The Friday Night Picks, Week 1…And Who Gets Off To A Winning Start?

You can quit looking at the calendar and wondering where the summer went.  It’s gone, football’s here, and with it the most anticipated season for area schools in two decades – new favorites, old favorites, better matchups, and more pressure on seven divisions.

Like you, I’d like to know what happened to summer.  The calendar states the fact, of course, but my mind is still poised for the 4th of July.

And why?

Because we simply try to pack too much into twelve months – too much to watch, follow, worry about.  No longer is summer just baseball season.  Now it’s’ WNBA, professional softball, professional lacrosse, professional women’s baseball, like they had in the war years – the big war.  It all eats up time, and makes you prioritize like never before.

So thank God for high school football, for Friday nights, and the anchor by which you set your week.  And hopefully, you’ll include the Friday Night ‘Picks’ Page once again as part of your weekly anchor for 2026.

Our appreciation, as always, goes out to the Orthopedic Associates of Southwest Ohio as exclusive sponsor for the ‘Picks’ page, with offices throughout southwest Ohio to better serve your needs, if and when.  Their skill and compassion make orthopedic medicine a positive decision and a confident step toward healing.  Their reputation is second to none.  Trust the professionals from Orthopedic Associates, sponsors of the Friday Night ‘Picks’ Page for a fifth consecutive year.

If you’ll remember when we concluded the 2025 season with one area OHSAA title in football (St. Henry), we cautioned then that it might be the overture to a grander opera in 2026.  Several schools have built upon solid seasons a year ago and now stand to make conferences like the MAC the best and most diverse it’s been in two decades.  No longer a question of the big two, no fewer than four MAC teams portend to compete for a deep run in the post-season this year if, of course, things go according to Hoyle.

Tipp City, in the Miami Valley League, will get another standout year from quarterback Larkin Thomas, and coach Matt Burgbacher’s menu of supplemental players has never been fresher, or more interesting.  With a lighter load in Division III this year, could this at last be the year of the Red Devils?

Troy, also in the MVL, debuts under popular first-year coach Ryan Jones, with a new quarterback and a new outlook for the future growth of the program.

Piqua and the venerable Bill Nees (and he is whether he likes it or not) seeks to take the next step in its own rebuild.

And for the first time in Press Pros online tenure, we feature weekly coverage of the Central Buckeye Conference and exciting teams from counties nearer to follow, and dynamic enough to remember (Jonathan Alder, Kenton Ridge, London, Urbana, Graham, and Bellefontaine) come playoff time.

So yes, now you know what’s made the summer go by so quickly.  And yes, you might expect fall and winter to follow suit.  But unlike the the Reds, at least high school football and the Friday Night ‘Picks’ will keep your interest.  It should be a wild ride ahead!

We’ll start with…..

Pickerington North @ Troy…For your first swim in a bigger pool, this will be a lot to chew for first-year coach Ryan Jones and the annual rebuild that’s so much a part of high school football.  No different with Troy, where Colton Akins is the anointed one to take over the quarterback position from Aiden Kirkpatrick.  That’s good news, of course, because Akins is competitive, as Kirkpatrick was, and leadership will be an essential part of the coaching transition from Troy Everhart.  Expect this to take some time, especially against a roster from Pickerington that slugged its way through the tough Ohio Capital Conference with a 9-2 record a year ago.  And pay close attention to the Trojan defense, because the Panthers score a lot of points and come back with motivation from a close loss to Upper Arlington in the playoffs.  Yes, it’s not the exact roster as that Pick North team, but I expect them to be a couple of scores ahead of the Trojans in the opener.

