CHILLICOTHE — For a game that was billed to be a classic, it certainly met those expectations and even exceeded them. Chillicothe's Cartae Ligon provided the big plays needed — especially down the stretch —as the Cavaliers rallied back in the final minutes to beat the Wheelersburg Pirates 26-18 in an instant classic on Friday night at Herrnstein Field. The loss moved Wheelersburg's record to 1-1 and snapped a streak of 15-game regular season wins. For Chillicothe, they're 2-0

SOUTH POINT — There’s a lot of emphasis on the South Point offense, but the Pointers proved they can play defense, too. The Pointers held the Tornadoes to only 137 total yards en route to a 38-0 win over Friday night. Southern had a mere 17 yards rushing on 19 carries. South Point (2-0) had 319 total yards as Landon Vance ran 12 times for 72 yards and 2 touchdowns and quarterback Ethan Hunt was 9 of 17 passing for 193 yards and 3 touchdowns and an interception. The Pointers’

CANNONSBURG, Ky. — In 1984, a little old lady named Clara Peller looked at her hamburger with a tiny patty and asked, “Where’s the beef?” The line became famous and boosted Wendy’s sales by 31 percent since the fast food restaurant used a large patty. Friday night, Boyd County Lions’ head coach Evan Ferguson must have used the line, “I found the beef, so let’s use it.” The Lions turned to their offensive line that utilized Garren Price (6-1, 280), Carter Gray (6-2, 265), Tyle

Friday, August 28 Belpre at Sciotoville East, 7:00 P.M. Radio: 1260AM WNXT Chesapeake at Minford, 7:00 P.M. Livestream: Total Media Sports YouTube Radio: 92.1FM WIOI Coal Grove at Adena, 7:30 P.M. Livestream: Adena Football Hudl Fairland at Point Pleasant, 7:00 P.M. Livestream: Point Pleasant Live YouTube Radio: 94.1FM WTHQ Greenup County at Russell, 7:30 P.M. Livestream: MYTownTV YouTube Meigs at Symmes Valley, 7:00 P.M. Livestream simulcast: Symmes Valley Youtube and Symmes

Back for a fourth season — or 28 in dog years — Bella has returned for another year of high school football pick 'em, Last week saw two upset wins from South Point and Ashland cause Bella to go 2-3 to begin her 2026 campaign. Hopefully this weekend isn't as wild and unexpected or she will really be behind the 8-ball. As always, the Bulldog-Cocker Spaniel mix will make her usual 5 picks of games from the area and then head back to sleep it off and wait until next week! Below y

CHESAPEAKE — For Symmes Valley, it's a new year with the same results. The Vikings' high-octane offense scored early and often, while the defense came up with 5 turnovers to rout the Chesapeake Panthers 55-13 in the annual "Battle for the Paddle" game at Phil Davis Field on Friday night. The Vikings piled up the offense, out-gaining the Panthers 449-135 in total offense and 18 to 6 in first downs. Junior quarterback Bronx Carpenter showed the hot hand early, throwing for 238

Members of the 2026 Northwest Mohawks’ football team. McDERMOTT — Paul Carver has been at several schools including the head coaching job at Oak Hill and an assistant’s job at Portsmouth West, both Southern Ohio Conference schools. Regardless of the differences, Carver knows that football is football as he takes over the Northwest Mohawks head coaching position. Northwest enjoyed a 7-3 season that was 4-2 in the Southern Ohio Conference-2 standings. But the loss of 11 seniors

RACELAND — Many times you hear the phrase "football is a game of inches". And this years' edition of Ashland versus Raceland was a textbook example. After a comeback by Raceland to tie the game in regulation, the Ashland Tomcats made a goal line stand in the overtime period to thwart the Rams from pulling off another upset and walked away with a 28-21 win on Friday night at Ram Stadium. The thrilling finish was set up in regulation when Seth Morris' punt was downed at the Ash

Players and coaches of the 2026 Raceland Rams’ football team. RACELAND, Ky. — The Raceland Rams want to keep one streak going, but they want to end another that’s tied to the other streak. Raceland has made four straight championship game appearances and are loaded with enough talent to make another run. But this time, they want to end a four-game losing streak in the finals. The Lexington Herald-Leader thinks the Rams could very well end that title game losing streak because

Members of the 2026 Portsmouth Trojans’ football team. PORTSMOUTH — It’s been said that coaching is just another type of teaching, and first-year Portsmouth Trojans head coach Brandon Sammons has plenty of things he wants to teach. Besides the basic fundamentals of the game, Sammons is hoping to teach some other valuable lessons. “As I told players and parents, if your goal isn’t to win a state championship, why are you playing? Now in realistic situations play into it. There

