It should be an exciting Friday night for high school football in Delaware County. Undefeated Olentangy Liberty visits Olentangy Berlin and undefeated Delaware Hayes plays at Big Walnut. We’ll be covering both games as part of our live Week 4 coverage.
The Delaware-Big Walnut game is the opening game between OCC and Capital for both teams. League play also begins in the OCC-Buckeye, MSL, Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference, Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference and City League. The latter features a City-South showdown between undefeated Walnut Ridge and host Africentric, and that’s the other game we’re covering.
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OHSAA results and updates from Week 4 of the Ohio High School Football season
Olentangy Liberty leads Olentangy Berlin
Liberty started 4-0 and was effective and efficient on its first drive, driving 65 yards in eight plays and taking a 7-0 lead on Antonio Kish’s 1-yard run. Quarterback Andrew Leonard finished the drive with 4 of 4 passes for 52 yards.
Berlin had only one first down and 23 yards in the first quarter.
Liberty used a 13-play, 73-yard drive to take a 14-0 lead with 7:06 left in the first half when Leonard completed a 5-yard touchdown pass to Christian Moulton. Leonard picked up two key first downs on the drive, including a third-and-10, throwing to Ben Godwin on throws of 39 and 13 yards.
Berlin reduced its deficit to 14-7 with 1:26 minutes left in the second quarter thanks to a 1-yard run by quarterback Aiden Eviston. The scoring drive covered 41 yards in five plays.
Africentric and the defense of Walnut Ridge are making great progress
Just when it looked like undefeated visiting team Walnut Ridge might be the first to score a setback in its City League-South opener, Africentric pulled off the first big play of the game.
On Walnut Ridge’s second-and-goal at the Nubians’ 4, Dominique Carter fumbled and junior defensive back Caleb Anthony — a first-team All-State selection in Division V last year — scooped up the ball and ran 90 yards for a touchdown. The Nubians led 6-0 with 7:09 left in the first quarter.
After 42 minutes in the first quarter, which included ten penalties, Africentric was still ahead by six points.
Walnut Ridge lost fumbles on consecutive possessions and drove to the Nubians’ 22-yard line late in the first inning, but an illegal change negated an obvious first down and the Scots lost the ball on the next play due to downs.
The second quarter started with a bang when Africentric quarterback Joshua Smith threw a return pass that was recovered in the end zone by Jacear West-Rogers for a touchdown to tie the game. The extra attempt failed, keeping the score at 6-6.
Big Walnut takes the lead against Delaware Hayes
Big Walnut made it to the Delaware 10-yard line, but had to settle for a 28-yard field goal by Jake Neff with 7:57 left in the first quarter, giving the Golden Eagles a 3-0 lead.
Big Walnut’s defense quickly extended the lead when Jax Lawrence scored on a 23-yard interception return to increase the lead to 10-0 with 7:42 left in the first quarter.
Delaware got on the scoreboard for the first time after a Big Walnut fumble. The Eagles were penalized for roughing the punter and Favor Akih scored on a 20-yard run that cut Delaware’s lead to 10-7 with 3:30 left in the first quarter.
Justin Matthews had an interception late in the first quarter for Delaware, which trailed by three points entering the second quarter.
Neff’s 31-yard field goal gave Big Walnut a 13-7 lead with 4:31 minutes left in the first half.
Here is the Week 4 schedule for Central Ohio.
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