Elder Preview

Chris Himonidis
WeAreColerain.com

What: 2008 OHSAA Football Playoffs: Regional Finals
Division I, Region 4
Who: #1 Colerain Cardinals (11-1) vs. #3 Elder Panthers (11-1)
Where: Nippert Stadium, University of Cincinnati
When: Saturday November 15, 2008 @ 7:00 PM

Colerain Ticket Info:
Colerain will play Elder in the Regional Finals of the Ohio Division I State Football playoffs on Saturday, November 15 at 7:00 p.m. at Nippert Stadium. Colerain will be the home team with seating on the Press Box side of the stadium.

Tickets for the game will be sold beginning Tuesday morning, November 11. Pre-Sale General Admission Tickets are $7.00 for students 5 and older and adults. Game Day General Admission Tickets are $9.00 for students 5 and older and adults. Pre-Sale ticket sales will end on Friday, November 10 at all locations.

Pre-Sale tickets may be purchased at any of the following locations:

Colerain High School Athletic Office:
Tuesday – Thursday from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Colerain Middle School:
Tuesday – Thursday from 7:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Friday from 7:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Colerain Bowl:
Tuesday – Thursday from 9:00 a.m. – Midnight
Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Heid's Lanes:
Tuesday and Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. – Midnight
Thursday from 12:00 noon – Midnight
Friday – 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

How they got here: Regular Season
Elder (9-1 Overall, 3-0 GCL) finished the regular season on an 8-game winning streak. Their only loss of the season came in week 2 at the Herbstreit Challenge where they fell to nationally ranked St. Thomas Aquinas (FL), 35-24. Elder’s season has been characterized mainly by a dynamic offense led by GCL Player of the Year QB MARK MILLER (Jr.). The defense has done more than hold it’s own against some big name opponents this year as well allowing just 16 points/game.

Colerain (9-1, 6-1 GMC Champions) has had a more consistent journey through the season with their only loss coming in week 7 at Middletown, 39-42. Tough tests early on against St. Xavier and McKeesport (PA) were critical as Colerain had to hold off furious upset attempts from Mason and Sycamore AT HOME to earn the #1 seed in the Division I, Region 4 playoffs.

How they got here: 2008 Playoffs: Elder (11-1) certainly enjoyed the confines of their cozy Pit in week 11 as they blasted GWOC representative Centerville (7-3, 3-2 GWOC) right out of the stadium with an impressive offensive display, 52-27. The game was 38-13 going into the 4th quarter. In that game, Elder amassed 347 yards passing and 177 yards rushing. It was a complete effort by the Panthers. In week 12, a different team seemed to show up at Nippert Stadium. Playing GWOC-C Champion Northmont (10-1, 5-0 GWOC), the Panthers struggled mightily on offense. While the Panthers collected just under 300 yards of total offense, they were only able to visit the land of 6 one time the entire game, and that came in the 1st quarter. They were down 10-7 heading into the 4th when K ANTHONY MILIANO (Jr.) does what he does best…boot 2 FG’s to put the Panthers up for good, 13-10.

The Cardinals (10-1) were pushed to the brink in week 11 by the Moeller Crusaders. With the score knotted at 10 half-way through the 4th quarter, LB TYON DIXON (Jr.) scooped up a Moeller fumble and raced 88 yards for the go-ahead and eventual winning score. Colerain held Moeller in check with an interception late and ran out the clock inside the Moeller red zone to win and advance, 17-10. In week 12, the Cards looked much better defensively as they were able to effectively shut down GWOC-C member Huber Heights Wayne (8-3, 2-3 GWOC) and score their second shutout in their past 3 games. The Cardinals were rock solid on the ground, as usual, racking up 337 yards on the ground at a 6.0 avg. Three RB TYLER WILLIAMS (So.) TD runs and a K JORDAN ROSS (Sr.) 22 Yard FG was all Colerain needed to secure their place in the Regional Final against Elder.



