Ohio Locker Room - Blue Lions fall in opener at Logan Elm, 27-6

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Blue Lions fall in opener at Logan Elm, 27-6

Saturday, 23 August 2008

CIRCLEVILLE — Logan Elm High School cheerleaders Tiffany Templeton and Kayleigh

Caudill didn’t mind the intense workout they had Friday night.

The Braves cheerleaders do as many push-ups as Logan Elm scores points. The football team put up 20 points alone in the first quarter en route to breaking its 10-game losing streak with a 27-6 victory over visiting Washington Court House.

“After last year, it’s fun to do push-ups,” Templeton said. Caudill added, “I’ll do as many push-ups as I have to do if we win the game.”

New Logan Elm coach Scott Bartholomew was able to ring the victory bell in his first contest at the high school.

“The number one thing is we got the win,” Bartholomew said. “It’s the next step in building confidence and believing in what we’re trying to do.”

The new coach installed a new spread offense, which quarterback Johnnie Brown said he’s starting to get comfortable running. Brown rushed for 15 times for 70 yards, including a 17-yard touchdown run to get the scoring underway with 9:57 left in the first quarter. He

threw for 98, including touchdown passes to Cody Cordle and Adam Blake.

“I’m more comfortable with it now,” Brown said. “You just have to be patient.

“It was nice to come out here and pick up a win in our first game. The defense played nice, coming up with interceptions and fumbles.”

Logan Elm led 13-0 when Taylor Steed fell on a Washington Court House fumble at the Blue Lions’ 15 with 3:22 to play before halftime. The next play, Brown hit Cordle on a screen for a 15-yard touchdown.

“This was new to Johnnie,” Bartholomew said. “Sometimes we put (players) in bad situations and he came out and made plays. Right now, we don’t have all of the adjustments in, but he did a good job.

‘This was a team victory. We kept having somebody make plays throughout the game. Someone kept stepping up.”

Washington didn’t help its own cause, losing two fumbles and having two interceptions.

“We made too many mistakes,” Blue Lions coach John Enochs said. “You can’t fumble the ball like that and throw interceptions, especially in the first quarter, and start off 20-0 and expect to win games.

“After that first quarter, give the kids credit, I think they settled down,” Enochs said. “I thought we played a lot better. I don’t think our kids gave up. I thought they played the four quarters pretty hard. I think we have got some things we can build on. We’ve just got to quit making those early mistakes.

“First of all, getting the [center-quarterback exchange] is what we messed up the most,” Enochs said. “That should be the most basic thing, but we didn’t do it tonight.

“Second of all, we didn’t tackle as well as a team on defense,” Enochs said. “I thought we played decent at times on defense. We just didn’t tackle real well. We’ve got to shore up our tackling. We’ve got to stop the turnovers.”

Washington is at home Friday night to take on Circleville at 7:30 p.m.