WK 7 Notre Dame @ Oak Hill

[MightyOaksFan]

Petey Fisher 60 yard int. to the 5, and then punches it in on the next play

Oaks 34 Titans 2

[battlecats]

wow i thought this would be a better game. so if all goes like it should then it will be east, oak hill, symmes valley/notre dame then green for the SOC.

[MightyOaksFan]

FInal Score

Oak Hill 34
Notre Dame 2

[galliagrad89]

That was a very boring game. The oaks should have scored a lot more that 34 tonight. Is the coaches that unenthusiastic every game? #32 had a good night running the ball. I thought Slone needs to be more involved in the offense. He looks like a very good athlete.

[Derf]

Congrats Oaks

[91blue14]

kapow

[ironman02]

Congrats to the Oaks!

[lew]

the oaks played pretty well tonite. nice to see a win. i agree with gallia89, thought it would be alot closer. our bigger line just wore out notre dame towards the end.
on another note, before the game , they had a moment of silence for janie hatfield, an oak hill freshmen who recently passed away from cancer. afterwards they announced that the students, players, and others from notre dame had collected over 300 dollars for the christian youth group that will be started in janies name. that is a class act and everyone from oak hill thanks you.

[bushmaster24]

good win for oaks, congrats from minford...

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

Here is the game report for this weekend's Times-Journal. The second to last sentence pretty much sums up the summary and the headline. Enjoy.

Oaks will remember, Titans will forget

By PAUL BOGGS
Sports Editor

OAK HILL — At home, and on Homecoming Friday night, the Oak Hill High School football team picked up from where it left off three weeks ago.

For the second straight home tilt, the Oaks upended an opponent by a score of 34-2, as the victim on Friday at Davis Stadium was the Portsmouth Notre Dame Titans.

After a safety by Notre Dame with three minutes left in the opening quarter, it was all Oaks from there, as the hosts scored 27 unanswered points en route to the 34-2 triumph.

With the win, Oak Hill snaps a two-game losing streak and raises its record to 4-3 overall.

The Oaks, after back-to-back road losses at Minford and Sciotoville East, are now even at 1-1 in the Southern Ohio Conference Division I.

It was the SOC I opener for Notre Dame, which is also now 4-3.

With its playoff chances slim in Division V, Region 19, the Oaks need all the help they can get the rest of the way.

However, a loss to the Titans on Friday would have ended any playoff hopes, and the Oaks took care of business by bouncing back with a big win.

“This was critical, especially after last week (21-13 loss at Sciotoville East),” said Oak Hill head coach Greg Phillips. “We just challenged the kids this week to just play hard and real physical, don’t worry about how much they play and turnovers and stuff like that. I definitely think we outplayed them and we were definitely the more physical team than they were. And it showed.”

The win was also the third time this year, all at Davis Stadium, in which the Oaks kept the opposition out of the end zone.

After blanking River Valley 33-0 in week two, the Oaks returned to Davis Stadium two weeks later and won by a 34-2 count over Northwest.

They repeated that score on Friday, as the Titans’ two points came on a snap on a punt attempt which sailed over Jesse Slone’s head and out of the back of the end zone.

From there, though, the Oaks scored 27 unanswered points, demonstrated good balance on offense, didn’t commit a turnover, and locked down the Titans for only 130 total yards.

“Oak Hill was just clicking tonight,” said Portsmouth Notre Dame coach Kyle McKnight. “They stepped up when they needed to. Their offensive line did a good job tonight and they ran the ball really well. I give Oak Hill all the credit and Coach Phillips and his staff did a fine job.”

Slone snuck in for a pair of 1-yard runs and also threw for two touchdowns, including a 23-yard skinny post pass to Westen Hale with 4:41 remaining in the third quarter.

Dylan Lewis’ fourth of five extra-point tries was good, extending the Oak Hill advantage to 27-2.

For the game, Slone completed 12-of-17 passes for 175 yards, as three receivers — Joey Maynard, Westen Hale and J.D. Hale — all had three receptions apiece.

Two others — Ryan Boggs and Brandon Carter — had one.

Maynard and Westen Hale caught four passes apiece, while J.D. Hale had three from his tight end spot.

His 5-yard reception with 2:35 remaining in the first half increased the Oak Hill advantage to 20-2.

In all, the Oaks amassed 200 more yards of total offense than did Notre Dame.

Oak Hill threw for 181 and rushed for 150, attempting 19 total passes with 39 rushes.