Key Players & Stats (regular season only)
Elder
QB - #16 Mark Miller (Jr.) – 1,968 yards, 21 TD/4 int, 69.9% comp.
RB - #11 Adam Brown (Jr.) – 836 yards, 12 TD, 6.5 Avg
WR - #82 Josh Jones (Sr.) – 691 yards, 8 TD, 16.9 Avg
WR - #3 Tim O’Conner (Jr.) – 545 yards, 8 TD, 13.3 Avg
WR - #13 Michael Del Prince (Sr.) – 508 yards, 4 TD, 13.4 Avg
DL - #26 Carlos Ware (Sr.) – 5.5 sacks, 1 FR
DL - #55 Orlando Scales (Sr.) – 6.5 sacks
LB - #20 Dominic Palmisano (Sr.) – 1 FR, 2 int, 1 TD
DB - #22 Zach Autenrieb (Sr.) – 1 sack, 3 int, 1 TD

COLERAIN
QB - #8 Greg Tabar (Jr.) – 515 yards, 6 TD/4 int, 44.3% comp.
as a rusher – 805 yards, 16 TD, 5.8 Avg
TB - #1 Tyler Williams (So.) – 1,269 yards, 16 TD, 10.3 Avg
FB - #34 Trayion Durham (So.) – 1,032 yards, 9 TD, 5.9 Avg
WR - #11 Ryan Foster (Sr.) – 345 yards, 5 TD, 24.6 Avg
DL - #52 Adam Moser (Sr.) – 2.5 sacks
LB - #27 Colin Lozier (Sr.) – 4.5 sacks, 1 Forced Fumble
LB - #5 Tyon Dixon (Jr.) – 3.5 sacks
DB - #28 Nicholas Priessman (Sr.) – 5 int, 2 returned for TDs
DB - #3 Cole Pasquale (Sr.) – 4 int