Piqua @ Lima Senior…As mentioned in the opening, if this is the year of taking the next step no one should be more eager than Bill Nees and the Piqua Indians, because no one showed more competitive will than did Piqua over the final five weeks of the 2025 season.  Miserable on offense at the start or the year, the Indians got healthy, wealthy and wise against competition of their own size in the MVL to win five of their last six before losing a blowout tournament matchup with Withrow.  Young and eager, Nees returns enough core talent and experience to take that next step, at least he hopes…and gets an opportunity at Lima with a team that barely beat him in last year’s opener, 12-7.  Lima has athletes, and had them last year, too, with a 9-3 record.  But that record came against a lot of teams with sub-.500 records and suspect defense.  And Piqua will play defense…long enough for their running game to eke out enough yards and points to win.  On the road, a healthy start for the Indians…they win by a score.

Harvest Prep @ Versailles (Thursday, Aug 20)…As interesting as it gets on opening night, because first-year Versailles coach Scott Broerman has vowed to make it interesting.  A disciple of long-time coach Al Hetrick, and one who played for Hetrick, Broerman has come out publicly to say that no area team in Division V, VI, or VII will be better disciplined or conditioned to play Hetrick’s style of hard-nosed football in 2026.  Now does that mean T Formation football, and grind it out?  Time will tell.  But reports confirm that probably no one in the area has put more time into physical and mental preparation than Broerman’s Tigers.  And they’ll need it.  Harvest Prep comes to Darke County with an interesting assortment of talent, kinda’ like a box of Esther Price, with a Division I quarterback, Collin Boff, who’s 6’3″, 225 pounds, and committed to Bowling Green over Cincinnati, and Syracuse.  And of course, you can’t gain that kind of recruiting attention unless you have some requisite tools around you.  This will be a tough start, and Versailles will get an early indication about ‘Tigerball’, 2025.  Gut feeling?  Harvest Prep will be the more comfortable of the two on opening night, even with a young roster.   I’m thinking Warriors in an interesting look at Broerman football, maybe by a score.

Bellbrook @ Tipp…I have a healthy enough relationship with Tipp coach Matt Burgbacher to say that this is one of the few games on this week’s list that I feel confident about.  Burgbacher, you see, is old school enough to where he’d rather be overlooked.  But it’s hard to overlook the job that Matt’s done with a program that for years people just never took that seriously.  Now, you can’t do that.  Coming off another 13-1 year and a loss to the eventual state champs (Watterson) in the state semifinals, Tipp has an all-state quarterback in Larkin Thomas and the next generation of running backs, receivers, and big linemen to take seriously.  Who ever believed there’d be a day when Tipp would have a hundred kids in the program, anyway?  But this is what he’s built, and with Watterson moved out to Division II this year, Bellbrook is the perfect test on opening night.  Tipp has owned this series, and their defense will give Thomas and the new-look offense all the cushion they need.  Tipp by two scores in an impressive opener.

Anna @ Spencerville…If there’s a second game that I feel confident about, it’s this one.  Anna is as complete on both sides of the ball as they’ve been since winning the Division VI title in 2019…and Spencerville spent a lot of 2025 (2-8) looking out the earhole of their helmets.  If you haven’t heard the name Logan Ziegenbusch, you will soon in 2026.  The Rockets’ junior quarterback became a statistical nightmare over the second half of the 2025 season leading them to 10-4 record before narrowly losing to Coldwater in the regional round of the state tournament.  He’s shifty, he can throw, and his leadership qualities are off the chart.  And yes, the Rockets have plenty of tools at his disposal.  We’ll write more when it’s appropriate, but Anna and Ziegenbusch casts a new light on a different MAC football picture in 2026.  Rockets win…by four scores.

Northeastern @ Urbana…To our way of thinking there are few schools more interesting to observe this fall than the Urbana Hillclimbers and our old friend Geron Stokes, who takes over as head coach two years after leaving Dublin Coffman, in Division I.  Depending on who you ask, no one seemed to mind him leaving Dublin.  But regardless of who you ask, it appears to be unanimous in Urbana…they’re glad to have him back after a sterling high school career as the ‘Climbers quarterback.  Typical of Stokes, Urbana will play hard against Northeastern, a team that won nine last year before being upended by Anna in the Division VI playoffs.  It’s not the same Northeastern and the Jets could have their hands full with Urbana and quarterback Grady Lantz, a talented baseball commit next year to Ohio State.  For the sake of emotion, alone, I like Urbana in this game.  The ‘prodigal’ comes home and it’ll be packed to see them play.  I’ll take Urbana, by two scores.

