High School Football Postgame Notebook: Week 2

The second week of the high school football season is in the books, and there were some positive moments for both teams from Highland County, as it was easy to see there were some strong efforts from teams in the Frontier Athletic Conference. 

Attending the Hillsboro Indians’ game at Goshen this past Friday night, there were positive moments for the Indians as they are working to overcome a few injuries early in the season. Playing quarterback for the first time, hats off to Hillsboro senior Tre Captain. He did a solid job competing against the Goshen Warriors in Week 2, and he had some nice passes in the game. Captain’s 33-yard touchdown pass was a nice throw to the endzone as freshman Ryker Zink, who beat the defensive coverage and caught the pass while in stride to the endzone. 

Captain unofficially rushed 13 times for 23 yards, plus he was 6-of-9 passing for 67 yards, including the 33-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. Captain had four passes go for 10-plus yards for yardage totals of 19, 33, 12 and 10 in Week 2 against Goshen. 

Another solid play was made by the Indians’ defense with a forced fumble and recovery by two Hillsboro linemen. The play by the Indians’ defense was senior Roman Hardy stripping the ball from the Goshen quarterback, and it was recovered by senior Kaiden Robbins with 4:34 left in the second. It is always fun to see big plays made by members of the defensive line, especially when they force a turnover. 

Hillsboro senior Malachi Aber ended the game with six rushes for 87 yards, plus he collected one reception. With this being his final season, Aber's Week 2 performance was good to see as he ran the ball hard. Teammate Jonathan Malone also continued to run the ball hard from Week 1 to Week 2 as he had over 100 yards rushing against Western Brown, then followed that with 60-plus yards against the Warriors. Those hard runs also were a part of some solid blocking from the Indians’ o-line.

I watched most of the McClain Tigers’ game on Youtube Friday night (shoutout to the crew who produces and announces on the McClain game streams. Nice job done by all) after finishing up writing about the Hillsboro game, plus after reading the article in The Highland County Press by Jim Jones. It is also good to see the McClain Tigers having early season success with two consecutive wins. 

The play of junior quarterback Hudson Lovett is fun to watch as his progression is very noticeable at quarterback. Also, how about the offense as a whole for the Tigers … great job by all. Through two games, Lovett is 29-of-49 passing for 540 yards with four touchdowns, and rushing he has 170 yards with five rushing scores. 

Here are the stat leaders for Week 2 of McClain: 

Passing: Hudson Lovett 11-of-23, 157 yards, 1 TD, 1 Int.

Rushing: Bentley Marsh 8 carries, 105 yards; Hudson Lovett 10 carries, 88 yards, 3 TDs; Brady Binegar 3 carries, 12 yards, 1 TD.

Receiving: Gavin Anderson 4 catches, 83 yards, 1 TD; Bentley Marsh 1 catch, 21 yards; Hunter Peabody 2 catches, 17 yards; Holden Lyons 1 catch, 15 yards; Brady Binegar 2 catches, 13 yards; and Leiland Bond 1 catch, 8 yards.

The Tigers from the Week 2 game I watched via streaming looked like a whole new team offensively, and their defense is strong too as they had a new-look and compared to the past with just 15 points allowed through two games. 

• A look at the FAC from Week 2

Week 2 FAC Football Scores (Friday, Aug. 28)
Hillsboro 7, Goshen 49
Northwest 7, McClain 34
Wheelersburg 18, Chillicothe 26
Jackson 55, Gallia Academy 0
Miami Trace 7, Wilmington 35
Circleville 28, Washington 26

The Chillicothe Cavaliers with their 26-18 win seems to be doing everything correctly after defeating a strong program like Wheelersburg. CHS head coach TJ Carper is doing a very solid job in his second season with the Cavaliers. 

The Cavs have a very strong roster from the highlights I’ve been able to watch, plus running back Cartae Ligon is even better than he was last season. A player profile of the standout rusher says he has over 30 Division I college offers. Last season he had 2,580 all-purpose yards, and this past Friday against Wheelersburg he scored three touchdowns and had two interceptions, including his second INT setting up the final Cavaliers touchdown. 

Chillicothe is going to be a tough out for every team in the FAC this season, but everybody already knows that. It will be fun to see this team live later in the season. 

Jackson came back with a strong effort in Week 2 — a 55-0 win over Gallia Academy — following a 35-21 Week 1 loss to Unioto. Never count Jackson out … they are too consistent of a program to do so. 

I can honestly say I didn’t expect to see the Miami Trace score that ended with Wilmington winning 35-7, but that happens sometimes. MTHS has some good core players on their roster and will be another team to not count out when FAC play begins. 

Washington battled strongly in the second half of their game, following a deficit of 14-8 at halftime. They almost gained the win against Circleville, but the Tigers were consistent with seven points in each of the four quarters played on Friday. 

Check back on Thursday for the Week 3 high school football preview. 

Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press.