Central Ohio high school football: 5 things we learned in first round of playoffs
Sometimes the best games aren’t the ones you’re necessarily expecting.
It has to hurt right now to be Columbus South, which was the eighth seed in Division III, Region 11 and was leading ninth-seeded Washington Court House 34-7 early in the second quarter Oct. 28.
The visiting Blue Lions found a way to scratch their way back into it, cutting it to 42-33 by halftime and taking their first lead late in the third quarter. To add to the bizarre, neither team scored during the final 7 minutes, 44 seconds despite Washington Court House winning 61-54.
Nearly matching that game in terms of drama was the Division I, Region 3 matchup between fifth-seeded Pickerington North and 12th-seeded Groveport Madison.
The visiting Cruisers were on their way to an upset when the Panthers scored the winning points of a 24-21 victory on a 17-yard touchdown pass by Landon O’Connell to Derick Ross Jr. on the game’s final play.
In a night that included a fair amount of first-round playoff duds, those games at least gave us some highlights.
First Round: Central Ohio playoff recaps and scores
Second round: Regional quarterfinal matchups for central Ohio teams
Here are five things we learned from the first round of the playoffs:
1. It must get tougher every week to face Olentangy Berlin quarterback Harrison Brewster.
You can watch a player on film, but I’ve got a feeling that fourth-seeded Perrysburg isn’t going to know what hit them when they actually face Brewster in their Division I, Region 2 quarterfinal Nov. 4.
The 6-foot-1, 180-pounder burned Delaware Hayes for a 94-yard first-quarter touchdown run to give the Bears a 14-0 lead and then threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Evan Fabrizio to put Berlin ahead 21-3 in the second quarter on the way to a 42-24 win.
Brewster lit up the Pacers for 232 yards and three touchdowns rushing and 134 yards through the air.
His all-around abilities absolutely make the fifth-seeded Bears a regional title contender.
2. Marysville showed its true colors during its game-winning drive against Dublin Coffman.
After putting together a perfect regular season in 2021, the Monarchs opened this season with a 35-0 loss to New Albany and looked like a candidate to be a quick out from the Region 2 playoffs. A No. 11 seed, they were 6-4 with losses in Week 8 and Week 9 and a three-point win — 35-32 over Olentangy — in Week 10.
At sixth-seeded Coffman, Marysville built a 21-7 lead and then showed some of the same inconsistencies that plagued it during the regular season as the Shamrocks scored back-to-back touchdowns.
The Monarchs responded, though, putting together an 80-yard drive that included a 33-yard pass, four runs for 27 yards from Colton Powers and a 6-yard touchdown run by Nascere Smith.
Marysville rushed for 317 yards overall, including getting two first downs on its final drive to seal the 28-24 win.
3. Hilliard Davidson's old-school approach earned it an opening playoff win.
Straight out of the playbook that helped the Wildcats become one of the area’s perennial powers under former coach Brian White, they attempted three passes, controlled the action with their running game and answered the call defensively in a 17-7 win at sixth-seeded Grove City.
It’s been a fairly high-pressure season for 11th-seeded Davidson, which beat the Dawgs 7-3 to improve to 2-0 but then lost six of eight.
You really have to appreciate the Wildcats’ defense, which limited quarterback Matthew Papas to 140 yards and one touchdown passing after he entered with more than 2,500 yards through the air.
4. Central Ohio's Catholic schools turn in dominating performances.
St. Charles settled for 18th in Division II, Region 7 to come up two spots short of making the playoffs, but fellow CCL members DeSales, Hartley and Watterson as well as two other Catholic-school programs, Ready and Newark Catholic, all opened the postseason with wins.
Hartley came in as the No. 10 seed in Division IV, Region 15 but was impressive in a 48-13 win at No. 7 New Lexington.
Watterson, the No. 3 seed in Region 11, pulled away for a 45-14 victory over 14th-seeded Hamilton Township, and seventh-seeded DeSales pulled out a 21-20 win over 10th-seeded Dover in Region 7.
Ready, the ninth seed in Region 15, dominated eighth-seeded Marion-Franklin 50-12 and top-seeded Newark Catholic shut out No. 16 Zanesville Rosecrans 49-0 in Division VII, Region 27.
5. Columbus East continues to create memories for the City League.
With South coming up short, third-seeded East in Region 15 was the only City program to win its playoff opener.
The Tigers wrapped up a share of the City-North Division championship with a 44-20 win over Linden-McKinley on Oct. 20 and followed with a 34-14 win over McArthur Vinton County to open the postseason.
It marked the first playoff win in program history for East, which has made only two other postseason appearances.
@UlreyThisWeek
This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Columbus high school football first-round playoff news, notes
