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Overview
No clear title favorite has emerged
By ANDERS LARSON
ThisWeek Staff Writer
When Westland High School
switched spots with Upper Arlington
and jumped into the OCC-Ohio Divi-
sion last season, most believed the
league was swapping out one of its
top dogs for a new bottom-feeder.
But Westland, just 1-9 in 2005, raced
to a second-place league finish and its
first Division I playoff berth, proving
that the OCC-Ohio indeed was more
wide-open than predicted.
This year, add in the fact that reign-
ing champion Lancaster lost nearly
three-quarters of its starting lineup to
graduation and Gahanna — last year’s
third-place finisher — has virtually
all of its skill position players back,
and it looks like several horses will be
in the race again.
In fact, Newark coach Scott Beery
predicts that last year’s fourth-place
finisher, Hilliard Darby, will be one
of the front-runners .
“Darby’s loaded and Gahanna’s
loaded,” Beery said. “After that, I think
there’s a lot of questions.”
Last season, Lancaster ran through
league play undefeated, winning every
game handily except a 34-33 home
win over Newark. Westland was 4-1,
followed by Gahanna (3-2), Darby
(2-3), Groveport (1-4) and Newark
(0-5).
Lancaster had its best regular-sea-
son record at 10-0, but it was no fluke
as the Gales have been in the playoffs
for four consecutive years.
There are question marks this sea-
son, however. Only three starters return
on each side of the ball, and star tail-
Lancaster
Gales must overcome key losses to graduation
By ANDERS LARSON
ThisWeek Staff Writer
At Lancaster High School, the
expectations for the football team
always are high.
This season, however, coach Rob
Carpenter might face one of his biggest
challenges in reaching those expec-
tations.
That’s thanks in part to the fact that
last year’s squad set the bar higher
than just about any team the program
has had, going undefeated in the reg-
ular season for the first time.
With only a quarter of last year’s
starting lineup returning, repeating
that success will be a challenge.
But Carpenter said the goals don’t
really change much at Lancaster.
“Our goal is to win the (OCC-Ohio
Division) and we’ve won it three out
of the past four years,” he said. “Then
we’ve got our two big rivals, Newark
and (Pickerington Central, and that’s
going to be the same every year. Then
we’ve qualified for the playoffs four
years in a row.”
O H I O C A P I T A L C O N F E R E N C E- OH I O
Coach Mike Lanza enters his 13th season with Gahanna, which finished
8-4 last season.
back Georgie Carpenter is playing at
Marshall. The Golden Gales have been
one of the best rushing teams in the
area, and senior Jesse Reed (7 touch-
downs last year) will look to step to
the forefront.
At a glance
LANCASTER GOLDEN GALES
Colors: Blue and gold
Coach: Rob Carpenter, 11th season
Key players: Ed Hebb, Chad Maynard and
Jesse Reed
On the Web:lancastergoldengales.com
2007 SCHEDULE
Aug. 24....Logan ..........................Home
Aug. 31....Worthington Kilbourne ....Away
Sept. 7.....Grove City ....................Home
Sept. 14 ..Parkers. (W.Va.) South ..Home
Sept. 21 ..Pickerington Central .......Away
Sept. 28 ..Groveport.....................Home
Oct. 5 ......Hilliard Darby .................Away
Oct. 12 ....Newark..........................Away
Oct. 19 ....Gahanna ......................Home
Be a champion for life — donate blood!
1-800-GIVE-LIFE S www.BloodSavesLives.org
Despite the success, there is one
goal that has eluded the Golden Gales
in recent years.
“The last goal is to try to go as far
as we can in the playoffs,” Carpenter
said. “We’ve been good at achieving
the goals, but playoffs have kind of
By Karen Carter/ThisWeek
Gahanna, as it has done to other
teams in years past, avenged a regu-
lar-season loss to Lancaster with a
33-28 win in the first round of the Divi-
sion I playoffs. But to Lancaster coach
Rob Carpenter, the league title is
Oct. 26 ....Westland .......................Away
2006 RESULTS
(10-1 overall, 5-0 OCC-Ohio)
Logan........................................W, 38-0
Columbus West..........................W, 77-8
Grove City..................................W, 31-8
Parkersburg (W.Va.) South ..........W, 56-0
Pickerington Central .................W, 24-10
Groveport ................................W, 47-21
Hilliard Darby ...........................W, 42-28
Newark....................................W, 34-33
Gahanna ...................................W, 34-3
Westland .................................W, 42-14
PLAYOFFS
Gahanna ..................................L, 33-28
been tricky for us trying to advance.
