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[Rocketcorner News]

By Michael Hirn
http://www.michaelhirn.com/home/
http://www.michaelhi...-johns-preview/

LEIPSIC – It’s hard to believe but the 2013 OHSAA football regular season has already come and gone.

The calendar may say that it’s the first week of November, but it certainly hasn’t felt like it outside the past couple of weeks as both Leipsic and Delphos St. Johns made their final runs at the postseason.
Mostly cloudy, 52 degrees and a 10% chance of rain is on the forecast for Saturday night when the Vikings and Bluejays hook up on the gridiron. Who will that benefit, that remains to be seen.

Coming into the game the Delphos St. Johns Bluejays are sporting a 6-4 record and are seeded 8th in Region 24. Led by Senior tailback and 1,000 yard rusher Tyler Jettinghoff, the Jays will look to run the ball and run some more against the Vikings defensive front. On the season the Jays have rushed for 2,162 yards while only passing for 510 yards mainly on the arm of Nick Martz.

Across Ohio it is well known that the Midwest Athletic Conference is one of the toughest around, and this year is no different as the MAC will send three teams (DSJ, Coldwater and Marion Local) to the playoffs where the conference has already accounted for 28 state championship trophies.

Despite losses in three of their first four games of the season, the Jays responded nicely as they finished the season on a four game winning streak to sneak into the playoffs. Last week in their regular season finale the Jays trailed 21-14 heading into possibly their last quarter of the season before riding the legs of Jettinghoff for three scores in the final stanza en route to defeating Minster 35-28. After being shredded for almost three hundred yards in the first half, Delphos made some adjustments for the second half to slow down the Wildcats:

“Defensively, assistant coach (Steve) Recker spent a lot of time at halftime, making adjustments,” St. John’s coach Todd Schulte said. “Those were great adjustments by our defensive staff. Then our kids went out and executed it…That’s pretty darn good.”

Up the road in Leipsic, this years Vikings will look to do something that no previous team has been able to do in beating the Bluejays. Seeded #1 in the region at 8-2, it has been a great season for Senior Quarterback/Safety Zach Kuhlman who has thrown for 20 touchdowns, but won’t mean a thing if his team cannot avenge last seasons playoff loss to Delphos.

One of the biggest weapons that Kuhlman will have against the St. Johns defense will be his runningback and 1,200 yard rusher in Jordan Chamberlain. Chamberlain has accounted for 21 touchdowns this season and will look to use his agility to take advantage of a Bluejays defense that is giving up 351 yards per game along with 6 yards per play.

Under coach Joe Kirkendall, the Vikings have made the playoffs four straight years and are putting themselves in position to be an annual BVC power as they chase only the third state championship in Blanchard Valley Conference history (Hardin Northern and McComb).

Who will prevail? Will it be the Vikings and their balanced offensive attack or the Bluejays and their smashmouth style?

Tune in Saturday night at 7pm on www.zsportslive.com with myself and Rudy Lomeli to find out who wins and gets one step closer to the state championship.

[zoesdaddy]

great story by one of the zsportslive guys....