Playoff Game Preview: Huber Heights Wayne

By Chris Himonidis
www.WeAreColerain.com

What: 2008 OHSAA Football Playoffs: Regional Semi-Finals
Division I, Region 4
Who: #1 Colerain Cardinals (10-1) vs. #4 Wayne Warriors (8-3)
Where: Nippert Stadium, University of Cincinnati
When: Saturday November 8, 2008 @ 3:00 PM

Colerain Ticket Info:
Tickets for the game will be sold beginning Tuesday morning, November 4. Pre-Sale General Admission Tickets are $7.00 for students 5 and older and adults. Game Day General Admission Tickets are $12.00 for students 5 and older and adults. Tickets are good for both the Colerain game and the Elder – Northmont game which will be played at 7:00 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

How they got here
Wayne (7-3 Overall, 2-3 GWOC) has had an up and down season. They got a big boost early in the year by beating traditional St. Louis (MO) power East St. Louis Senior, 20-12. It all came to a crashing halt when Sophomore phenom QB BRAXTON MILLER got hurt on the 1st play of the 2nd half against Northmont. With MILLER believed to be out for the year, Wayne was forced to go to their 4th and even 5th string QB’s and would eventually lose, 17-7 to the Thunderbolts. After holding on to beat Beavercreek with Freshman QB TONY PETERS at the helm, Wayne could not maintain momentum as they suffered their worst loss in GWOC history at the hands of their bitter rival, the Centerville Elks, 31-14 the following week. Wayne finished on an up note by beating rival Springfield, 20-14 in week 10.

Colerain (10-1, 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.

2008 Playoffs: Wayne (8-3) had absolutely no trouble dispatching CPS Cinderella Woodward (10-1) last week at home. The Warriors ran rough shod over the Bulldogs and were leading 45-0 at halftime with the final score being 52-0. The Warriors held Woodward to 11 Total Yards of offense and 4 1st downs for the entire game. The big takeaway was the return of Senior QB Ryan Bitsko (6’2”, 195lb) who hadn’t seen ANY game action since Wayne’s 35-7 win over Springfield South on October 5, 2007.

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, JR LB Tyon Dixon 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.

Key Players & Stats (regular season only, except where noted)
WAYNE
QB - #8 Ryan Bitsko (Sr.) – (PLAYOFF STATS ONLY!) 176 yards, 0 TD/0 int, 60% comp.
RB - #34 Erique Geiger (Sr.) – 1,201 yards, 14 TD, 6.0 Avg
WR - #81 Rodney Camper (Sr.) – 338 yards, 1 TD, 14.1 Avg
WR - #6 Shawn Whitehurst (Jr.) – 211 yards, 3 TD, 9.2 Avg
DL - #86 Anthony Pyle (Sr.) – 2.5 sacks
DL - #89 Brock Lundeen (Sr.) – 4.0 sacks, 1 FR, 1 TD
DL - #90 Terry Talbott (Jr.) – 2.0 sacks
LB - #47 Cody Smith (Sr.) – 1 sacks, 1 FR
DB - #2 Javon Marshall (Sr.) – 1 FR
DB - #14 Terrence Talbott (Jr.) – 3 int

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
WAYNE
• BALANCE – The Wayne offense must show balance. They aren’t going to be able to run the ball or throw the ball exclusively. The OL specifically is going to have to do a good job slowing down a small but quick DL. Quick rising DL/LB DAMON SIMS of Colerain could cause problems for this OL who must protect a QB who has played 1 game this season against a vastly overmatched Woodward Bulldogs squad.
• ASSIGNMENT FOOTBALL – This is key when facing any option team. For those that see Colerain on a regular basis, there is at least an idea on how to stop their offense. Unlike Centerville, Colerain is a true triple option team. The QB makes the read on the line of scrimmage and dictates where the play is going to go. Wayne has a tremendous DL, arguably the strength of their team, and they are going to have to play disciplined assignment football to win this game. They are fast and athletic and must use their football savvy to slow down the 3-headed monster rushing game. That can only be done if they follow their assignments and tackle well.
• BIG MO – No…not Moeller…MOmentum. If the Warriors want to pull off the upset, it would behoove them to focus on winning two things: turnovers and field position. These are key because one (turnovers) usually begets the other (field position). If they can win these two key areas of play, that could give them momentum throughout the contest and potentially provide a very close game 4th quarter.
COLERAIN
• FIND THEMSELVES – Not sure which offense showed up last Saturday at the Cage but it was not the same Cardinal offense that has averaged 35 points and 388 yards per game. It sounds silly to say, but the offense needs to prove themselves against Wayne. Part of that is coaching (see below) and part of that is the entire offensive unit. The OL looked like a sieve at times against Moeller and the usually steady hand and decision making of QB GREG TABAR was clearly not on. Credit to Moeller’s defensive game plan, certainly, but do not discount the fact that if this team plans on going upstate to achieve their ultimate goal of the 2nd state championship in school history, the offense is going to have to play considerably better than they did against Moeller.
• STOP GEIGER – Every defensive player is going to have to get to know #34 up close and personal. He is the key to the Wayne offense…period. ERIC GEIGER leads the team in rushing, is 3rd in receiving, 1st in KO return yardage and avg and 1st in number of punts taken. This guy is all over the field. Putting it simply, he accounted for 43% of the Warriors scoring during the regular season and 57% of all the yards gained from scrimmage. Stop him and Wayne will struggle to point points on the board.
• COACHING – The coaching staff is young and inexperienced, no question. They are growing and learning “on the job” so to speak and some would say that to merely get to this point and still be playing is a tremendous accomplishment. I would venture that the Colerain coaches would disagree. They expected to be here and beyond, as they should. But the deeper they go, the better and more experienced coaching staffs they will face. The head coach at Wayne, Jay Minton, has plenty playoff games and big games on his resume. The Cardinal Coaches must be ready to make better half-time adjustments than they did last week against Moeller if they have expectations of playing in their 6th Regional Final in the past 7 years.
• X FACTOR – BraXton Miller. He’s out for the year…or is he? My bet says he is and he isn’t a factor on Saturday. But if he is ready to play, Colerain will need to have a plan in place to stop this dynamic Sophomore from Huber Heights.

Bottom – Line
For some reason, the overall feel from Colerain fans is that this game HAS to be easier than last week’s game against Moeller. I don’t necessarily understand that reasoning but I do think this game will have a better looking result.

Offensively, the Cards will come to play and prove they are not the team we saw last week scoring only 10 offensive points. I think the pressure of that first playoff win is off these young kids and now they know they can just play. That being said, Wayne is no easy task and will prove a very formidable opponent for the Cards on offense.

Defensively, stay the course. The defense played very well last week against Moeller and has looked good for over a month now. The days seem to be gone of giving up huge chunks of yardage and points to the likes of Mason, Sycamore, and Middletown. The play of the DL is going to be critical in this game as the Senior RB for Wayne is no slouch and wants to prove that he can run against the best. I think he will run well, just not well enough.

Cardinals win in a game that is tight throughout…until the fourth quarter when QB GREG TABAR hits a few passes and the running lanes open up for FB TRAYION DURHAM to bull through a tired DL and score the go-ahead TD.

SCORE PREDICTION
Wayne – 14
Colerain - 21