Keys to Victory
ELDER
• RUN…THEN PASS – Look, it’s not a secret that Elder likes to throw the ball. It is what they do to score points. However, they are not going to be able to do that exclusively against an underrated Colerain secondary. The Cardinals are much closer to Northmont in skill level than Centerville. I think the Panthers are going to have to establish the run early to show their balance on offense. RB NICK GRAMKE (Sr.) could be an X factor in this game. He has carried the ball only 3 times this post-season, but two of those touches have been for TD’s. He is much bigger and stronger than RB ADAM BROWN (Jr.) and would certainly have an advantage against an undersized Cardinal DL. Mixing his talents with Brown’s outside running ability would keep the safeties and DB’s up just a bit and would allow QB MARK MILLER (Jr.) the ability to hit his big receivers in stride down the field for big gains.
• ASSIGNMENT FOOTBALL – No difference here vs. the Wayne preview. Despite the impressive win over Centerville, Elder struggled mightily to slow down the Elks rushing attack. Centerville rushed the ball 64 times for 320 yards. That’s a 5.0 yard avg/rush. And for a team that was down, the Elks never felt the need to attempt a lot of passes as they only went to the air 9 times all game. They just did what they do but unfortunately, were unable to slow down (at all!) Elder’s passing attack. The key players here are going to be the LB’s and Safeties for Elder. They are going to have to keep their assignments and tackle well because if Colerain’s RB’s get space, they are faster and more elusive than the Elder secondary and will rip off 8, 9, & 10 yard chunks at a time.
• THE HEAD MAN – Doug Ramsey has 2 State Championships to his credit. He has been around the Elder house for quite some time and knows how it works. He comes into this game with TONS of big game experience and specifically, has designed many a game plan to stop Colerain’s option attack. It was Doug Ramsey, not St. Xavier HC Steve Specht, who was the first HC in the Cincinnati area to give Colerain fits offensively. He is going to have to dust off some tapes from almost a decade ago to show these kids how to beat Colerain because they haven’t done it in 5 years. However, if there is a Ricky Brown or Drew Metz on the defense, Coach Ramsey will know how to use them and will need to guide his relatively young team with a cool hand on Saturday night. He clearly has the coaching advantage over his counterpart on the Colerain sideline and he will need to use that experience and sense of “Been there, done that” if Elder is to move on to the State Tournament.
COLERAIN
• BE PERFECT – There is no other way to say it. The offense must simply BE PERFECT. They cannot afford incorrect reads, penalties or God forbid, turnovers. Elder’s offense is a quick strike offense that can bury you in a heartbeat and the Cardinals simply do not have an offense to get into a high-scoring affair. The past two weeks have been sub-par in terms of offensive output. They have been the lowest offensive output since weeks 1 & 2. That cannot happen against Elder. The Cards will need upwards of 28+ points to have a chance in this game and it rests solely on the shoulders of QB GREG TABAR (Jr.) to get that done.
• HEAD’S UP! – Most think the key for Colerain defensively is to put pressure on their QB Miller to force mistakes and take advantage. I am not going to go down that path because quite simply, I have seen this DL enough to know that pressuring the QB is not something they are capable of doing on a consistent basis. They are too small and against a larger, more experienced group of Sr. OL from Elder, the DL will struggle. So, it falls in the hands of the secondary to keep their HEADS UP as the ball will be in the air often. The DB’s are going up against a very good group of receivers and one player concerns me the most…TE ALEX WELCH (Jr.). He doesn’t get the press of some others on this team but he is big and talented and Colerain always seems to struggle with big and talented TE’s. You have to believe that Jones and O’Conner/Del Prince will get theirs, but the Defense cannot allow Welch to have a big game. If he is catching seam passes for 5+ yards every time, it could be a long night for the Colerain defense. Also, when they DO get the chance to lay a lick on the QB, they need to hit him like a Mack truck. He has never played Colerain before so he has no idea what is about to hit him. Make him have nightmares for a year about the hits he is about to endure and the Cards might just be able to rattle him enough to force some mistakes.
• LESSONS LEARNED – Remember the lessons learned from this season. Go all the way back to August and remember what it took to beat St. Xavier and McKeesport. Those were tight, intense games that required concentration and effort to win. Saturday will be no different. Elder is the best team Colerain will have faced all year and the players and coaches (and fans!) need to remember that when we fall behind (and we will), it doesn’t mean the end is near. It simply means that the Cardinals will have another chance for a comeback. These young kids must KNOW that they are never out of any game…ever. It’s time to see how much these young Cardinals have grown in the past 12 weeks. It’s time to see how much they’ve learned.

Bottom – Line
Number 1 (Elder) vs. Number 2 (Colerain) in the city. It’s the game that every prep football fan has been waiting for. No more words, no more speculating, no more yapping. It’s here.

Offensively, Colerain has got to be perfect. Absolutely NO TURNOVERS this week and a stingy, ball control offense are the game plan this week. Nothing cutesy or out of the ordinary is necessary. If the Cardinals are chucking the ball all over the place, we have reason for concern. Do what you do and sprinkle in a pass here and there to keep the Panthers honest. But do not stray from what got you here. That is a recipe for disaster.

Defensively, wow…what a task this will be. Elder overlooked a very good Northmont team last week. That won’t happen this Saturday. Elder has been looking to re-establish themselves in the city and this is their chance to do it. Beating two Dayton teams to get here doesn’t give them near the satisfaction they will garner from beating Colerain. The Cardinals must play smart, ball-hawking defense. The ball will be in the air enough that an INT returned for a TD may be in the Cards this week. But most importantly, THE DEFENSE, AS A UNIT, MUST TACKLE BETTER THAN THEY HAVE LATELY!!! This is a weakness on this team that still completely befuddles me. A broken tackle by either the RB BROWN or any of the WR’s will result in big-play city for Elder and that’s not good.