By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

DARKE COUNTY — Week three of the high school football season will start this Labor Day weekend. The first inter-county matchup will take place in the WOAC. A lot of local teams will be on the road this week. Here is a preview of each matchup this week.

Ansonia (2-0) vs Dixie (2-0)

Last week, Ansonia cruised to a 56-0 win over Covington as they scored 28 points in the first quarter. Eight different players got at least three carries or more on offense. The team had forced five turnovers and had six sacks as a team. Senior Keegen Weiss had two sacks himself. The Tigers will continue to lean on their running game this week as they play their first WOAC game of the season.

Dixie is coming off a 35-27 win over Mississinawa Valley. It was a balanced attack as the Greyhounds had 155 yards passing and 155 yards rushing. Sophomore quarterback Aiden Martin was 7 for 8 and had four touchdowns. The one weakness Dixie showed in their win was their rushing defense. They gave up 318 yards rushing to the Blackhawks.

Mississinawa Valley (0-2, 0-1) vs Arcanum (1-1, 0-1)

The Blackhawks kept it close for a quarter against Dixie before they let up 21 points in the second quarter in their 35-27 loss to the Greyhounds. Senior Dylan Wehrkamp stepped up for the team as he had 205 yards rushing and two touchdowns. He also went 5 for 8 passing with 102 yards and a touchdown.

Arcanum also kept it close for a quarter before they gave up 13 points in the second quarter to Twin Valley South and lost 42-13. The Panthers did their damage on the ground with 410 yards rushing. Two players reached over 140 yards for the Panthers. Senior Brayden Koeller had 208 yards and senior Cais Kingsley had 148. Arcanum had 204 rushing yards as a team.

Both Arcanum and Mississinawa Valley had trouble taking care of the ball. The Blackhawks had three turnovers and the Trojans had two. In this game, taking care of the ball will be a must. Both teams will look to get the ground game going early. It helps to have the ball on offense to do that.

Bradford (1-1) at New Miami (0-2)

The Railroaders lost their first game of the season to Cincinnati Country Day last week, 33-6. The Nighthawks had 306 yards rushing in the game. Bradford was able to move the ball at times, but couldn’t finish off drives. Seniors Tucker Miller and Trey Schmelzer both had over 100 yards rushing. Miller had 106 yards and Schmelzer had 135 yards.

New Miami is coming off a 32-26 loss to Riverview East. They gave up three special teams touchdowns in the game. The defense gave up 202 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns that were 50+ yard touchdowns. New Miami rushed for 263 yards in that game. Junior running back Dalson Hayes had 178 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 25 carries. They do get their quarterback involved in the run game as senior Mason Stephens had 16 carries and 80 yards.

Greenville (0-2, 0-1) at Tippecanoe (1-1, 1-0)

The Green Wave had four turnovers in their 58-0 loss to Troy last week. The Trojans scored off an interception return and a kickoff return during the game. Troy senior running back Jahari Ward had three rushing touchdowns. Greenville only allowed 255 total yards of offense to Troy. For Greenville, they had 106 yards rushing as a team with four players getting seven or more carries.

Tippecanoe defeated Fairborn, 27-6, last week after losing 21-7 to Bellbrook to start the season. The Red Devils also spread out carries on the team as eight players had two or more carries. They rushed for 192 yards as a team and had two touchdowns. Senior Peyton Schultz was 13 for 21 passing with 72 yards and a touchdown. Greenville could also see another quarterback as Tippecanoe has used two quarterbacks in each game so far. Junior Logan Butera got playing time against Bellbrook and senior Braden Burgbacher played some against Fairborn.

Tri-Village (2-0, 1-0) at Twin Valley South (1-1, 1-0)

The Patriots are coming off an emotional win, 48-14, over Preble Shawnee. It was the first time in program history they got a win over the Arrows. Senior Reed Wehr led the way with 302 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 15 carries. He averaged 20.1 yards a carry. Senior Braden Keating had another 200+ passing yard day and two touchdowns. Senior Tanner Printz had 100 yards receiving and a touchdown. The defense also got after the Arrows with 12.5 tackles for loss.

As mentioned before, Twin Valley South had over 400 yards rushing as a team last week. Kingsley and Koeller both will be the focal points of the rushing attack. The Panthers defense also had two interceptions last week. Early on, the running game will be important for the Panthers to establish. In their season opener, they only had 72 yards rushing in a 37-0 loss to Carlisle.

Versailles (2-0) at St. John’s (2-0)

So far this season, Versailles has not let up a single point. They shut out Celina to start the season and shut out Fort Loramie last week, 35-0. Senior quarterback Michael Osborne has been a huge part of the offense. He’s led the team in rushing in back to back games and has taken care of the ball. Osborne also had two passing touchdowns in back to back games.

St. John’s won 42-40 last week against Lima Central Catholic. The Bluejays have put up consecutive 40+ point performances to start the season. They did their damage on the ground as St. John’s had five rushing touchdowns. St. John’s also let up five rushing touchdowns on defense. Versailles uses a stable of running backs and Osborne in the run game.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]