Many of the expectations for this game centered around the offense for both teams. The SKoffense didn’t disappoint as the SK boys made big play after big play. Miles Simpson became SK’s all time leading rusher in the first half and ran almost effortlessly at times. As the SK cheerleaders tried to keep doing pushups for each one of the SK points on the board, Fox Sports Ohio’s Jeff Piecoro made the comment they were going to get tired. He was right as they resorted to jumping jacks in the second half. One of the best plays of the game for Simpson came in the third quarter. He went one way, switched directions, ran into Ryle defenders switched the other way, ran into Ryle defenders switched to the right and was gone. It was special to see.
While the SK offense was running on high octane, it was the SK defense that might have been most impressive tonight. Ryle came into the game putting up a lot of points on the board. However, the SK linebacking corps was in the Ryle backfield way more than Conner Hempel would have liked. Hempel was sacked and pressured time after time as SK’s Top Guns were flying across the turf. It looked like on Ryle’s first possession that someone had told the defense what play Ryle was going to run. About the only thing that Herbst’s D didn’t do was score.
It was a neat night on the SK campus. In spite of the rain, the atmosphere was really electric with the Fox Sports Ohio team on hand to broadcast the game. Satellite trucks, semi-trailers, cameras everywhere. I asked Pic what it took to broadcast the game. He indicated that there were 6 cameras and a crew totaling about 30 individuals. The SK campus looked great on camera and the football team didn’t disappoint the SK faithful that turned out to watch the game. Too bad the rain didn’t hold off but the SK boys sure didn’t seem to mind. Nice job.
Chad Lawrence carries for a long TD run.