Senior halfback Pete Fisher had nearly half of those carries, recording 18 totes for 115 yards and an 8-yard touchdown run with 3:06 remaining in the third.

Lewis’ fourth of five extra-point kicks was good, which concluded the scoring at 34-2.

Talk about balance — Fisher had nine carries in each half with 58 yards in the first and 57 in the second.

“Offensively, I don’t think we played great, but we were balanced just enough,” said Phillips. “I think we threw them off a little bit and we can throw the ball and do some things. We had some breakdowns, but I think our effort and being real physical made up for those. That was a real difference for us.”

The Titans almost averted a shutout and drove 15 plays in the final quarter to the Oak Hill 3-yard-line, but the Oaks were determined to not allow a touchdown and made a stop as time expired.

The Titans’ first drive down to the Oak Hill three ended in greater disappointment.

After cracking the scoreboard with the safety, the Titans took the ball seven plays and 38 yards following the Oak Hill free kick from the 20.

With 3rd-and-goal from the 3 and just two plays into the second quarter, Notre Dame quarterback Brock Hannah rolled to his right and aimed for tailback Thad Bowman, but the pass was intercepted by Oak Hill’s Westen Hale.

“The turning point was right there,” said McKnight. “We got the safety, we got the ball back, we came right down the field, we were running our powers well, we were energized and then we got down around the goal line. We called that play with Thad (Bowman) running out of the backfield, and he was open for just a split-second. We just didn’t make a good decision and those things happen.”

The two teams then traded punts before the Oaks drove eight plays and 69 yards for their second touchdown of the night on Slone’s second 1-yard sneak.

Lewis landed the extra point to make it 14-2 with 4:35 remaining.

Two minutes later, and after forcing Notre Dame’s fourth three-and-out of the first half, the Oaks capped a 46-yard drive in four plays with the 5-yard touchdown toss from Slone to J.D. Hale.

On the first play of the series, Slone hooked up with Maynard for a 41-yard gain all the way to the Titan five.

Maynard almost had as many defensive receptions as he did offense.

That’s because he intercepted Hannah three times, including on Notre Dame’s final two possessions of the first half.

Maynard then intercepted Hannah on the Titans’ first series of the second half, as Fisher got in on the act with the fifth and final pick.

Hannah had just 38 yards passing, and completed as many passes to Oak Hill players as he did his own team.

Hannah attempted 22 passes, as four Notre Dame running backs had at least 23 yards rushing.

The Oaks stymied the Titans for 73 yards on 32 carries.

Perhaps the highlight of the night for Notre Dame was Alex Glockner’s execution of a fake punt, which he completed for a 19-yard pass into Oak Hill territory.

“Defensively, with the exception of the two drives that they got to the three, we played really hard and stopped them,” said Phillips. “Then hats off to our guys for keeping them out of the end zone altogether.”

While the Titans had good field position throughout, and moved the chains in spurts, they had no touchdowns to show for it.

But even the good flashes on Friday did not make McKnight feel better.

Notre Dame, due to some key injuries, is down to just 23 players on its roster.

“To be honest with you, I was a little embarrassed by the way we played. It’s not indicative of what kind of football team we have here at Notre Dame,” he said. “When you get your hind end handed to you like this, there’s not much you can say. We’ve played good football all year long, but tonight we looked like a team that wasn’t prepared to go to battle and we didn’t.”

Oak Hill, on the other hand, was.

The Oaks’ first possession ended with the first of Slone’s 1-yard runs.

The south countians marched 71 yards and 10 plays and finally scored with five minutes gone by.

The second of the skinny post routes to Westen Hale worked to perfection on the drive, as Slone hit Hale who slipped wide open out of the backfield and down the middle of the field.

After he dropped a sure touchdown on the first attempt, Hale hauled this one in for a 29-yard gain.

“We just ran the backside skinny post on them with Westen when they rolled the safety over to help cover J.D. (Hale),” said Phillips. “When they did that, they didn’t have a safety backside. The first time, we dropped it, but came back and ran it again when they were in the same coverage. They actually paid for it three times with the third time being the touchdown.”

Lewis later kicked the extra point for the 7-0 lead as the Oaks never trailed and scored 27 unanswered.

In the end, it will be a game that the Oaks will long remember while the Titans intend to forget.

Oak Hill returns to the road next week, and returns to SOC I play, when it travels to Symmes Valley.

sports@timesjournal.com