By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

DARKE COUNTY — The season is flying by as week four of the high school football season is upcoming. There are two inter-county matchups taking place within the WOAC this week. There’s also a key MAC game being played in the county. Here is a preview for this week’s slate of games.

Arcanum vs Ansonia

The Trojans survived at Mississinawa Valley last week with a 6-0 win. The Trojans entered the game down three offensive linemen and went through three quarterback during the game. Freshman Lucas Miller did have a touchdown pass to senior Micah Jarret for 40 yards to get the win. The defense had a bend but don’t break performance as Mississinawa Valley made big plays through the air and made a few trips to the redzone. The Arcanum defense held them to a turnover on downs and had four interceptions. The rushing defense held Mississinawa Valley to 44 yards.

The rushing defense will need to show up again as Ansonia rushed for 429 yards as a team against Dixie in their 64-6 win over the Greyhounds last week. Senior Keegen Weiss had 140 yards rushing on six carries and three touchdowns. Since starting the season with 274 rushing yards against Riverside, Ansonia has increased their rushing totals. The defense also stepped up as they had 19 tackles for loss. The Tigers will stick with their running game and force Arcanum to show they can stop the run. Depending on how the quarterback situation plays our for Arcanum, they could also rely heavily on their running game in this one too.

Bradford vs Bridgeport

The Railroaders picked up their second win of the season with a 44-7 road win at New Miami. Senior Hudson Hill broke a school record for receiving yards in a game with 196 yards and also had three touchdowns. Junior Owen Canan broke a school record for passing yards in a game with 302 yards and also had four touchdowns. Senior Tucker Miller had 188 yards rushing with two touchdowns. The defense held strong as well with two turnovers. New Miami scored their lone touchdown on a kick return. So far this season, the Railroaders have relied on their ground game to open up the passing game.

Bridgeport is 2-1 after defeating East Palestine 32-25 last week. The Bulldogs have given up 31 points per game so far this season. They have been shut out once and have scored 27 and 32 points in their wins. This game will be played on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 1 p.m. at Bradford.

Greenville at Butler

The Green Wave had 147 rushing yards last week at Tippecanoe. Sophomore Gabe Rammel led the team with 64 yards rushing and a touchdown. So far in the first three games, a different player has led the Green Wave in rushing in all three games. The defense did give up 408 yards of total offense as the Red Devils had a balanced approach on offense. They had 211 yards passing and 197 yards rushing.

Butler is coming off a 16-7 loss to Troy. The Trojans rushed for 110 yards against them while the Aviators rushed for only 26 yards in the game. So far this season, the most rushing yards by Butler has been 126 yards as a team against Piqua. Butler has averaged 134.7 yards per game. In comparison, Greenville has averaged 180.3 yards of offense per game. But, the Butler defense has only given up 220.7 yards per game.

Tri-Village vs Mississinawa Valley

Tri-Village overcame a slow start and defeated Twin Valley South on the road, 35-14. Senior Reed Wehr had 116 yards rushing and 119 yards receiving in the game. Wehr had 302 yards rushing and 65 yards receiving against Preble Shawnee two weeks ago. The Patriots also have senior quarterback Braden Keating and senior receiver Tanner Printz that can take over games. The passing defense stepped up as well as they held the Panthers to 87 passing yards and had two interceptions.

In the 6-0 loss to Arcanum, the Blackhawks made some big plays on offense with their passing game. Sophomore quarterback Kyle Wehrkamp had 149 yards passing. But, the team did have four interceptions and went through multiple quarterbacks. Senior Dylan Wehrkamp got time at quarterback but left the game in the first quarter. A big target in junior Trenton Holdon left the game as well. Once he left the game, the passing attacked sputtered a bit. The Patriots did allow over 200 yards to the Panthers. But, the Blackhawks only had 44 yards rushing against Arcanum.

Versailles vs New Bremen

The Tigers defense has allowed an average of zero points per game so far. They have three consecutive shutouts to start the season. The offense is starting to catch up to the defense as they have increased their scoring each game. They started by scoring 26 points against Celina, 35 against Fort Loramie and just scored 41 over St. John’s last week. Versailles did their damage on the ground with six rushing touchdowns against St. John’s.

They will face a big challenge as they welcome in the defending Division VII State champions in New Bremen. The Cardinals are coming off a 50-point performance over Parkway last week. New Bremen scored 35 second half points to secure the win. For New Bremen, Aaron Thieman was responsible for six touchdowns. He had two passing touchdowns and four rushing touchdowns.

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