Tough matchup ahead for Franklin, Piqua
Franklin puts 12-game regular-season unbeaten streak on line against Piqua.
The second contest of a two-year series, this is a marquee matchup that features two of the top teams in SWBL and GWOC.
The offensive fireworks have been impressive as Franklin has extended its regular-season unbeaten streak to 12 games
over the last two high school football seasons. Launching more of the same in today’s Week 3 game at Piqua will be a major challenge.
“It’ll be a tough matchup,” Franklin coach Brad Childers said. “It’ll be a great atmosphere and they’ve got a traditional program that just reloads every year. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
The second contest of a two-year series, this is a marquee
matchup that features the best of the Southwestern Buckeye League (Franklin, 2-0) against one of at least a half-dozen top-end Greater Western Ohio Conference reps (Piqua, 1-1).
Last year Piqua lost standout running back and linebacker Darien Tipps-Clemons to a season-ending knee injury in the first quarter of an eventual 30-6 blowout loss at Franklin. The Indians essentially needed two games to revamp their offense and finished strong with a 7-3 record. Tipps-Clemons is now a prized freshman at Michigan State University.
Piqua blew out Meadowdale in its opener this season and fell 42-35 in a shootout to unbeaten Trotwood-Madison last week. Franklin has thumped Carlisle 47-14 and Edgewood 49-21.
As expected, senior Ryan Montgomery has been Franklin’s go-to offensive option with 306 yards rushing and seven touchdowns. Wildcats quarterback Braden White has been the perfect complement, completing 22 of 25 passes for 212 yards and three more scores.
Piqua counters with QB Austin Davis. He’s completed 30 of 47 passes for 463 yards and seven touchdowns. That yardage total is second in the GWOC behind Springfield’s Leonard Taylor (495).
Both Franklin and Piqua have outstanding defenses. Piqua is guided by Bill Nees, the dean of GWOC coaches and in his 26th season with the Indians.
“It’s going to be a battle up front,” Childers said. “That’s where the game is going to be played. The team that’s most physical in that part of the game will be the team that wins the game.”
This might not be the last time these teams play this season. Both are again lumped in Division III, Region 12, which is loaded with high-level area and Cincinnati programs.
Franklin will open with Madison next season and will swap out Piqua for another GWOC team in Xenia in Week 3 next season.
“It’s so tough to fill those voids,” said Childers, in his fourth season as the Wildcats coach. “You hope that you can get some good competition and somewhere within a reasonable (travel) distance. Piqua was a good matchup.”
Dunbar’s offense finally slipped out of neutral during the second half of last week’s 32-0 defeat of Ponitz. Most notable is the contest was scoreless at halftime.
Wolverines senior Joseph Scates jumped-started Dunbar’s offense by returning the second-half kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. That snapped a streak of six straight scoreless quarters for Dunbar, which includes a 42-0 Week 1 rout by Belmont. Dunbar senior running back Tavion Thomas, verbally committed to the University of Oklahoma, rushed for 233 yards and scored twice. Scates accounted for 175 yards of total offense. Those were the kinds of offensive numbers the senior duo generated after outstanding junior seasons.
Dunbar (1-1) is at Cincinnati Mt. Healthy (0-2) today. Ponitz (0-2) hosted Dayton Christian (1-1) at Welcome Stadium on Thursday.
What’s at stake when Coldwater (1-1) hosts Marion Local (2-0) in a Week 3 showdown today? Another record 50/50 raffle.
Last year the game at Maria Stein between the Midwest Athletic Conference heavyweights paid a record $14,724 to a nearby Chickasaw resident. In less than three hours — the time allotted for selling tickets before and during the game — a total of $29,448 was collected.
The other payout that night was Coldwater snapping Marion Local’s 31-game home win streak, 17-14. That was the same score the Cavs also won by in the 2015 matchup.
The first Associated Press state polls will be released Monday night.