High School Football: Here's what you missed during Week 3 of TVC-Ohio Football

The high school football season is halfway over. Losing streaks grow longer and the postseason looms on the horizon.

With another week of football in the books, The Post is here to fill you in on what happened last week in the TVC-Ohio.

Athens

The Bulldogs' struggles continue to mount.

A 24-20 loss to Marietta on senior night is bad enough. Losing to a winless team makes it worse. The Bulldogs’ offensive inconsistencies have shown themselves in previous weeks when their slow starts costed them late. Friday’s inconsistency cost the Bulldogs a win.

The offense was once again slow to start, but picked up the slack in the second half. Joey Moore led an attempted comeback that closed a 16-point gap down to four points. Marietta’s final possession had nearly run out the clock and Athens only had 13 seconds to cross 97 yards to the end zone.

A last-ditch hook and ladder attempt by the Bulldogs was cut short when Peyton Gail was taken down along the 35-yard line. Athens had lost for the second week in a row.

The Bulldogs are now in the bottom half of the TVC-Ohio, and their next opponent, Wellston, remains undefeated.

Alexander

At halftime of Friday’s game against Wellston, Alexander only trailed 6-0.

By the end of the third quarter, the Spartans trailed 27-0.

Alexander (0-3, 0-2 TVC-Ohio) was in its 40-0 loss to Wellston (3-0, 3-0 TVC-Ohio) for most of the game, but its inability to get anything going offensively led to the Golden Rockets pulling away and turning it into a blowout.

The offensive struggles stemmed from the same issues that have hindered the Spartans all season: unnecessary penalties and a failure to capitalize on promising drives.

The rushing attack, led by quarterback Xander Karagosian and running back Logan Neal, put Alexander in great position to put points on the board in the first half, but the Spartans would get charged a penalty or lose a big chunk of yards on a play and it ruined any momentum created.

At 0-3 in this shortened six-game season, Alexander can only go .500 in 2020. With how young and inexperienced many of their starters are, the Spartans’ struggles were somewhat expected, but now they will need to figure how to decrease their mistakes that have frequented their season.

Nelsonville-York

The Buckeyes (1-2, 1-2 TVC-Ohio) finally won their first game of the season Friday night against Meigs (2-1, 2-1 TVC-Ohio). Nelsonville-York took its fifth-straight win over the Marauders behind a dominant run game that led the way to the 42-16 win.

For the first time this season, the Buckeyes were able to put together a strong performance on all sides of the ball. Meigs fumbled the ball on the first possession of the game, and the Nelsonville-York offense turned it into a 37 yard touchdown run on the next play.

The special teams scored a touchdown of its own when Tucker Levering, a lineman, recovered a blocked punt in the endzone.

After 39 rushing attempts to just one pass attempt, Nelsonville-York had a comfortable 35-8 lead at halftime. Sophomore quarterback Drew Carter didn’t complete a pass until midway through the third quarter, and with Meigs’ focus on the run he threw for 78 yards on an 87-yard touchdown drive.

The Buckeyes will be looking for the same consistency next week at Vinton County.

The Rest of the TVC-Ohio

Vinton County managed to profit off its success in week two by following up with another victory. The Vikings defeated River Valley 48-22 Friday, which bolstered their record to 2-1 and pushed them into the top half of the TVC-Ohio rankings.

Conference Standings