{"id":199336,"date":"2025-11-10T21:31:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T02:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=199336"},"modified":"2025-11-10T21:31:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T02:31:50","slug":"random-thoughts-playoffs-and-more-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/11\/10\/random-thoughts-playoffs-and-more-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: playoffs and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around some tough playoff football matchups, Paulding, playoff fun facts, private\/parochial vs. public, and an almost comical loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tough matchups<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the OHSAA football playoffs, finishing as a top four seed has its benefits \u2013 namely a guaranteed home game or two, plus an opening round bye. Some coaches may like the bye, some may not, but that\u2019s a discussion for a different time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one drawback \u2013 sometimes it creates a sometimes unfavorable matchup earlier than one might like. For example \u2013 in the Division III Region 10 semifinals, No. 2 seed Wapakoneta will host No. 6 seed Toledo Central Catholic, a team that is the 2024 state runner-up and won state titles in 2023 and 2022. By a wide margin, the favorites to win the Division III title this year are last year\u2019s champion, Columbus Bishop Watterson or Toledo Central Catholic. It will take a Herculean effort by Wapak to pull the upset Friday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Division IV Region 14, Bath finished as the No. 4 seed and for that, the Wildcats get to face undefeated and Associated Press poll champion Shelby this Friday night. The same can be said for Columbus Grove and Lima Central Catholic in Division VII Region 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First time<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations to the Paulding Panthers for their first ever football playoff win. Many (myself included) considered the Panthers a slight underdog going into last Friday\u2019s regional quarterfinal game against Fairview, but Paulding found a way to win the game, 14-10. Best of luck to the Panthers Friday night against Carey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Playoff fun facts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across seven divisions, there are 25 undefeated teams left in the football playoffs. There are no teams left with a losing record and two teams that went 5-5 during the regular season that are still alive \u2013 Danville and Fort Recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private\/parochial vs. public<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re keeping track, private\/parochial schools won five of the seven OHSAA volleyball titles over the weekend. Cincinnati Seton, Cincinnati Archbishop McNicholas, Mentor Lake Catholic, Newark Catholic and Tiffin Calvert all won titles. The only public schools to win titles were Avon in Division II and Tipp City Tippecanoe in Division III.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking it a step further, just three of the seven OHSVCA poll champions won on the court titles \u2013 Seton, Archbishop McNicholas and Calvert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No words<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me get this straight \u2013 the Cleveland Browns lost to a team that\u2019s quite obviously looking toward the 2026 NFL draft, something that is commonly referred to as tanking. The Jets don\u2019t necessarily want to win, but they did just that against the Browns on Sunday. Got it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around some tough playoff football matchups, Paulding, playoff fun facts, private\/parochial vs. public, and an almost comical loss. Tough matchups In the OHSAA football playoffs, finishing as a top four seed has its benefits \u2013 namely a guaranteed home game or two, plus an opening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 04:37:04","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199337,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199336\/revisions\/199337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}