We’ve had some good teams and some
tough draws, and it’s a tournament, so
it’s just a one-game deal.”
Last season, Lancaster won the
OCC-Ohio, finished the regular sea-
son 10-0 overall and was the top seed
Inside the division
2006 STANDINGS
Team League Overall
Lancaster 5-0 10-1
Westland 4-1 7-5
Gahanna 3-2 8-4
Hilliard Darby 2-3 4-6
Groveport 1-4 3-7
Newark 0-5 4-6
2007 SCHEDULE
Sept. 28
Westland at Gahanna
Groveport at Lancaster
Hilliard Darby at Newark
Oct. 5
Gahanna at Groveport
always a top priority for his players.
“I’m not a big playoff guy,” Car-
penter said. “We base our standards
around here on regular-season record.
We want to win the league, we want
to beat our two rivals, Newark and
(Pickerington Central), we want to
make the playoffs and our fifth goal
as a team is to see how far we can go
in the playoffs.”
Lancaster will play host to Gahanna
on Oct. 19, in week four of confer-
ence play.
Gahanna should be, along with
Darby, one of the league’s fastest teams
after graduating only its tight end,
quarterback and one linebacker out of
its 13 skill positions.
Gahanna, which has reached the
playoffs in four of the last six seasons,
appears to be on the upswing after
jumping from fifth in the league in
2005 to third last year.
Inexperience along the offensive
and defensive lines is the biggest con-
cern for the Lions and prevents them
from being prohibitive favorites.
in Division I in Region 3. But for the
fourth consecutive year, Lancaster
bowed out in the first round when it
was upset 33-28 by Gahanna — a team
it had routed 34-3 two weeks earlier.
With the numbers already down
slightly because of a new pay-to-play
policy, Lancaster also suffered heavy
losses to graduation. Carpenter now
will be faced with the challenge of
replacing eight starters on each side
of the ball.
Georgie Carpenter and Trent Crow-
ell, two of the three leading rushers,
are gone, but senior tailback Jesse
Reed is back after scoring seven touch-
downs.
The other returning starters are Chad
Maynard (OL/DL), Ed Hebb (OL/DL),
Trevor Griffith (RB), Ryan Cheek (LB)
and Jordan Anthony.
The Golden Gales again will pride
themselves on their running game, and
Carpenter said he’s sticking with the
wing-T.
“We’re always one of the leading
rushing teams in the state, especially
in central Ohio” Carpenter said. “We
Lancaster at Hilliard Darby
Newark at Westland
Oct. 12
Hilliard Darby at Gahanna
Groveport at Westland
Lancaster at Newark
Oct. 19
Gahanna at Lancaster
Groveport at Newark
Westland at Hilliard Darby
Oct. 26
Newark at Gahanna
Hilliard Darby at Groveport
Lancaster at Westland
Westland will have its work cut out
to repeat last year’s success and again
establish itself as a contender for a
league title. The key loss to gradua-
tion was quarterback Kasey Wendal,
a two-year starter who was named
captain of last year’s ThisWeek Super
25.
The Cougars also will have to deal
with a coaching change for the sec-
ond time in three years as Brian Smith
takes over for Jeff Jones.
Darby looks like the team that could
make the biggest leap in the stand-
ings, although expectations were sim-
ilar last season.
Darby returns virtually all of its skill
positions, including dual-threat quar-
terback Jeremy Ebert.
Linebacker B.J. Machen returns in
the middle, but a young defense must
answer questions after losing 10
starters.
Newark ended up at the bottom of
the conference a year ago despite a
See OCC-OHIO, page 14
August 22, 2007 • Central Ohio High School Football Preview ’07
run the wing-T, so that’s obviously
geared toward the ground game. We’ve
never been a big passing team, and
that’s something that if we’re ever
going to make a run in the playoffs,
we have to be better passing the ball.
But we still base everything on run-
ning the ball.”
Defensively, the Golden Gales will
use a 4-4 defense as its base for a sec-
ond season, after playing a 50 front
the year before.
Just 15 letterwinners are back,
although Carpenter pointed out that
letters are awarded only for signifi-
cant contributions at Lancaster. He
also added his team should be tal-
ented enough to overcome its inex-
perience.
“We were a senior-dominated team
last year, so a lot people are probably
going to label this a rebuilding year
and all that,” he said. “But we’ve got
good kids, they just don’t have a lot
of experience due to the fact that we
had 22 seniors last year and they
pretty much played offense, defense
and special teams.” 7