Week 6: Orrville @ West Holmes

Who: Orrville Red Riders (3-2, 2-0 in OCC) vs. West Holmes Knights (2-3, 0-2 in OCC)
Where: Knights Stadium - Millersburg (Click Here for Map & Directions)
When: Friday October 2nd, 7:00pm

All Time Series: Orrville leads 24-12 (Click here for detail)
Last Meeting: 2008 (West Holmes won 19-17)
Last Week: Orrville beat Mansfield Senior 32-3, West Holmes lost to Ashland 28-0.

Coaches: Tom Eastep is 19-16 in his 4th year as Knights head coach. Doug Davault is 26-12 midway through his 4th season as Orrville head coach.

TV/Radio/Internet: Updates on 104.5 WQKT. Also, the game will be broadcast over the internet by the "Voice of Holmes County." Click here to listen to the game starting at 6:30. Mark Lonsinger and Fuzz Mackey have the call. Expect a dose of one sidedness. And if this Fuzz Mackey guy is any relation to West Holmes running back Brandon Mackey, expect an extra thick helping of home town rooting.

Key Players for the Knights
Brandon Mackey - 568 rushing yards, 3 TD...46 tacklkes & 2 sacks on defense
Zac Mathie - 534 passing yards - 6 TD/2 INT...44 tackles on defense
Jeremy Anderson - 9 receptions for 255 yds - 3 TD
Cory Mullet - 48 tackles on defense

Key Players for the Riders
Tre Simpson - 498 rushing yards - 9 TD (2nd leading scorer in OCC)
Sam Miller - 178 receiving yards - 3 TD
Joe Besancon - 568 passing yards - 5 TD
Chase Hoobler - 52 tackles, 3 sacks

Interesting Stroylines
West Holmes seeks to make it 3 straight wins over the Riders....only one other time in this storied history have the Knights beaten the Riders in 3 straight seasons. From 1981 to 1983, the Knights scored 3 straight wins over the Riders.
(Sidebar: Interestingly enough, 1983 was the year of Orrville's first appearance in the state finals (read more about the 1983 playoff run here). In each of those 3 wins, the Knight defense held the Rider offense under 10 points per game. To accurately compare, during those 3 seasons (33 games), the Riders were held under 10 points only 6 times, and West Holmes did it 3 of the 6 times. Kind of impressive.)

With a win, the Riders will be 3-0 in the OCC and do their part to set up a week 7 showdown with Ashland. A West Holmes loss makes them 0-3 in the conference and 2-4 overall, after a 2-0 start. They would need to win 3 of their last 4 games to avoid a sub .500 finish for the first time since 2004. To me, this sounds like it's an "all or nothing" game for West Holmes. It's their homecomimg too. Wonderful.

Orrville will look to avenge 2 straight losses to the Knights. The most recent of the 2 essentially eliminating the Riders from playoff contention last season.....now let us never speak of this again.

Tre Simpson needs to average 100.4 yds per game over the final 5 to reach 1000 for the season. Can anyone say with certainty who Orrville's last 1000 yd rusher was? The easy answer is Demarkus Robinson back in 1999 or 2000, but that's just an educated guess. Does anyone know for sure?

Predictions:
I think the Riders are focused, and not looking ahead....and just have too much talent for the Knights this year. We have a lot of the same talent this year that we did last year, but our approach is almost completely different. They've ran for right around 600 yds as a team in the last 2 weeks, and now seem to be a team that can shorten games and control possession with their run game. It's becoming more than a compliment to our run game, it's become our bread and butter...but we've always got the passing game (and a pretty good one) in our back pocket.

Me: Orrville 31-13 (a little worried, but still confident). Riders continue their methodical march through the OCC.
Drew Pastuer's Fantastic 50: Orrville by 17
CalPreps.com: Orrville 28-13
Daily Record: I'm guessing 8-1 in favor of Orrville.