ColumbusSports.com : Your place to stay informed and talk about the sports scene and sports teams in and around Columbus.

Dublin Coffman Keeps On Rocking.

Congrats --  to local winners Coffman, Darby, DeSales, Ready, West Jeff, Licking Valley, Fredericktown, Big Walnut, Newark Catholic, Pleasant and Westfall. Lots of strong Central Ohio teams are left in the Regional Finals coming up this weekend. The only two local head to head contests are the heavyweight battle of Div. I Darby vs. Coffman at Upper Arlington on Saturday night 11/17 and the Div. V pairing of Fredericktown and Ready at Olentangy on Friday night 11/16. Everyone else plays outsiders -- how dare they invade Cowtown Country!! More on the Regional Finals in a separate article I'll start later in the week, so be sure to check.  Saturday 11/10 Divisions I, IV and VI Regional Semifinal Results -- In a battle of unbeatens Saturday night in Gahanna, Dublin Coffman woke up from a 7-7 halftime tie to steamroll 2006 Div. II runner-up Pickerington Central 35-9. Zack Stoudt threw for 242 yards with Jake Stoneburner catching 163 of those, including a 56 yeard Shamrock TD. RB Jordan Richeson ignited Hilliard Darby's victory with a 52 yard first play TD before missing the rest of the game. For gaudy numbers, no one could come close to matching Div. IV Westfall's Seth Hardin. Hardin amassed an incredible 442 rushing yards and 6 TDs, while Westfall QB B.J. Cain added a mere 154 plus a throwing TD. Jake Lawrence of Div. IV Pleasant led a victory stomp with 178 ground yards, while Griffin Clark scored on offense and defense. In small school Div. VI, Devon Balcom of Newark Catholic returned two INTs for TDs, and Ryan Lewis gave the Green Wave another pick-6 as well. Danville self-destructed with 13 penalties and 5 turnovers, overshadowing the fine performance of runner  BT Staats (136 yards). Local finals were:

• Hilliard Darby 16, Groveport 3
• Dublin Coffman 35, Pickerington Central 9
• Newark Catholic 43, Danville 6
• Pleasant 48, Ottawa-Glandorf 21
• Westfall 48, Waverly 28
• St. Clairsville 33, Licking Heights 17

A Bruising Rushing Attack Again by Licking Valley

Friday 11/9 Divisions II, III and V Regional Semifinal Results -- This was a very successful regional semifinal night for Central Ohio teams, with the only downsides being Canal Winchester's 7 turnovers and Circleville's defeat by Cincinnati Indian Hill (for a fictional and controversial take on that ritzy place, see the Michael Douglas movie Traffic, partially filmed here in C'bus). Div. III Big Walnut, playing in its backyard in Lewis Center at rival Olentangy Liberty's field, pummelled the Shelby Whippets and saw Corey Wolfe carry for 159, including a 79 yard TD, and Ethan Wetzel throw and run for TDs. Other local standouts included Ryan Clark (4 TDs) and Thomas Gentile (209 rushing yards) of Div. II DeSales plus Bishop Ready's Zac Dawson who caught a TD pass and ran for two more. Div. III Licking Valley continued its multiple threat attack with a 57 yard TD run from Josh Bailey and 4 TDs and nearly 200 yards from the aptly named Storm Klein, a 2009 Tressel recruit. West Jefferson had four different players with rushing TDs in a 28 point late game barrage, and Fredericktown put up two defensive touchdowns on returns in its thrilling Div. V overtime victory in Lancaster last night. And so, the results were:

Big Walnut, big win

• DeSales 27, Canfield 10 
• West Jefferson 56, West Liberty-Salem 24
• Big Walnut 35, Shelby 8 
• Ready 34, Johnstown 14
• Fredericktown 41, Wheelersburg 38 (OT)
• Lemon-Monroe 47, Canal Winchester 21
• Indian Hill 53, Circleville 14
• Licking Valley 35, Beloit West Branch 21

