“How did that team lose four games?” Versailles’ running back Landyn Knapke blew through the Portsmouth West defense for 91 yards and this 62 yard touchdown in last Friday’s 38-7 win. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
With first round byes out of the way, and dominant performances by Versailles, New Bremen and St. Henry on opening week, the Ohio football public awaits the impact of seven Midwest Athletic Conference teams suiting up for Week 2 of the post-season playoffs.
With last Friday’s 48-14 Fort Recovery win over Waynesfield-Goshen, that community of inveterate high school football followers in the area and across the state took notice.
In a year where high school football has never appeared to be a wide-open opportunity for someone – anyone – to win the OHSAA title in a given divisions (which is just the way they like it), opinions rained in over the presumptive dominance of the Midwest Athletic Conference over the next five weeks.
“If a twelfth seed with three wins can handle the #5 seed the way Fort Recovery did to Goshen,” said one regular writer to this site, “what’s that say about the rest of the league when they all get involved?”
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Good question.
Coach Wes Wenning and the Fort Recovery Indians left little to the imagination in a 48-14 blowout that was purple dominant almost from the band playing the Star Spangled Banner.
In other games, Versailles took care of matters over #5 seed Portsmouth West in Division VI.
St. Henry smothered Madison Plains, also in Division VI.
And in the only close affair of the night, Coldwater salvaged a 27-26 win over what was described as a good Genoa Area team, in Division V.
But the bulk of the eye-opening belonged to Fort Recovery, and to a lesser degree, Versailles. There have always been 3-win teams in the playoffs since the inception of the Harbin rankings, I suppose, but there was a time when those teams were sacrificial lambs. This 3-win Recovery team turned out to have fangs.
At Portsmouth, one local observer wondered after the game, and uttered what others must surely have wondered for themselves. “How did that team (Versailles) lose four games? And who did they lose to?”
To answer: St. Henry (34-21) and Marion Local (27-3), along with Coldwater (16-6) and Anna (29-22)…all four are MAC teams!
Versailles quarterback Blake Monnin could have best answered his question.
Drew Langenkamp and St. Henry demonstrated championship dominance in a 42-0 win over Madison Plains.
“If you go 6-4 against the MAC you deserve to be in the playoffs,” Monnin said proudly. “And Anna (7-3) deserves to be here, too.”
“That’s just nuts,” another emailer declared. But who can disagree? People may not like it, but it’s undeniable.
So, now the rest of the state can anticipate all seven of the MAC schools playing in round 2 this weekend…and this week’s ‘Who’s Hot’ page shows its respect for Midwest Athletic Conference football, as if it hasn’t been respected previously since 1972 and 49 OHSAA state titles!
“You cannot know until you either see it, play, or coach,” the late Stan Wilker used to say, a former athletic director at Marion Local, and a man at least partially responsible for hiring current and legendary coach Tim Goodwin, who owns 15 of those state titles since the year 2000. “Nothing prepares you competitively like playing in the MAC.”
Wilker, who worked with Press Pros site for a short time following his retirement from the public schools, passed away prematurely in 2018. And to prove his point, consider the following.
In that span since the MAC was constituted in 1972, its members have won the following in OHSAA football: Marion Local (15 titles), Coldwater (8 titles), St. Henry (7), Versailles (7 titles), Delphos St. John (6 titles), Minster (3 titles), New Bremen (2 titles), and Anna (1 title)
And the internet buzz over the weekend was about how many of the current list of seven teams might be successful come Week 2: Marion vs. Fort Loramie…Coldwater vs. Tri-way…St. Henry vs. Tri-Village…Versailles vs. Cincinnati College Prep…Minster vs. Fort Recovery…and New Bremen vs. Ansonia. Obviously the Minster-Fort Recovery game is going to take its toll on one of the two.
But the anticipation cannot be denied over whether state #1 Marion Local can again fight its way out of Region 28 and the northwest district and then through what’s left in Division VII competition come the first weekend in December (in Canton)?
Can St. Henry follow suit, and reprise last year’s win over Marion Local in the state regional final?
And can one of the unexpecteds – Minster, Coldwater, Versailles, Recovery or New Bremen – find a football and a fortuitous path to Canton? And that’s been done, when Recovery won the state in 2015, and Anna won in 2019.
The state is on alert, and Press Pros is pleased to recognize the dynastic reputation that so many, for so long, have committed to. Our congratulations and ‘Who’s Hot’ honors this weekend to MAC football…in full bloom this weekend!
Peace of mind is as easy as the relationship you have with your local bank, and the St. Henry bank is small enough to know you, and big enough to serve you. The St. Henry Bank joins Press Pros Magazine in recognizing this week’s “Who’s Hot” honorees…the football legacy of the Midwest Athletic Conference.