DANVILLE, Ohio — The state’s top-ranked Division VII team looked the part on a picture-perfect Friday night.
No. 1 Danville piled up more than 500 yards of offense and limited No. 2 Lucas to 116 yards in a 41-0 win in front of a standing room only crowd in Danville.
“Obviously we knew there was hype, but coach prepared us like any other game,” Danville quarterback and defensive end Ridge Durbin said. “We knew if we came in and played our game we would come out on top.”
A 6-foot-3 senior, Durbin was virtually unstoppable Friday night. He rushed for 143 yards and a touchdown and completed 21 of 29 passes for 345 and four scores.
“The thing that hurt us early is that he would break pressure and start scrambling and we would get dead feet in the secondary instead of staying with our guys,” Lucas coach Scott Spitler said. “They were able to hit a couple of busted coverages on us for touchdowns.”
After a scoreless first quarter, the Mid-Buckeye Conference champion Blue Devils (9-0, 3-0) broke the ice when Durbin hooked up with Brandon Holt on a 6 yard scoring strike. Danville pushed its advantage to 14-0 later in the quarter when Durbin found Derek Elliott for a 46 yard catch-and run.
“It all started with the line. They gave me time,” Durbin said. “I have faith in my receivers to go get any ball. They were great.
“We knew if we let them get ahead they would try to chew up the clock. We had to get an early lead. That was really important.”
Magic Number: Danville pushed its lead to 21-0 in the third quarter when Durbin scored on a 2 yard run. The touchdown was set up by a big pass play to Holt.
“We though the magic number might be 21,” Danville coach Ed Honabarger said. “If we could go up 21 and get some quick strikes with our offense, that means the ball is coming out of (Mason) Galco’s hands.
“That’s what we wanted, to try to get up by 21 and get them to do stuff they don’t want to do.”
The area’s leading rusher, Galco ran for 72 of his 90 yards in the first half.
“He got some yards. He’s a great back,” Honabarger said. “But they didn’t score. You can’t win if you don’t score.”
Missed Opportunities: The Cubs (8-1, 2-1) moved the ball during the first half but came up empty-handed.
“We had some situations where we had some breakdowns during the drives,” Spitler said. “We’d start to move the ball then we’d have one little thing that would put us behind the sticks.
“Offensively, we didn’t do enough to help our defense. Early we were playing really solid defense but you can’t leave your defense out that long against this type of offense.”
Lucas’ fatigued defense ran out of gas in the fourth quarter as the Blue Devils scores three times. Holt caught a 20 yard strike from Durbin before Cal Honabarger hauled in an 8 yard TD pass. Colt Lyon capped the scoring with a 2 yard run late in the fourth quarter.
Bounce Back: The Cubs, who will host a playoff game in Week 11, finish the regular season with a home game against Reigning Sports Academy, a charter school team from Columbus.
“This was a big game against a good opponent. We wanted a different outcome but it didn’t happen,” Spitler said. “We just got to regroup and go back to work. We’ve still got a lot of things in front of us.
“We can’t let Danville beat us twice. We’ve just got to flush it and move on.”
