Blanchester football coach Jon Mulvihill is thankful to have a week off as his Wildcats prepare for their first playoff game on Oct. 17.
“We are banged up … this week will help immensely,” he said. “We need to address some flaws in our fundamentals during the bye week. We won’t do much in the way of hitting, but we will be working on things.”
Blanchester is the No. 2 seed in Region 20. They’ll face either No. 16 East Clinton or No. 15 Madison-Plains in an Oct. 17 playoff game. EC goes to MP for the game Saturday night.
The other three teams in a potential third round matchup are No. 7 Springfield Shawnee, No. 10 Middletown Madison and No. 23 Finneytown.
In last week’s 28-14 win over East Clinton, BHS quarterback Brayden Sipple left the game and did not return. Mulvihill said Sipple is fine.
Blanchester led East Clinton 7-0 then the Astros made some adjustments and stalled the BHS juggernaut.
“They did some things they hadn’t done on film,” Mulvihill said. “It wook some halftime adjustments to capitalize on those changes.”
Those changes led to a 28-0 BHS advantage. The Wildcats defense held the Astros to 26 yards on 21 rushing attempts but then EC went to the air and mounted a comeback.
“We did not adjust and it cost us to the tune of 160-plus yards on 14 plays,” said Mulvihill.
East Clinton successfully executed an onside kick which Mulvihill said was “a lack of awareness on our part and will be addressed.”
Overall, the BHS second-year coach said his team played well and did what it needed to do for the victory.
“There are a lot of people out there that look at the final score and have something to say,” Mulvihill noted. “Personally, from here on out, I’m right next to (Oakland Raiders legend) Al Davis with my attitude. Just win baby.”
