LUCAS — When the high school football season kicked off in late August, there were 723 teams dreaming of a state championship.
For more than two-thirds of those teams, the dream withered on the vine when playoff pairings were announced after Week 10. Only 224 teams qualified for the postseason, and half of those teams were eliminated last weekend in the opening round of the tournament.
That left 112 teams spread across seven divisions still in contention for a state title when the second round began Friday evening.
And none of them was as tiny as Lucas.
Richland County’s lone remaining playoff entrant is the second smallest school in terms of male student population still alive. According to figures provided by the Ohio Department of Education, Lucas had 74 boys in grades 9 through 11 as of October 2012, when tournament divisions were determined for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years.
The only school still playing with a smaller male student enrollment is Tiffin Calvert. The private Catholic high school had 55 boys in grades 9 through 11 as of October 2012.
Lucas was the smallest public high school to advance to the playoffs this fall. Calvert, Toledo Christian (67 boys), Tuscarawas Central Catholic (54) and Harvest Prep (59) all qualified in Division VII — the smallest of the OHSAA’s seven football divisions — but all are non-public schools.
“We know we’re small, but we’ve got a lot of good players,” senior captain Dalton Dennison said. “We’ve got some guys who can play.”
An imposing 6-foot-3, 320-pound two-way lineman, Dennison is one of just five seniors on the 35-man roster.
“I think our senior class has actually gotten a little bigger,” Dennison said. “When I started playing in eighth grade, there were four of us.”
The backbone of the roster is a talented 10-man junior class that includes record-setting running back Mason Galco. The 5-foot-11, 175-pounder rushed for 276 yards and three touchdowns last week, giving him 1,866 rushing yards on the season. He passed 2013 graduate Nick Swainhart (1,817) to move into first place on the Lucas single-season rushing list.
So how does one of the smallest public high schools in the state boast one of the 16 best Division VII football teams?
“I think it’s all in our state of mind,” Dennison said. “We keep good focus every day in practice.”
Swainhart and fellow 2013 grad Levi Harris helped establish the foundation that during their storied careers. This year’s seniors were freshmen when Swainhart and Harris each rushed for more than 1,200 yards in the fall of 2011.
“Nick and Levi were hard workers and they instilled the work ethic you see now,” said senior captain Jordan Edwards, a tight end and linebacker. “Mason is a physical runner and he said he took a lot from what those guys did.”
The sixth-seeded Cubs (7-4) will need to be at their best Saturday when they travel to Red Rider Stadium in Orrville to tangle with second-seeded Berlin Center Western Reserve (10-1). The Blue Devils have qualified for the playoffs six years in a row and reached the Final Four in 2011 and again last year.
“Western Reserve does a lot of things well,” Dennison said. “If we play fundamentally sound and maintain our focus, I think it will be a battle.”
Regardless of what happens Saturday night, the last couple of weeks have been a dream come true for the tiny school in rural Richland County.
“From time to time we have thought about what it would be like to make a playoff run,” Edwards said. “But to have it happen our senior year, it’s crazy.”
