Tony Haynes and Lynn Groll look back at regional semifinals between Avon Lake at Central Catholic, Fairview at Colonel Crawford and Columbus Grove at Archbold. They look ahead to to this week’s regional final between Columbus Grove and Fairview while picking winners for all 30 playoff games around the state.
TOLEDO – Missed chances and mistakes denied Central Catholic another trip to the regional finals on Friday in the Division II, Region 6 semifinals at Gallagher Stadium. Avon Lake used three first-half field goals from kicker Owen Wiley (28, 44 and 23 yards) and late first-half touchdown to claim a 16-14 victory over the Irish.
The Irish outgained the Shoremen, 275-257.
However, the miscues were too much to overcome for the hosts and second-ranked Irish.
“You have to have your team ready to go better at the beginning,” said Central mentor Greg Dempsey. “That was a bad start and it snowballed on us against a good football team. We had a lot of mistakes that came back to get us tonight. We had to do some things that put us in better situations I think.
“We kept fighting,” added Dempsey. “It looked like the game got away from us a few times. But the kids kept plowing away and plugging away to give us a chance at the end.”
Central ended the game with seven penalties for 85 yards. Two of the most crucial penalties came on Avon Lake’s final possession of the first half.
Playoff regulars Avon Lake and Toledo Central Catholic will square off for the third time in playoff history when the Shoremen visit the Irish on Friday night in a Division II, Region 6 quarterfinal.
Both teams are making their 22nd forays into the playoffs this fall.
The victor will move on to next week’s regional championship against the winner from Brecksville-Broadview Heights at Avon game.
Avon Lake and Central Catholic last met in the playoffs two years ago with the Irish rolling to a 56-16 victory while also clashing in 2005 (Central 35, Avon Lake 14).
The 7-1 Shoremen have been on a roll since opening the season with a 33-30 double-overtime loss to Avon, the top seed in Region 6. Over the last seven weeks, Avon Lake has outscored its foes, 296-38.
Avon Lake’s M.O. is a total team effort on the defensive side of the ball.
Tony Haynes and Lynn Groll look back at last week’s playoffs and look ahead to the regional semifinals in their coverage area this week.
A handful of teams from the Black Swamp Football coverage area remain alive going into the regional semifinal round of the very different 2020 playoffs.
Along with Toledo Central Catholic in D-II, Ottawa-Glandorf (D-V) joins Archbold, Columbus Grove and Fairview – all D-VI representatives – as the remaining quintet playing playoff football from the Black Swamp area.
A grand total of 104 Buckeye State teams are prepping for playoff action this weekend. Division I is down to eight teams total while Divisions II-VII all have 16 teams remaining – four from each region.
Here are some observations as we head into the regional championship round for D-I and regional semifinals for the other six divisions.
