Galion lost to unbeaten Marion Pleasant on Friday night (40-21) and they close the regular season with a 6-4 record and in fourth place in the rugged red division of the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is the Tigers have made the playoffs in division four and sources at press time say Galion will play next week at Wooster Triway (10-0) in the first round.
The Titans, champion of the Principals Athletic Conference, feature electric quarterback Parker Carmichael, who this season has accounted for 64 touchdowns, 48 of them through the air.
Galion coach Chris Hawkins is confident his squad can play against anyone they see because they have that potential.
“We can play. Just like (Friday) night we have had some turnovers and some dumb penalties. We have to play turnover free football. We know that. If we play turnover free football like we did in the second half against North Union we are going to score,” said Hawkins.
“I am normally not real chipper after a loss, but by golly our kids battled and I really believe we are right there. It would have a different feeling if we got our butts handed to us.”
Friday night, Pleasant, the outright red division champion, led (21-14) at the half. Hawkins says it was some mistakes in the third quarter that cost them a better chance to win the game.
“It was closer. Like I told the kids people are going to look at the game and think is was blowout and it wasn’t. We literally gave them two scores in the fourth quarter. We gave them a short field both times. We came up short on a pass in the end zone on fourth down that would have made it 35-28 going to the fourth quarter,” said Hawkins.
Junior quarterback Jacob Fryer scored two touchdowns for the Tigers and Cario Davison returned a kick for a score.
Pleasant Play: Marion Pleasant is 10-0 for a reason and they cashed in on the opportunities presented by the Tigers mistakes. “I felt like our kids responded and we definitely capitalized on their mistakes” said Pleasant coach Aaron Cook.
State track qualifier Kyle Galyk had over 200 yards rushing and three scores against a Galion defense that has pitched three shutouts this season against LaGrange Keystone, a playoff team, Buckeye Valley and Fairbanks.
Challenges: Inconsistency has hurt Galion at times this season, particularly when it comes to turnovers. Hawkins says that hurt them again against Pleasant. “We didn’t play extremely well, the turnover bug bit us again, and that hurt us. You can’t turn the ball over three times against a 9-0 team. If we didn’t turn the ball over we win that game. We are right where we need to be we just need to shore up some things,” he said.
Galion has experienced some injuries this season and that presents an additional challenge. “Our depth is hurting us. When we have injuries we have to shuffle things around,” said Hawkins.
Postseason: This will be Galion’s seventh playoff appearance and third straight under Hawkins. They lost to Kenton (58-14) last year and North Union (40-21) two years ago in first round games.
Galion won the state title in 1985 when they were coached by current Ashland University coach Lee Owens.
“I am normally not real chipper after a loss, but by golly our kids battled and I really believe we are right there. It would have a different feeling if we got our butts handed to us,” said Hawkins.