Pickerington Central was in the Div II final in 2006, and is now 11-0 at Div I

Regional Semi-Finals Coming Up 11/9 and 11/10 -- The titanic struggle between Hilliard Darby and Groveport will kickoff Saturday night at 7 pm at Upper Arlington stadium. Prep pigskin fans all across the area are braced for this rematch, waiting to see if Darby can avenge its only loss of the season. Meanwhile, Gahanna is the neutral host site for the battle of the unbeatens, Dublin Coffman and Pickerington Central, both 11-0. That game is also Saturday night at 7 pm, so get out there and buy a cloning machine fast. In Division III, Big Walnut gets to play its regional semifinal match at Olentangy against Shelby Friday night at 7:30 pm. Licking Valley, on the other hand, must travel up north to Wooster to take on Beloit West Branch. The all-knowing schedulers are sending Canal Winchester to Dayton Welcome Stadium to face Lemon-Monroe at the same time, and Friday night also sees DeSales (11-0) travelling to Canton Fawcett Stadium to tackle Canfield. Johnstown and Ready will play at Newark then, while Newark Catholic and Danville wait until Saturday at 1 pm to face each other at Mount Vernon in Division VI. Division IV Licking Heights goes east to Zanesville that night to play top regional seed St. Clairsville, and Westfall (11-0) gets Waverly down in Teays Valley. In Division V, West Jefferson (11-0) goes to Urbana to battle West Liberty- Salem on Friday night. Gas up the car at $3.09 a gallon and get on the road, fans!!

DeSales romps 50-7

Fri. Nov 3, 2007 -- First Round Openers Div. II, III, V --  Things started well for Central Ohio schools, with local gridders winning most matchups out of the gates. Star performers were Thomas Gentile of DeSales (118 yards rushing with a TD, 15 yd TD pass), Andrew Pearson of West Jefferson (169 yards, 3 TD) and Ethan Wetzel and Corey Wolfe of Big Walnut (138 yards and 128 yards respectively, with TD scores). On the Central Ohio periphery, Josh Bailey of Licking Valley scored 4 TDs and rushed for 212 yards including 74 yard score, and Shane Sheppard of Johnstown had 2 TDs and 183 rushing yards. Local scores included:

Bishop Ready Rolling On

• West Jefferson 34, Fairbanks 0
• DeSales 50, Zanesville 7
• Licking Valley  42, Granville 21
• Ashland 28, Olent. Liberty 21
• Big Walnut 35, Rossford 2
• Canal Winchester 17, Valley View 16
• Johnstown 28, Minford 7
• Ready 48, Belpre 0.

Sat. Nov 3, 2007 -- First Round Openers Div. I, IV and VI -- Key local matchups included:

Down to Darby Again

• Upper Arlington 10 at Hilliard Darby 35
• Lancaster 7 at Pickerington Central 21
• Gahanna 21 at Dublin Coffman 28
• Groveport 41 at Brookhaven 27
• New Lexington 7 at Westfall 31
• Portsmouth 34 at Licking Heights 42
• Coldwater 43 at Jonathan Alder 14
• Genoa Area 12 at Highland 7
• Oak Harbor 0 at Pleasant 14
• Berne Union 18 at Newark Catholic 21
• Malvern 25 at Danville 30. 

Ahmed Plummer led Wyoming before the Buckeyes and 49'ers

Since I hail from Cincinnati, I'll point out that there was also Elder 14 at St Xavier 45; Moeller 35 at Sycamore 28;  and my school, Wyoming 28 at Clinton -Massie 29 (2OT). Trauma in double overtime for the Wyoming Cowboys!!!! Highlights from Central Ohio included three 100 yard rushers for Licking Heights, Dan Pennington, Roy Bias and Shawn Smith. Zack Stoudt was 21 of 30 passes for 222 yards in Dublin Coffman's win, and Darby QB Jeremy Ebert led a furious 28 point fourth quarter comeback againt Upper Arlington, sealing a 35-10 win and a regional semi-final rematch with Groveport, whose Nick Goodrich gained 190 yards on the ground.

Tags: high school sports