Region 23: Regional Final 3. West Jefferson vs 1. Fort Frye

[WJ-OSU-STEELERS]

I have to disagree with Marauders, I thought FF was a bit bigger on both sides of the line. Not much but #50, 52 & 53 were big. I do think WJ had the advantage with depth and was able to rotate their D line. Despite the lack of a WJ running game, it never felt like the Ft Frye dline was in control of the game because of the amount of time the WJ oline provided for their qb.

EasternDspy - Yes, there were missed Ft Frye opportunities with the fumble before half, the fumble at the 35 and the turnover on downs around the 30 or so. However WJ had the td called back early in the 3rd that would have put them up by 2 td’s.

Ft Frye just ran into a team with depth and 25 seniors who played like seniors should on the big stage.

[Marauders19]

Hats off to Fort Frye they had a great year.. like I said earlier West Jeff is a small community outside of Columbus there kids have played and trained with good athletes. Fort Frye is good on the smaller market but they will always have trouble on the big stage.. Again great season!!!

[60ft]

Hats off to both teams. I thought the game could’ve easy went either way. Both defense kept each teams in the game. I thought both teams was even matched. Yes Fort Frye had some turnovers and some bad calls against them. This game came down to executing and not turning the ball over. West Jeff had one bad turnover for a pick six. West Jeff executed when they needed too. Hat off to west Jeff to Tyler Buescher and MJ book. Book caught 12 Rec for 198 and Buescher for 25-39 for 330 yards 1 touchdown.

[WJ-OSU-STEELERS]

60ftv- What bad calls were there in the game? I thought the refs did a pretty good job in this game. The officiating should be getting better since there are fewer games so one would think only the better officials are being used.

Again, the WJ oline giving Burscher ample time to throw was impressive.

[60ft]

So why didn’t West Jeff win more than two points. Are you blaming Fort Frye coaches for not blitzing more on defense. I saw couple bad calls in the fourth quarter. I thought it was a hard fought game between to very good football teams. Now let’s see if West Jeff can beat Coldwater for the first time.

[Bulldog84]

60ftv- What bad calls were there in the game? I thought the refs did a pretty good job in this game. The officiating should be getting better since there are fewer games so one would think only the better officials are being used.

Again, the WJ oline giving Burscher ample time to throw was impressive.

You are correct, West Jeff QB could have taken a nap with the amount of time he had.

[efarns]

60ftv- What bad calls were there in the game? I thought the refs did a pretty good job in this game. The officiating should be getting better since there are fewer games so one would think only the better officials are being used.

Again, the WJ oline giving Burscher ample time to throw was impressive.

Officiating was good

Pass protection was solid

[Arnie]

The problem for SEO teams is they can't regularly compete with teams from near or above I-70. It's just a different brand of football and different attitude about being able to compete in the other areas of the state.

[buckeyefan71]

60ftv- What bad calls were there in the game? I thought the refs did a pretty good job in this game. The officiating should be getting better since there are fewer games so one would think only the better officials are being used.

Again, the WJ oline giving Burscher ample time to throw was impressive.

You are correct, West Jeff QB could have taken a nap with the amount of time he had.

From where i was there was a good bit of holding going on by wj o-line that wasn't called, i know that happens allot but saw a bunch of Cadet d-line jerseys being grabbed and stretched no calls, and on last drive before the grounding call, wj defender at fort sideline grabbed facemask and pulled cadets ball carrier's head around... Ref was right there no call...guess that's allowed now. Also no flag was immediately called on grounding that seemed to be a 10 second refs circle jerk to figure out if that was a penalty... So yes there were several questionable calls

[buckeyefan71]

60ftv- What bad calls were there in the game? I thought the refs did a pretty good job in this game. The officiating should be getting better since there are fewer games so one would think only the better officials are being used.

Again, the WJ oline giving Burscher ample time to throw was impressive.

You are correct, West Jeff QB could have taken a nap with the amount of time he had.

From where i was there was a good bit of holding going on by wj o-line that wasn't called, i know that happens allot but saw a bunch of Cadet d-line jerseys being grabbed and stretched no calls, and on last drive before the grounding call wj defender at fort sideline grabbed facemask and pulled cadets ball carrier's head around... Ref was right there guess that's allowed now. Also no flag was immediately called on grounding that seemed to be a 10 second refs circle jerk to figure out if that was a penalty... So yes there were several questionable calls

And that is too take nothing away from Wj team or their win, Fort had their chances and didn't get it done

[EasternDspy]

Cadets held them to 16. At the end of the day way to many mistakes. Cadets also had over 300 yards of offense.

