TROJANS TRY FOR 2-0 IN TRAC

It’s homecoming week at Findlay High and the Trojans welcome Toledo St. Francis to town for a Three Rivers Athletic Conference matchup. Here’s the rundown. WHEN & WHERE: 7 p.m. Friday at Donnell Stadium COACHES: Mark Ritzler owns a 64-52 career record in his 12th season as Findlay’s head coach. With Friday’s 55-49 triple overtime win over Fremont Ross, Ritzler (64-52) tied Bill Jones (64-36-1) for the No. 2 spot in career wins on the list of Findlay High coaches. The winningest coach in FHS history is Cliff Hite (68-40). “It just means I’ve been around a long time,” said Ritzler, who has been involved with Findlay football as a player, assistant and head coach for 38 years. Dan Chipka is in his first year as St. Francis head coach. A 2009 graduate of Bluffton University, where he as a senior captain and wide receiver for the Beavers, Chipka posted a 15-16 record in three seasons as Toledo Waite’s head coach before taking the position at St. Francis. LAST MEETING/OVERALL SERIES: Findlay beat St. Francis 42-13 last season, and leads the overall series with the Knights 6-5. The schools first met in the 1984 playoffs, a game St. Francis won 13-10 in overtime. TALE OF THE TAPE: Findlay is 2-2 overall and 1-0 in the TRAC after Friday’s triple overtime win over Fremont Ross. The Trojans opened a 42-21 lead when Parker Fetterman returned an interception 76 yards for a score on the first play of the fourth quarter. But Ross quarterback Hayden Lehmann, who would throw for 430 yards and six touchdowns, and power back Shawn Newsome rallied the Little Giants to a 42-42 tie at the end of regulation. Through four games, Findlay has outrushed its opponents 745-571. But some talented quarterbacks –Lehmann, Hilliard Bradley’s Josh Stewart, Harrison’s Frankie Young — and their gifted corps of receivers have tried to take advantage of a young Findlay secondary. Opponents have thrown for 1,058 total yards so far, 422 more than Findlay. St. Francis also went overtime last week, but came out on the other end of the won/loss column. The Knights fell 13-10 to Oregon Clay when Eagles’ kicker Thomas Cluckey, whose 36-yard field goal in the fourth quarter sent the game into overtime, converted an 18-yard field goal to win it. St. Francis fell to 1-3 overall, 0-1 in the TRAC with the loss. Toledo St. Francis won Division I state championships in 1981 and 2011 and was state runner-up in 1982. The Knights made the Division II playoffs in 2013 but have gone just 4-30 since, including last year’s 0-10 finish. Chipka welcomed 25 returning lettermen this season, 22 of them seniors. Ethan Hertzfeld is a senior quarterback for the Knights. Malachi Wyse, with almost 600 yards rushing in four games, is the team’s top threat in the backfield. Keith Holmes (6-1, 220, sr.) spearheads the defense. “No. 7 (Malachi Wyse) is the key to their offense. They want to run between the tackles, keep the ball out of our hands and shorten the game, and they’ll do that by using a lot of tight formations, keeping the ball in Wyse’s hands and keep the clock moving.” “Defensively, I think they want to be a bend-but-don’t-break kind of team. They have a nice defensive end in Keith Holmes, a big kid who plays the field an does a good job of keeping the edge. He’s a good football player. Their new coach is young guy who brings a lot of energy, especially defensively. In the last couple of weeks they had a shut out (52-0 over Mansfield Madison) and allowed just 10 points in regulation against Clay.” KEYS TO THE GAME: Homecoming week can be a distraction for some teams. As far as the Trojans are concerned Ritzler is hoping it’s more of a continuation. “We have to get off to a good start,” Ritzler said. “(St. Francis) just lost a game in overtime. We just won one in overtime, so we want to keep our momentum going. If we let them jump out to a two-score lead and we give them some positive momentum, that’s going to be tough to overcome.” Last week’s finish should supply the Trojans with any incentive they might need. “To lose a game like that can be defeating It can collapse the rest of the season,” Ritzler said. “But the way it ended was probably the best of everything for us as far as seeing that we have got to finish things off, we have to play the entire game, we can’t coast … We watched the film and there were certainly a lot of good things by everyone, but also a lot of bad things by everyone. “We saw a lot of little mental mistakes that we can fix. But the fact we were able to find a way to win, that was huge.”

TROJANS TRY FOR 2-0 IN TRAC

Photo Credit: Findlay Athletics

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