In the “oldest” high school football rivalry between Clinton County schools, Blanchester visits Alumni Field Friday night to face Wilmington.
The meeting between the two schools will be the first in varsity football since 1926.
The teams were scheduled to play each other in 1927. However, a day after losing to Hillsboro 20-6, Blanchester coach John Doughman cancelled the game with WHS, citing injuries suffered against Hillsboro. A couple weeks later, the BHS coach demanded his team turn in its uniforms “because there was insufficient material for a good team.”
So the last time the two schools hooked up in varsity football was Oct. 23, 1926, a 7-0 victory by the Orange and Black.
Wilmington also won games in 1925 (6-3), 1924 (45-0), 1923 (36-0), 1922 (32-0), 1921 (63-0), 1917 (47-0), 1916 (74-0), 1915 (46-0), 1913 (19-0), 1911 (23-0), 1910 (24-0), 1905 (32-0)
It appears the lone win for Blanchester in this series came in 1912. The teams met twice that season, Blanchester taking the first game 12-0 then Wilmington winning the second later in the year 15-12.
Both teams are coming off big victories – WHS 59-35 over Butler and BHS 26-23 in overtime against Waynesville.
“Blanchester is a young team but they have a lot of fight in them,” WHS head coach Scott Killen said. “They are a hard-nosed team that will definitely be up for a physical game. We are going to try to wear them down with our tempo and set up scoring opportunities with our special teams and defense.”
DJ Ames had a monster game for the Hurricane – 329 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns.
Killen said the Hurricane defense is improving “slowly” but needs to be more consistent.
“It’s frustrating at times but we will get there and if we have to play younger guys to get there, that is what we will do,” he said.
For Blanchester, a winning attitude helped in last week’s improbable comeback.
“A lot of our young guys are used to winning so they know the feeling,” BHS head coach Brandon Sammons said. “I’m sure that helps in these situations that they have a belief in themselves that they are capable of doing it.”
Despite the win, Sammons was not happy with the mistakes that put the Wildcats in such a deficit. Regardless, Junior Torres and Brayden Sipple helped BHS turn things around and defeat the Spartans.
“Junior Torres was a huge spark plug on that night,” Sammons said. “To have a freshman QB (Sipple) lead his team down field multiple times in the fourth quarter and make perfect throws in high pressure situations was a thing to behold.”
Sammons said Wilmington is “fast, physical, big.”
“Not overly complicate in what they do; they have great athletes and let them go. Pretty good formula. We have our hands full in every facet of the game. It will definitely be a tough game.”