[EasternDspy]

Cadets had way to many early down penalties. They are not built to play behind the sticks.

[buckeyefan71]

I guess for some reason this one bugs me more than the other playoff losses Fort's had, even in the big games they usually don't make the mistakes they made the other night; penalties, fumbles etc. Most times Fort's pretty sound fundamentally.

[BigBlueNation]

Hats off to both teams. I thought the game could’ve easy went either way. Both defense kept each teams in the game. I thought both teams was even matched. Yes Fort Frye had some turnovers and some bad calls against them. This game came down to executing and not turning the ball over. West Jeff had one bad turnover for a pick six. West Jeff executed when they needed too. Hat off to west Jeff to Tyler Buescher and MJ book. Book caught 12 Rec for 198 and Buescher for 25-39 for 330 yards 1 touchdown.

I knew MJ was good, them are some great #. His dad was a great receiver at Portsmouth West. Don't surprise me he had a great night. Good luck next week WJ.

[WJ-OSU-STEELERS]

Buckeyefan - The holding calls can go either way. Ft Frye got little to no push, collapsing of the pocket most of the game. The WJ qb was able to step into almost all of his throws. Even if one is held, you can still get a push. Didn’t/couldn’t see a face mask but definitely herd a moan/grown from the Ft Frye side when the one play finished out of bounds on their sideline. As for the intentional grounding call, come on it was pretty obvious. The Ft Frye qb was inside the tackle box, there was no receiver in the area and the pass never got pass the line of scrimmage. It wasn’t a official circle jerk, it was a crew coming together to get it right…..and they did. Penalties were WJ 3 for 39 yards, FT Frye 5 for 42. I think the refs did a good job and let both teams play.

EasternDspy - The yardage for both teams was basically the same:
* Ft Frye 377 on 66 plays (5.71average per play)
* WJ 339 on 56 plays (6.05 average per play)

The yardage #’s supports what we saw, it was a closely contested game. WJ did it by air with their spread offense but had no running game. Ft Frye with their wing T offense with unique guard play, definitely moved the ball but it never felt like they were able to run down WJ’s throat. At lease 50 of FT Frye’s 220 yards rushing had be from the qb scrambling for big gains off of pass plays. One I thought may have been a delayed qb draw. The Ft Frye qb was a solid, tough player.

Hopefully these two programs will meet again.

[NEO80]

Good luck to WJ moving on. CW seems to be their Achilles heel. Maybe they get over that hump. Best of luck

[efarns]

The problem for SEO teams is they can't regularly compete with teams from near or above I-70. It's just a different brand of football and different attitude about being able to compete in the other areas of the state.

It was a 2-point ball game. WJ was 11-1? and an elite team in any region. Most teams in their area couldn't compete with Fort Frye.

[EasternDspy]

Reason they lost had nothing to do with being from Southeast Ohio.

[Fanatic]

Getting tired of hearing seo can’t compete. It used to be Seo teams couldn’t compete with teams above I70, now we’ve decided seo teams can’t compete with teams near or above I70: West Jefferson is below the magical quality football Line of I70. I believe FF competed just fine with teams near or above I70, Defeated Zanesville, Northridge, and Barnesville and a 2 point loss in regional finals to West J. Try to get a few of those Northerner schools FF’s size to play them.

[Ff3233]

Hats off to Fort Frye they had a great year.. like I said earlier West Jeff is a small community outside of Columbus there kids have played and trained with good athletes. Fort Frye is good on the smaller market but they will always have trouble on the big stage.. Again great season!!!

Explain what smaller market means? We beat Zanesville, is that a smaller market? We beat st Henry, a Mac school that made the regional finals. We lost by 3 last year to NMS and 2 to WJ, don't act like we can't compete with those teams. You still haven't come out and said where your hatred of ff comes from. Your first post on this thread was deleted, putting down our coach and community. Now you come back on with a bs "again great season". Don't know if you're afraid of being banned or what, but why not come out and admit why you bash our community and staff. I'll be waiting, but know you don't have the guts to respond