Three SBAAC football teams play Friday night in the OHSAA playoffs.
Wilmington will host Marietta, Western Brown hosts Athens and Goshen plays at Hughes. All games are scheduled to kick-off at 7 p.m.
On Saturday night, East Clinton travels to Madison-Plains, Clermont Northeastern goes to Preble Shawnee, Bethel-Tate hosts Urbana and Batavia plays at Oakwood.
Williamsburg, who opted out of the playoffs, will play at Gamble Montessori tonight.
Clinton-Massie, Blanchester, New Richmond and Fayetteville have first-round playoff byes this week.
MORE ON MARIETTA: Head coach Jason Schob said he immediately recognized the name Fred Pierson when asked about the Wilmington High School graduate who coached at Marietta. He was not aware the Tigers coaching legend was a Wilmington native.
Marietta has not had a winning season since 2002. Schob played on that Tigers team, the only football team at MHS to make the post-season.
Schob and his squad will make the 120-plus mile trek to Wilmington Friday. He said his team’s furthest trip this season was about an hour “so this is a very unique experience.”
Schob said the team will break the trip in to two parts, stopping halfway to have a short walkthrough before completing the trip.
“The drive isn’t an ideal situation but still a neat experience for the kids to play against a different opponent in a playoff game,” he said.
SBAAC LEADERS: Through the six-game regular season, five if you’re Batavia and Wilmington, here are the leaders in the league.
Passing: Drew Novak of Western Brown has 2,242 yards, leading runnerup Brayden Sipple of Blanchester by 920 yards.
Rushing: Carson Vanhoose of Clinton-Massie has 1,144 yards on the ground, 363 yards more than Cade Chisman of WB.
Receiving: Logan Campbell of WB has 800 yards while teammate Dylan Novak is next with 597.
Sacks: JJ Stricker of Clermont Northeastern is at the top with 9 while a trio of players — Drew Hendrix of Fayetteville, Logan Pottorf of CNE and Patrick Salvatore of Bethel-Tate — have seven each.
Interceptions: Branson Smith of East Clinton is tied for first with Jayden Bradshaw of Fayetteville and Bo Snider of New Richmond.
Fumble recoveries: Cayden Clutter of Clinton-Massie and Jake Mott of CNE have three each.
CLOSER LOOK: Let’s take a closer look at the seasons of a trio of SBAAC players.
First, Drew Novak of Western Brown. After passing for 1,015 yards in losses to New Richmond and Clinton-Massie, Novak passed for just 919 yards in the next three games, all wins. Novak was 73-112 in the two losses with nine touchdowns. In the Broncos four wins, he was 79-117 for 1,227 yards. He had 14 TDs and 0 intercpetions in the wins.
Second, Luke Lytle of New Richmond. Lytle’s season was tainted a bit by the loss to Goshen in the SBAAC finale last week.
But Lytle had one of the best all-around seasons in recent memory.
Lytle is 83-138 passing for 1,221 yards and 11 touchdowns while going 81-513 on the ground with nine touchdowns.
The Goshen numbers bring all those down some (11-23 passing for 128 yards and five rushes for one yard) but a great season nonetheless.
Finally, Carson Vanhoose of Clinton-Massie. Massie’s mighty might on the ground averages 191 yards a game and nearly 12 yards per carry this season.
He easily could have been over 200 yards a game if not for a “lackluster” season opening performance of 11 rushes for 78 yards against the powerful Alter Knights.
The averages for Vanhoose in games 2-6 were 17.6 attempts, 213.2 yards per game, 4.4 touchdowns per game and a per carry average of 12.11 yards.
