Bonus Blog...football notes

We didn't have room to run my football notes in the paper so call this a bonus blog...

By JAMIE BAKER
Staff Writer
Advantage Riverdale.
If anyone has an advantage in Friday’s streak-stopping battle between the Falcons and Fostoria St. Wendelin it’s probably Riverdale coach Jeremy Kloepfer.
Kloepfer was an assistant coach at St. Wendelin last season and should have a pretty good understanding of the personnel the Mohawks will be putting on the field.
“If you are a good coach and in it for the right reasons you really get to know and really like the kids that play for you,” Kloepfer said. “I know all those kids at St. Wendelin, personally. I feel for them and I’m pulling for them, except for this week.”
Cool is also hoping Kloepfer and his Falcons can turn things around, only not this week.
“When you coach together it’s like you’re a family. I want to see Jeremy’s team do well but we have to worry about ourselves and take care of business on the field Friday night,” Cool said.
LONGER STREAK: While St. Wendelin and Riverdale have never met on the football field, the Mohawks did beat the Mt. Blanchard Hurricanes 6-0 during the 1950 season. Also, the current streak isn’t the Mohawks’ longest losing skid on the gridiron.
St. Wendelin dropped 26 straight games between 1954 and 1956 before putting together back-to-back tie games and beating Bloomdale 34-20 in their fifth game of the 1957 season.
Ashland Mapleton has the state’s longest current losing streak at 32 games.
STAT ATTACK: Hardin Northern statistician Bob Dysert probably woke up with a bad case of writer’s cramp after Friday night’s 67-38 Polar Bear win over rival Ada.
The two teams went up and down the field, combining for 15 touchdowns and more than 1,200 yards of total offense.
Nathan Bame’s 315 rushing yards on 32 carries broke Hardin Northern’s school record of 283 yards set by Rob Crossman in 1996. Ada’s Zac Dysert was 38-of-55 passing for 518 yards which was a school record and ranks eighth on the all-time OHSAA single-game list.
SIZE DOESN’T MATTER: Delphos St. John’s proved it can play with the big boys. The Division VI Blue Jays stopped Division I Worthington Kilbourne 28-12 Friday. The Blue Jays dominated the game, racking up 365 yards of total offense while holding the Wolves, who made the Division I playoffs last season, to just 131.
Kilbourne will be in town to take on Findlay Sept. 22.
TRIPPING OUT: Perhaps the longest trip for a game in Ohio during Week 2 will be right here in our corner of the state.
Hicksville hosts Ironton Rock Hill in a 6 p.m. Saturday night special. Mapquest lists the trip as a 5½-hour trek with a distance of 283.8 miles separating the two schools.
BVC LID LIFTERS: After a 6-4 opening week, teams from the Blanchard Valley Conference go about their business of beating up on one another for the final nine weeks of the regular season.
Hardin Northern opens defense of its BVC crown by hosting Vanlue. The other four games should make for some mighty interesting football.
Arcadia’s Joe Kirkendall and Pandora-Gilboa’s B.J. Queen both won their head coaching debuts last week and their teams host tough foes in Leipsic and Arlington, respectively. Cory-Rawson and Liberty-Benton will try to rebound from tough opening-week losses when they square off at the Hornets’ nest. Van Buren makes the short trip down State Route 613 to Doc Miller Field to play McComb.

STRIKE OUT: It’s been a chaotic week at Sandusky Perkins as the Pirates prepare for their Week 2 game against Keystone. A teacher’s strike began at the school Monday and school has resumed with replacement teachers in the classroom. A student walkout took place Tuesday and several security guards hired by the school district were fired after it was discovered they had extensive criminal histories.
Still the Perkins administration is committed to keeping its fall sports season afloat during the strike with volunteer coaches replacing those on the picket lines.

Contact staff writer Jamie Baker at:
(419) 427-8409
jamiebaker@thecourier.com