sam house rankings

By Samuel Houseworth

(9-2-19) Week 1 of high school football is in the books and boy oh boy, is there plenty to talk about.

COMPLETE – Houseworth’s Week 1 OHSAA Football Projection Index

On my end, I was correct on 73% of predictions and that number should only increase as the season goes on. I had some excellent picks, like Minster over Fort Loramie by 5, they won by 7. Allen East by 5 over Bath, they won by 3. Spencerville by 18 over Lima Perry, they won by 19. And New Bremen over Ada by 30, they won by exactly 30.

Mentor at St. Eds lived up to its billing as Mentor put together two scoring drives in the fourth to go 1-0. St. Eds’ playoff odds took a small hit, but it’s not anything they can’t bounce back from in the coming weeks.

The top 10 teams in D-II went a combined 9-1 in Week 1, with only Olentangy recording a loss to Hilliard Darby. La Salle will have a real test against Mason in Week 2.

There’s no question that the game of the week in D-III is St. Marys at Wapakoneta. The two Auglaize County rivals are the top rated teams in the WBL and the winner will be in the drivers seat for the conference title and the #1 seed in Region 12.

There may be more contenders than we originally thought in D-IV. Licking Valley took home a comfortable win against Sheridan while Bellevue went on the road and dismantled Port Clinton, 35-0.

A couple of shock upsets are the headlines in D-V and D-VI. In D-V, Franklin took out Middletown Madison 42-6 in a surprise. But the real shocker came when Covington rolled over #1 St. Henry, 35-6. The top of D-VI is filled with all MAC teams in the top 4 spots.

Not much movement in D-VII with the exception of Patrick Henry, who climbed to 5th in the division after a 30-0 win over Lake.

The top games this week, in southwest Ohio, HAS to be St. X at Colerain. These St. X seniors will be looking to win one more state title before graduation while Colerain is on the warpath after they let a state championship get away last year.

Up north, Mentor’s rough schedule doesn’t get any easier as they face off with St. Ignatius, both teams coming off of big wins in Week One.