is Wooster Lexington Ashland and New Philadelphia and in no particular order
Wooster were they looking past Lexington to the West Holmes game maybe?
Ashland Had what I expected a week
New Philadelphia got to give you credit you gave Mansfield a game
Lexington didn’t see that coming way to go for two to pull the upset
7. Madison don’t worry about last nights game I still think you’re on your way to improving
8. Mount Vernon are you sure you should have stayed in the Ohio capital conference
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I'm always amazed that a school the size of Mount Vernon is not better at football. I know their wrestling program is legit and has given other OCC schools a run for their money. Are they competitive in other OCC sports?
 
ryan11677 said:
Halfway through the season my take on the Ohio Cardinal conference
1. West Holmes do what you’re supposed to do and you’ll be undefeated and league champs for the second straight year. I’m gonna put West Holmes on upset alert because if I’m not mistaken the last two times West homes went to Wooster undefeated they did not stay undefeated
2. Mansfield senior is still the second best team in this league but wow have a Lot of problems If they are going to make noise in Division III playoffs they’re gonna have to do some fixing up
3. I’m gonna pretty much say tied for third is Wooster Lexington Ashland and New Philadelphia and in no particular order
Wooster were they looking past Lexington to the West Holmes game maybe?
Ashland Had what I expected a week
New Philadelphia got to give you credit you gave Mansfield a game
Lexington didn’t see that coming way to go for two to pull the upset
7. Madison don’t worry about last nights game I still think you’re on your way to improving
8. Mount Vernon are you sure you should have stayed in the Ohio capital conference
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WH will have a running clock by the end of the 3rd
 
But these are high school kids I’m not trying to be mean every school has their sport some schools don’t have any sports unfortunately with the way things are if you’re a good kid let’s say in a bad school for a sport you’re going to transfer and that’s why I keep some of the schools from having a chance to get better
 
College Football Fan said:
I'm always amazed that a school the size of Mount Vernon is not better at football. I know their wrestling program is legit and has given other OCC schools a run for their money. Are they competitive in other OCC sports?
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I agree with the puzzlement of MV as the largest school in the league. Just like Wooster from the Federal League, they left the Columbus OCC for more competitive opportunities. Since joining the new league they have won 1 conference title outright and shared another playing in 11 sports for guys. On the girls side they have won multiple softball titles but nothing else.
 
This week the OCC has some good games!

New Philly over Mt. Vernon (35 - 14)
- If New Philly had a better offense I'd say running clock. But this will be a ground game

Ashland over Madison (28 -17)
- Everyone is excited for this game! I think Madison will keep it close but ultimately the arrows will outplay and outcoach the rams :banana::stirthepot:
(truthfully I think both coaching staffs are good but the old timers are pitting them against each other so I had to join in)

West Holmes over Wooster (42 - 14)
- West Holmes has too much fire power.. Could be a running clock?

Mansfield Senior over Lexington (24-21)
- After Lex upset Wooster last week, this is my game of the week! Could go either way
 
spirit454 said:
I agree with the puzzlement of MV as the largest school in the league. Just like Wooster from the Federal League, they left the Columbus OCC for more competitive opportunities. Since joining the new league they have won 1 conference title outright and shared another playing in 11 sports for guys. On the girls side they have won multiple softball titles but nothing else.
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Its all culture. You could have the best Highschool coach, but if they kids, parents, and administration don't change the culture it will never get better.
 
jmill03 said:
This week the OCC has some good games!

New Philly over Mt. Vernon (35 - 14)
- If New Philly had a better offense I'd say running clock. But this will be a ground game

Ashland over Madison (28 -17)
- Everyone is excited for this game! I think Madison will keep it close but ultimately the arrows will outplay and outcoach the rams :banana::stirthepot:
(truthfully I think both coaching staffs are good but the old timers are pitting them against each other so I had to join in)

West Holmes over Wooster (42 - 14)
- West Holmes has too much fire power.. Could be a running clock?

Mansfield Senior over Lexington (24-21)
- After Lex upset Wooster last week, this is my game of the week! Could go either way
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New Philly 24-7 there defense is solid, but Mt Vernon doesn't have much of either.
Ashland 27-14 I really don't know what to make of Ashland at this point. They haven't played a very tough schedule but Madison is not good.
WH 35-28 this is always a very closely contested match up, I think 1 score is the difference.
SR 27-7 Too much defense Lexington doesn't get much going.
 
Ringworm7 said:
MV is starting about half freshmen and sophomores revisit this in about 2 years..
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MV has on their varsity roster, 14 SRs, 15 JRs, 15 SOs, and 1 Fr. And then they have 23 on the freshman team. That is a total of 68 HS kids playing football with an estimated over 615 HS boys in the district.
 
Hot_Takes said:
Its all culture. You could have the best Highschool coach, but if they kids, parents, and administration don't change the culture it will never get better.
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I have never known a coach who could go into the homes of a community and change the way parents are raising their kids.
 
spirit454 said:
I have never known a coach who could go into the homes of a community and change the way parents are raising their kids.
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That's not what I am talking about at all. The parents dictating/demanding who should and shouldn't be playing, not allowing the coaches to coach their kids or hold them accountable, negative talk about administration, coaches, other kids, etc. That is such a drain on a program. There are exceptions when coaches or administration have completely failed the kids or crossed a line.
 
Ringworm7 said:
I believe they started 2 freshmen and 5-6 sophomores(another soph was injured) last game, but we will see how it goes, they have the talent. The younger classes and their parents have been very committed for years and have had a lot more pre-high school success than MV is used to, they are used to winning. The coaches are dedicated and want to turn things around. Only time will tell if that is enough. But I definitely understand skepticism haha.
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With numbers down everywhere, many schools are finding freshman and sophs playing time unless you are a successful traditional football school. Sometimes the issue with early success is you have 15-20 kids actually playing and winning. Once they hit high school and combine with the other 3 grades, those 15-20 successful kids start to drop off because playing is being taken by an upper or lower classman. JH teams with 25-30 kids can graduate 11 football guys.
 
Hot_Takes said:
That's not what I am talking about at all. The parents dictating/demanding who should and shouldn't be playing, not allowing the coaches to coach their kids or hold them accountable, negative talk about administration, coaches, other kids, etc. That is such a drain on a program. There are exceptions when coaches or administration have completely failed the kids or crossed a line.
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Unfortunately that is a big part of parenting in 2022. The term helicopter parent is used a lot today. The trophy generations being raised today in areas like MV may not improve until the parents change. MV has definitely had some good coaches in sports with limited success.
 
Hot_Takes said:
New Philly 24-7 there defense is solid, but Mt Vernon doesn't have much of either.
Ashland 27-14 I really don't know what to make of Ashland at this point. They haven't played a very tough schedule but Madison is not good.
WH 35-28 this is always a very closely contested match up, I think 1 score is the difference.
SR 27-7 Too much defense Lexington doesn't get much going.
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jmill03 said:
This week the OCC has some good games!

New Philly over Mt. Vernon (35 - 14)
- If New Philly had a better offense I'd say running clock. But this will be a ground game

Ashland over Madison (28 -17)
- Everyone is excited for this game! I think Madison will keep it close but ultimately the arrows will outplay and outcoach the rams :banana::stirthepot:
(truthfully I think both coaching staffs are good but the old timers are pitting them against each other so I had to join in)

West Holmes over Wooster (42 - 14)
- West Holmes has too much fire power.. Could be a running clock?

Mansfield Senior over Lexington (24-21)
- After Lex upset Wooster last week, this is my game of the week! Could go either way
Click to expand...
Let's see more picks for this week!
 
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