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Sports Talk: Close games rare

So many lopsided prep football games.

Friday night lights?

More like Friday night lights out.

If you were a Marietta, Warren, Frontier, Belpre, and Waterford fan last Friday night, you didn’t have much, if anything, to cheer about. The only excitement may have been the halftime entertainment.

Washington County high schools were 1-5 with Fort Frye the only winner, blanking the Wildcats, 47-0.

Check out these other scores: Williamstown 20, MHS 0; Athens 42, Warren 6; Buckeye Trail 32, Frontier 14; and Southern 19, Belpre 0.

It wasn’t much better in Wood County, W.Va., with the Yellowjackets the only school to prevail. Parkersburg South got hammered by Morgantown 59-0; PHS was drilled by Cabell Midland 40-7; and Parkersburg Catholic took it on the chin at St. Marys in Pleasants County 49-20.

Even in outlying counties, the games were pretty one-sided with Monroe Central blanking River, 47-0; Shenandoah falling to Meadowbrook 29-13; Morgan dropping a 47-7 decision to New Lexington; Federal Hocking blowing out Hannan 60-0; and Caldwell topping Bridgeport 27-7.

If you were looking for some thrills and dramatic, fantastic finishes…well, there just weren’t any to speak of. The matchups were just too uneven.

We all know of course how the winners of these games feel.

As for the vanquished?

Well, let’s just say that losing isn’t much fun, whether it’s by one point or 50. A loss is still a loss.

The main thing, though, is being competitive and giving it your best shot. That’s all a hard-working coach can ask of his players, and if the players don’t respond, they’ve cheated themselves.

The fact is, some football teams are just better, more talented than others. Never was that more evident than last Friday night.

Maybe, this Friday night will be different. A lot of schools will be looking to bounce back.

South at Warren has the potential of being a close, hard-fought game as does Monroe Central at Caldwell.

Frontier plays its homecoming game against Bridgeport, so you know the Cougars will be fired up for that one.

Don’t have a really good read on Marietta at Gallia Academy, Waterford at Eastern, or Wahama at Belpre. Could go either way, and upsets are always on the table.

On Saturday, Fort Frye should have its way at Conotton Valley.

Really, the only thing absolutely certain about this Friday night is Williamstown will remain undefeated at 3-0.

How do I know this?

Well, if you look at the schedule, the Yellowjackets have a bye week, and won’t return to the action until Sept. 27 against visiting Ravenswood.

Ron Johnston is the Marietta Times sports editor, and can be reached at 376-5441 or at rjohnston@mariettatimes.com

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