{"id":199598,"date":"2025-11-17T21:56:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T02:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=199598"},"modified":"2025-11-17T21:56:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T02:56:48","slug":"random-thoughts-football-and-more-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/11\/17\/random-thoughts-football-and-more-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: football 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 slow starts and the state semifinals, possible repeat champions, a tough night for area football teams, the nearly impossible halfway point, small upsets big, Shedeur Sanders<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0-3 to state semis?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a question \u2013 has any Ohio high school football season started the season 0-3, then made it far as the state semifinals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honestly, I don\u2019t have the answer to that. If it\u2019s happened, it was almost certainly after the OHSAA football playoffs expanded to 16 teams per region. Now, with 12 teams per region qualifying, it could happen twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t want to put the cart before the horse, but in Division VI Region 22, Carey started the season 0-3 but has advanced to the regional championship game and will face Hopewell-Loudon this Friday night, with the winner moving on to the state semis. In Division VII, Region 26, Columbus Grove started the season 0-3, but the Bulldogs are knocking on the door of a regional championship and a state semifinal berth. A win over Leipsic Friday night would ensure that. I won\u2019t be surprised at all if at least one of them accomplishes the feat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Repeat champions?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, not to put the cart before the horse, but there could be as many as five repeat football state champions this year \u2013 the list includes Avon in Division II, Columbus Bishop Watterson in Division III, Indian Valley in Division IV, Coldwater in Division VI and Marion Local in Division VII.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rough night<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

None of the region\u2019s playoff games last Friday were close. In fact, all were basically blowouts. The closest games were Coldwater 49 Tri-Village 28 (it really wasn\u2019t that close), Columbus Grove 28 Lima Central Catholic 6, and Anna 28 Northeastern 8. The remaining games all had at least five touchdown margins. I have to admit, I\u2019m a bit surprised by that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The halfway conundrum<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the OHSAA announced the official regional title game sites on Sunday, the information included this: \u201cMany factors go into determining locations for each game, and rarely can an available site be found that is exactly halftime between the two participating schools. Once a potential site is determined, the school must be available and willing to host a game on the requested night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s in response to fans who question and\/or complain about neutral playoff game sites not being exactly halfway between the two competing schools. I\u2019ve long suspected that those who complain don\u2019t completely understand how much work and manpower it takes to host a playoff game. Hint: it\u2019s a lot. Yes, often times there are sites at or near the halfway point that would be great venues to host, but you can\u2019t force them to host. There\u2019s also the possibility that a potential host site\u2019s own team is in the playoffs \u2013 why would they want to host a different game the same night?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

My advice to those fans: your team is still playing. Enjoy the ride. It may not happen again for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David vs. Goliath<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok, Goliath may be an overstatement here, but I\u2019ll explain what I\u2019m getting at. The University of Pittsbugh women\u2019s basketball team was upset by Scranton 69-63. Pitt, of course, is a Division I school, while Scranton is a Division III college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, Pitt is hardly a D-I powerhouse. In the last 15 seasons, the Panthers have had just one winning season. Still, it\u2019s pretty rare that you see a Division I school lose to a Division III school. It is fair to point out that Scranton went 29-2 last season, 28-3 in 2023-2024, 28-1 in 2022-2023, and 27-3 in 2021-2022, so yeah, they\u2019re very good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shedeur Sanders<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can Shedeur Sanders be \u201cthe\u201d guy in Cleveland. No one really knows. When pressed into action against Baltimore on Sunday, he had a rough time, going just 4-of-16 for 47 yards and an interception. Keep in mind, Sanders had no practice reps with the starters going into Sunday\u2019s game. He did show a flash or two but regardless of how things turn out, at least we know he can throw the ball more than five yards downfield, something Dillon Gabriel has struggled with this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above topics, 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 slow starts and the state semifinals, possible repeat champions, a tough night for area football teams, the nearly impossible halfway point, small upsets big, Shedeur Sanders 0-3 to state semis? Here\u2019s a question \u2013 has any Ohio high school football season started the season […]<\/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-199598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 13:37:11","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\/199598","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=199598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199599,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199598\/revisions\/199599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}