What I observed over the weekend? Area football teams that we didn’t talk about in June…and the reality about the future of you and me watching college football.
Kudos to the Miami East Vikings football, about whom someone in Troy recently reminded me that we don’t feature nearly enough.
“You wait and see,” he added. “I’m not talking about them beating Marion Local, but you wait and see. They’re going to be pretty good, again.”
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And to his words, the Vikings and quarterback KJ Gustin are off to a 3-0 start after beating Northwestern 48-7 last Friday, and left little doubt. Northwestern, it’s true, is 0-3 and has scored 19 points in three games.
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But wins over Dayton Christian and Carlisle (4-2, collectively) give you some idea about the Vikings’ athleticism and a joy of competing under coach Hunter Folkertsma. They say that football is better when you’re having fun playing the game, and apparently, the Vikings are having fun.
Will they run the table in the Three Rivers Conference? They have to stay healthy, and it’s inevitable that there will be some league teams improve over the course of a ten-game season.
And it’s true that we’ll see East play during the course of the year, and anticipate what we see. The passing connection between Gustin (342 yards) and wide receivers Jack Hamaker (176 yards) and Lincoln Littlejohn (135 yards) is fun to watch.
But win or lose, they’re 3-0 and a team that no one talked about during the course of the summer. And frankly, I wish them well…the best. Because every sports season deserves one more good sports story.
One the other hand, there was plenty of talk about the St. Henry Redskins back in June.
How would they retool after winning the D-VII title last year?
How would they replace the impact of graduated all-state quarterback Charlie Werling?
And could their young players up from last year’s JVs mature fast enough to take up the slack?
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Well, they started off 0-2 because they played good competition, yes (Celina and Archbold). But more importantly, they started off 0-2 because a lot of their roster started the season with nagging injuries.
But when undefeated Versailles came to town last Friday a lot of those players were back in the lineup for the first time, and the ‘Skins proved that you can’t give up on teams just because they lost the first two games.
Running back Drew Langenkamp ran for 190 yards and four touchdowns in a 34-21 win, and the added parts more than made a difference..
“We leaned on our seniors when thing were going tough,” said coach Josh Werling, rattling off a list of names – Langenkamp, Tate Boeckman, Nick Lefeld, and Drew Buschur. We’ve leaned on them.”
And now they’ve given some indication that this Friday’s game with Anna might be more notable than first imagined when the ‘Skins were 0-2. Trust it, better football is upon us.
Finally (and I could name more), I don’t remember talking about the Minster Wildcats back then, either. And now with a record of 3-0 and a couple of quality wins over Fort Loramie and New Bremen, one has to believe that the way in which they’ve started unbeaten is good enough to keep them competitive for the course of the year.
To his credit, no one in the media was talking about quarterback Carson Kaylor during the summer, and Kaylor has been nothing but steady in wins over Fort Loramie, Crestview, and New Bremen. In particular, the New Bremen game was a come-from-behind effort – down 14-0 at one point in the first half.
Minster quarterback Carson Kaylor has the Wildcats off to a 3-0 start after last week’s come-from-behind win over New Bremen.
And playing Parkway this week, they’ll be favored to be 4-0 by the time they play Coldwater in Week 5, their biggest test of the year to date. And after that…Marion Local, Anna, and St. Henry, so they’re hardly a finished product.
But I think they might believe at this point. Play good football and you’re always a threat to win.
As is Urbana (2-1)…Versailles (2-1)…Troy (2-1)…New Bremen (2-1)…Vandalia Butler (3-0)…and yes, Fort Loramie (2-1) with quarterback Tanner Heckman and sophomore running back Wyatt Holthaus.
And something I already knew this past week. There’s no such thing as free live college football on Saturdays if you don’t have a subscription for Direct TV or Direct TV. If you’re trying to watch on a streaming network like YouTube you can’t watch Ohio State on ESPN unless you buy the ESPN network.
Those games you’re seeing on ESPN because you’ve got Direct TV? When you pay $300 a month you’ve paid for college football as part of the package.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
It’s why you pay for Peacock to watch the NFL on Thursday nights? More money for the NFL.
And with the price of college football tickets steadily rising, there is a discussion about how much longer the average fan can afford to watch it in person.
For sure, there will always be people with the money to buy tickets, but the gap is bound to expand. Want proof?
The average price for tickets for Saturday’s Ohio State vs. Texas game is between $530 and $560, depending on the ticket, of course. But that’s the average. And for now it’s a seller’s market
Or you can buy your ticket…on YouTube.
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