By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
There’s some changes this season for Manchester High School football, beginning with the return of Nick Neria to the head coaching position after a year away from the sidelines. Another sees the Greyhounds moving into the small school division of the Southern Ohio Conference for football only and their first foray into SOC play came on Friday, August 18 when they played host to the Portsmouth Notre Dame Titans at Veterans Stadium.
The Hounds and Titans have met numerous times in the past but Friday night was the first time the game had counted in conference standings. Manchester has only one win in all those previous meetings and they definitely didn’t add to that total on Friday as the contest turned out to be the most lopsided in the series. The Titans totally and completely dominated the Greyhounds from start to finish, scoring on all 11 of their offensive possessions, racking up over 600 yards of total offense and taking advantage of numerous Manchester mistakes to thrash the Hounds in their season opener by a dominant final score of 78-6.
It was obvious from the opening kickoff that the Notre Dame offense was on their way to a big night. Taking over on their own 37, the Titans needed just two plays to get on the board, when shifty running back Jordan Davis broke loose on a 52-yard touchdown jaunt and the two-point conversion pass made it an 8-0 game with just 35 seconds expired off the clock.
The Hounds gave away their first gift of the night on their first offensive possession when a fumbled snap 0n their third play was recovered by the Titans, who capitalized on their first snap with a 62-yard scoring pass from quarterback Ethan Kingery, the first of his five in the game, to wideout Luke Cassidy. The Greyhounds stopped the two-point try but before many fans could even get settled in their seats, the visitors held a 14-0 advantage.
The Greyhounds went three and out on their next possession but caught a break when punter Mason Gilliam’s kick hit a Notre Dame player and was recovered by the Hounds at the ND 32. A run by Kayden Butcher resulted in a Manchester first down and the Hounds converted on a 4th and 14 with a nice diving reception from Ronnie Elam. With a first and goal at the 5, the Manchester offense stalled when a fourth down pass from Gilliam went over the outstretched arms of receiver Logan Neria.
The Titans took over as the first quarter closed, beginning a second stanza that was nothing short of a nightmare for the Greyhounds, as Notre Dame did everything right and piled up an unbelievable 44 points. The visitors got a TD run from Bryce McGraw, another Kingery to Cassidy scoring pass, and also recovered three kickoffs that were muffed by the home team. A bubble screen from Kingery to Cassidy went for a 38-yard score and then Kingery hit Myles Phillips from 30 yards away to make it 44-0 with 7:48 left in the half.
After another Greyhound punt, Kingery threw a screen pass to Davis that ended up in a 31-yard touchdown and the extra point kick was successful from Coleman Shaffer. To close out an impressive first half, the Titans got a three-yard scoring run from Chris Piccolo and another Shaffer extra point to lead 58-0, meaning the OHSAA running clock mercifully would be in effect for the entire second half.
A Manchester turnover began the third quarter, which the Titans turned into a 25-yard touchdown scamper from Phillips. The Greyhounds finally put something on the scoreboard midway through the third period when Elam got behind the Notre Dame secondary and hauled in a 65-yard TD pass from Gilliam, the highlight of the Manchester night.
The final score of the night belonged to the guests, a 6-yard touchdown run from Phillips which accounted for the eventual final score of 78-6.
The Greyhounds will put Week One far behind them and focus their attention on another SOC battle this upcoming Friday night as they will travel to Sciotoville East to face off with the Tartans in a scheduled 7 p.m. kickoff in what should be some tough weather conditions for football with temperatures expected to still be in the 90’s.