Valley View @ Coldwater…As good as anything you might anticipate as an opening night matchup, Coldwater comes off back-to-back wins over the Spartans…and last year’s 49-48 overtime win in Germantown that gave you some idea about the Cavaliers’ ability to, as coaches like to say…find a way to win.  That’s all good, of course, but it wasn’t taken lightly by Valley View, who no doubt used that loss as motivation for an eventual fine year and a 11-2 record before losing to Indian Hill in the playoffs.  Coldwater, likewise, is coming back from a 10-5 year and a disappointing performance in the regional final against Hopewell-Loudon.  But they’re also coming back healthier than you might remember.  Karsyn Homan returns as a statistical leader at quarterback, but he’ll be flanked by the running back tandem of Derek Dues and Braxton Taylor, returning from a season-ending hamstring injury in 2025.  How good is Coldwater?  Everyone wants to know, and you can count on them being one of four or five MAC teams that will make waves in the region by season’s end.  But on opening night, there’s just too many questions to answer in print.  We’ll see on the field, but I think they’ll score points and frustrate Valley View again.  Cavaliers, by a score!

St. Henry @ Celina…The lone area state champion, St. Henry, returns without its all-state quarterback in Charlie Werling…but don’t feel sorry for Coach Josh Werling to find a capable replacement.  There’s athletes at St. Henry, and there’s experience enough back from their overwhelming Division VII state title win a year ago to make one curious to see just how many athletes, and how ready the new faces are to replace Werling, Jack Huelsman and Carter Laguire.  Landon Schwartz is expected to be more than adequate to start in place of Werling, and improve with on-the-job training.  And a powerful run game will again be headed by speedy Will Speck and Drew Langenkamp.  Are they what they were?  Probably not at the outset.  But the feeder program at St. Henry is fertile and optimism is as high as ever.  It might take some time, as it always does in high school football.  But on opening night…Redskins by two scores!

Minster @ Fort Loramie..One of the best opening night rivalies in the area, and one that we’ve seldom picked correctly.  It’s been that competitive, often emotional, and mistake-prone.  Both teams are in the midst of a retooling, and Minster has the advantage of expectation because they’re a MAC member.  But Minster has won three in a row, and Loramie coach Spencer Wells no doubt feels the sting of the backyard expectations.  Coming off a 3-7 season in the Northwest Conference, the Redskins have plenty of motivation for an opening upset.  And Minster, coming off a 6-5 season, would like to be a bit more included in talk about being conference competitive this year.  Hunch?  The law of averages is out there, for sure, but I think…Minster, by a score.

Carey @ Marion Local…Never has it been quieter at Marion Local during pre-season football camp.  And why?  Coming off a 12-1 season and a 76-game win streak broken by St. Henry in the regional tournament, one would think the wires would be alive with talk about the next wave of Marion football dominance.  And that may be, in fact.  But no one’s talking.  Instead, we know that the Flyers lost a lot of senior confidence again with the graduation of Brayden Mescher and Cale Nagel.  And we know that they return junior 6’6″ quarterback Brennan Hess, whom the entire conference expects to make a substantial step forward in 2026.  But what about the parts?  The line, the linebackers, and a secondary that was at times all too vulnerable in 2026?  The answer, they say, lies in the culture.  Marion and Tim Goodwin always find a way, but this is the toughest two-week opening set in Goodwin’s history, with back-to-backs against Carey (9-5 in 2025) and at Harvest Prep (4-5, in Division V).  There’ll be lots of new faces and assignments.  And Goodwin fears most the missed assignments that come with coming of age.  Still, it’s Marion, it’s at home, and they’re 76-1 over the past five years.  Pick against ’em if you want.  Marion, at home, by two scores against Carey.