Luke Chilicki steps up into the pocket and launches yet another successful pass during a career night against the Monarchs. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
Senior quarterback Luke Chilicki threw touchdown passes to four different receivers and Olentangy recovered from a 10-7 second quarter deficit to rout Marysville. The senior went 13-for-16 for 263 yards in little over one half.
Marysville, OH – In many ways, Luke Chilicki was like a fish out of water when he took the helm as Olentangy quarterback in 2024, replacing graduated first-team All-Ohioan Ethan Grunkemeyer.
“It wasn’t fair to expect Luke to come right in and fill Ethan’s shoes or to be compared to him,” Braves senior tight end Jackson Mangham said. “It was all new to him, and he was surrounded by a lot of first-year starters. His improvement from last year is amazing. We all knew he could do it. All he needed was the confidence.”
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Grunkemeyer is now the heir apparent to replace projected early first-round NFL draft pick Drew Allar at Penn State.
And it’s safe to say that Chilicki is now a tooth-bearing great white shark in the pantheon of central Ohio’s top quarterbacks.
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“A lot of people don’t realize that Luke broke his ankle as a sophomore and really didn’t get any action or mop-up time behind Ethan,” Olentangy coach Wade Bartholomew said. “Because he was so inexperienced, as were many of his teammates, we scaled the offense down a lot last year. Now, we’re running a completely different offense and we put a lot of trust in Luke to get us in the right plays and make them.”
Chilicki completed 13 of 15 passes for 263 yards and four touchdowns in the first half alone as Olentangy jumped to a 35-10 lead and steamrolled Marysville 49-17 in an Ohio Capital Conference Cardinal Division game. He attempted only one pass in the second half (an incompletion) before a running clock was instituted and he enjoyed the remainder of the night on the sideline.
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“As for my improvement, I think it’s just a matter of knowing the offense better so the game can come a lot slower to me,” said Chilicki, the starting first baseman on Olentangy’s state championship baseball team in June.
It was pitch and catch all night long against a struggling Marysville defense, including this Chilicki pass to Jackson Mangham over Kale Strickland.
“We’ve got a lot of weapons on offense and I feel like the coach has given me a lot more opportunities to throw it. It’s surely not all about me. Our offensive line is amazing and has done everything to make this work. I’ve got a bunch of great receivers, and we’ve got studs on defense that enables the offense to be in a good spot when we get it. Everything has worked out beautifully.”
Displaying a rocket-like deep ball and deft touch on underneath routes, Chilicki tossed TD passes to four different receivers: Mike Alexander (38 yards), Mangham (31 yards), Tyler Huff (22 yards) and Trace Newsome (3 yards). Alexander made three catches for 101 yards and Mangham two for 59 to lead the way. In addition, three different running backs rushed for TDs.
On the first play of the game, Chilicki uncorked a bomb of 42 yards to Kaden Gebhardt. The Braves raced to the line of scrimmage in their no-huddle look and Chilicki promptly whipped a strike over the middle to Alexander for a 38-yard TD.
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“We figured out in our scouting report what they did with their safeties and the plan was to come out and throw deep on the first play and it worked out,” Chilicki said.
Mike Alexander hauls in a Chilicki pass for a big gain.
Bartholomew said the first play was scripted, but the TD was more a run-pass option that Chilicki checked into at the line of scrimmage.
“I call our offense not really knowing what’s going to happen or who’s going to get the ball,” he said. “I trust Luke to make the read and decide where to go with it. Sometimes, we go out of a triple option, too, and decides on the run-pass option. We’re on the same page that way. He’s a super intelligent quarterback who has made huge strides across the board this year.”
On the season, Chilicki has completed 96 of 144 passes (66.7 percent) for 1,321 yards with 13 TDs and just one interception for the Braves (6-1, 2-0), who entered the contest fourth in Division I, Region 3.
Statistically, Olentangy came in at an almost 50/50 run-to-pass ratio.
According to Bartholomew, Chilicki, 6-feet-3 and 203 pounds, has gotten recruiting interest from the likes of Valparaiso and Dayton but is hoping Mid-American Conference programs take notice.
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Olentangy already has four Division I commits in linebacker CJ Sanna (Ohio State), two-way lineman Daniel Stephens (Navy), hard-hitting safety Gebhardt (Clemson) and offensive lineman Luke Grover (Cincinnati). And late-developing Mangham – a 6-foot-9, 234-pounder with freakish skills for a tight end, has several MAC offers and will make a game visit to Alabama on Saturday.
Marysville made it interesting for a while when JJ Henry high-stepped it into the end zone after a scamper.
“I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls about Jackson,” Bartholomew said. “He’s always been committed to basketball, and I truly didn’t even know if he was going to play football as a senior until two-a-days. Jackson and Mike Alexander made some spectacular catches tonight.”
After the early shock and awe, Marysville (3-4, 1-1) made a game of it – for a while.
Buoyed by a 50-yard run by JJ Henry, the Monarchs settled for a 38-yard field goal by Isaac Heller.
And after a impressive defensive stop, Marysville responded with an 11-play, 91-yard scoring drive, capped by a 19-yard TD run by Henry, for a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter much to the delight of the homecoming crowd. On the drive, coach Mike Young rolled the dice and successfully converted a fourth-and-1 at his own 18-yard line.
It was a big passing night, but Andrew Wilber was one of three Braves ball carriers to score touchdowns.
Olentangy, however, scored TDs on its next six possessions to put a damper on the excitement. Two were set up by turnovers and two others by shanked or partially blocked punts.
“It kind of shows how we’re built that seven different guys scored tonight,” Bartholomew said. “Everybody’s happy that way.”
Henry rushed for 100 yards on 12 carries and quarterback Brady Carper added a 45-yard late TD run to pace the Monarchs, who came in averaging 220.7 yards per game on the ground on an impressive 5.5-yard average. But Marysville’s secondary broke down and its offense isn’t built to come from behind.
“We hung with them through the first punch, but they responded like a great team does,” Young said. “They really established their passing game, and that put our offense in a bad position. We used this as a measuring stick for us a program and it shows the guys how much work we need to do in terms of focusing on details and executing our game plan. We’ve got a young but resilient group. They’ll learn from this and bounce back.”
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