The 2008 varsity football season has one more week to go in the regular season.

That means the two local high school teams, the Miami Trace Panthers and Washington Blue Lions, are getting ready for their annual clash. This year’s game is at Gardner Park, home of the Blue Lions, Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

Fans are urged to purchase tickets in advance as a large crowd is expected to pour into Gardner Park. (Please see the story on today’s page B2 regarding parking, tickets, time of entry to the game, etc.)

Last year’s game was a classic, the highest-scoring game in the history of the series. Miami Trace held on to win, 42-40, creating a three-way tie for the South Central Ohio League championship with the Blue Lions and Clinton-Massie Falcons.

This year’s meeting is the 40th in the series. The Panthers lead the overall series, 26 wins to 12 wins for the Blue Lions. There was a 6-6 tie in 1962. The series began in 1961 and ran through 1994. The two teams did not play in 1995 through 2002. The series resumed when the SCOL was reformed in the fall of 2003.

(Please see a rundown of The Game through the years on today’s page B2.)

The winner of the game often is the SCOL champion, but not every year.

This year, in fact, the Clinton-Massie Falcons have already clinched the outright SCOL title for 2008.

Neither team is having the kind of year they hoped for when the season began back in August.

The Panthers are 5-4 overall and tied for third in the SCOL with Madison Plains at 3-2.

Miami Trace hopes to finish in second place and there could be a three-way tie for second place should the Panthers beat the Blue Lions and Madison Plains beat London.

The Blue Lions are tied for fifth place with McClain at 1-4. Washington is 1-8 overall.

The Blue Lions are going into Friday’s game with some key players missing from the lineup.

Washington’s biggest player, Skylar Schofner, is out, as is another lineman, Cameron Hill. Nick Wilson was hoping to make it back from an injury in time for the Miami Trace game, but he is out this week as well.

“We’re a little short up front this week,” Washington head coach John Enochs said. “The kids that stepped in last week did a nice job. They’ll have to step up again this week.”

It’ll be a test of Miami Trace’s offense vs. Washington defense this week. The Blue Lions are yeilding over 50 points per game the last three weeks. The Panthers have averaged 38 points on offense the last two weeks while averaging just five points over the last two games (allowing three points to McClain and seven points to Hillsboro).

“This may sound funny, but I thought our defense played a little better last week (at London),” Enochs said. “I thought we did a good job of stopping their run.

“We’re still giving up too many big plays,” Enochs said. “Especially by the pass and on special teams. Those two areas we really have to work on and shore up.”

Washington will have to guard against the passing game of the Panthers, as senior Caleb Redding has had his two best games of the season the past two weeks.

The Panthers also feature a pair of running backs, senior Tom Armstrong and junior Grant Jones, either one of whom, or both, are capable of breaking big plays and running for 100 yards or more in a game.

“Offensively, I thought we ran the ball well,” Enochs said. “We put together two or three nice drives. Again, we have to throwing the ball a little better. We don’t have to throw the ball great, but we have to mix in a pass or two here and there. We have to hit a pass here and there just to keep Trace honest.”

Enochs gave some thoughts on Miami Trace.

“Every tape I’ve seen of Miami Trace, Redding’s thrown the ball really well,” Enochs said. “The running backs are a pair of slashers; they really run the ball up in there hard.

“They’ve got a nice, tough, physical line,” Enochs said. “I think they’re just starting to play their best football right now.”

Keys of the game for the Blue Lions?

“Number one, we’ve got to control their two running backs,” Enochs said. “Number two, we’ve got to control the ball by running the ball and putting some long drives together. I think that’s probably the two keys for us to win this game.”

“Obviously, this is a rivalry game,” Miami Trace head coach Mike Bernard said. “They’re going to play as hard as they possibly can and we’re going to play as hard as we possibly can.

“The neat thing about the league, the way it’s set up is, it allows six of the seven teams to play their rival the last week,” Bernard said. “Clinton-Massie doesn’t have a county rival within our league. (Massie clashes with Jonathan Alder this week.)

“It allows those teams that are county rivals to play each other at the end of the season,” Bernard said. “No matter whether you’re 0-9 or 9-0 at this point, you have a big game Friday night. We’re very happy the league allows us to do that. Whether you’re getting ready to go on to the playoffs or it’s your last game, you’re going to have a big game.

“Court House has (Ben) Parks back,” Bernard said. “He missed a few games there in the middle, but he’s back now. They’ll run a lot of short traps with him. The quarterback (Collin Farmer) is obviously gaining experience as the year goes on. He should be working his way into being more comfortable in that role, as Caleb (Redding) has for us.

“Offensively, they have some weapons that can hurt you,” Bernard said. “Defensively, they’re going to play a similar defense to us. We’re going to have somewhat of an idea of what defense they’re going to play, because it is so similar to what we play here.

“I think they’re going to try and run the ball first,” Bernard said. “Watching the (tapes) on them, that’s what they’ve had the most success with. But that’s very similar to us. We’re still going to try and run the ball first.

“Now, our passing game has definitley come alive the last couple of weeks and we’ll continue to build on that,” Bernard said. “But, most of the time in high school football, you’re looking to run the ball first and you’re trying to stop the run.

“If you can make a team one-dimensional, on the defensive side of the ball, it’s much easier to play against a team when you can dictate, ‘you’re not going to do this, you’re not going to do that. We’re going to make you do something else.’

“I don’t know if we can do that or not,” Bernard said. “But we’re sure going to try to come out and stop the run as much as possible.”

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