Players and coaches of the 2026 Portsmouth West Senators’ football team. WEST PORTSMOUTH — Call them unusual. Call them strange. Call them an oddity. But in the end, you’ll call the Portsmouth West Senators snot-knocker football. In a world where everyone runs the spread even if they don’t have the athletes to do it, West is an oddity because they like to line up and run the football at opponents as they pound away and try to rattle your helmets. “We hang our hat on it. There

Members of the 2026 Sciotoville East Tartans’ football team. SCIOTOVILLE — On paper, the Sciotoville East Tartans have some positive pieces this season. But East coach Adam Bailey knows nothing has been won on paper. And the paper doesn’t include injuries or unexpected obstacles. The Tartans’ program went 1-8 last year including 1-5 in the Southern Ohio Conference-1 race. But Bailey preferred to speak of the positive with caution. “We return a decent group of kids. We’ve got

PROCTORVILLE — Teams can score on offense, defense and with the kicking game. All three options were used in the season opener matching the Portsmouth West Senators at the Fairland Dragons. West scored on two running plays and a punt return while Fairland scored on a run and an interception return. But it was the Senators who scored one more time than the Dragons as they got away with a thrilling 19-13 win. “The defense played lights out,” said Fairland Ron Wooten in his coac

LANCASTER — The Fairfield Union Falcons did their impression of a Russian bread line. They spent the night giving away the football. The Falcons were guilty of four fumbles and all of them were recovered by New Lexington as the Panthers posted a 33-14 season opening win on Friday. “You can’t give the ball away four times and expect to win,” said Fairfield Union head coach Andy Clark. “They only outgained us by 20 yards, so a lot of good things happened tonight as well. “But f

PEDRO — The Minford Falcons defense was geared to take away the run and test the Rock Hill young sophomore quarterback Jarrod Bridges. When looking at the test results, give Bridges an “A.” Bridges was 10 of 14 passing for 264 yards and 3 touchdowns and an interception to lead the Redmen to a 49-20 rout of the Falcons in the season opener on Friday. Wide receiver Braylon McClellan caught 5 receptions for 149 yards and 2 scores while Kelan Davidson had 79 yards on 3 catches an

Players and coaches of the 2026 Green Bobcats’ football team. FRANKLIN FURNACE — Green Bobcats coach Shane Colvin is playing the numbers. No, Colvin isn’t playing the illegal three numbers mafia lottery game that was popular during the last century. His numbers are the total on his football roster. “This year it’s been a lot better. We’ve been in the weight room consistently with 18 guys, 19 guys. We did a whole lot more 7 on 7s,” said Colvin. “We’ve had really good leaders.”

WHEELERSBURG — The Portsmouth Trojans found the Wheelersburg Pirates to be very offensive. VERY offensive. The Pirates scored on every possession and rolled up 473 total yards as they cruised to a 63-0 season opening win over the Trojans on Friday night. Wheelersburg had 10 different ball carriers and eight different receivers as Coach Rob Woodward emptied his bench. Quarterback Jack Doerr was nearly perfect as he hit 10 of 11 attempts for 211 yards and 3 touchdowns. Backup G

COAL GROVE — After last seasons' 10-win campaign, the Russell Red Devils were left with a lot of questions about their squad for the 2026 season. For Russell coach TJ Maynard, most of the questions focused around replacing four starters on the offensive line, breaking in a new quarterback for the third straight season, and replacing his entire defensive backfield. Well, much of those questions got answered as the Red Devils took down the Coal Grove Hornets in a 34-0 win on Fr

Players and coaches of the 2025 Coal Grove Hornets’ football team. COAL GROVE — When Coal Grove Hornets’ seven-year head coach Jay Lucas goes to fill the holes in his lineup, he’s going to need a lot of filler. The Hornets graduated some talented players from last year’ 8-3 team that won its first Ohio Valley Conference title since 2017 and qualified for the Division 5 postseason playoffs. Of those who must be replaced is All-Ohio first team running back and Division 5 Southe

Friday, August 21 Ashland at Raceland, 7:30 P.M. Livestream: Raceland News Network YouTube Gallia Academy at Boyd County, 7:30 P.M. Livestream: Total Media Sports YouTube Radio: Pure Rock 99.5FM WBYG Radio: 105.7FM WLGC Minford at Rock Hill, 7:00 P.M. Livestream: RH Redmen Live Youtube Greenup County at Pike County Central, 7:30 P.M. Livestream: Appalachian Prep Sports Network YouTube Paint Valley at Valley, 7:00 P.M. Livestream: Total Media Sports YouTube Radio: 1260AM WNXT