By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News

 OBETZ — It wasn't supposed to end this way. Not in the second round, not to Columbus Brookhaven, and certainly not with one of the best quarterbacks in the state forced to watch from the sidelines.
It was supposed to end in Massillon, not suburban Columbus.
Dreams sometimes die hard, and for the Logan Chieftains dreams of reaching the pinnacle of state Division II football came crashing to earth as Brookhaven pulled off a 21-10 playoff upset Friday night at Hamilton Township High School.
Brookhaven's athleticism eventually won out, especially after a Bearcats defender hit Logan QB Patrick Angle after he threw a pass early in the third quarter, resulting in a strained MCL on Angle's left knee and knocking him out of the game.
“Injuries happen, and unfortunately we lost a pretty good player,” Logan coach Dale Amyx said. “Who knows if it would have been any different had he played? I think it would have been. That did hurt us, and you could see that. We didn't have much of an offense when he wasn't in there.”
At the outset of the season in August — heck, at the outset of the playoffs earlier this month — who would have thought that two Columbus City League teams would be playing next week for the Division II Region 7 championship?
But that's exactly what's going to happen. Brookhaven (10-2) plays Marion-Franklin (10-2), a 36-25 winner over Lewis Center Olentangy Orange, for the right to move on to the DII final four. They've already played once this season; Brookhaven won 23-21 in the season opener.
It's hard to believe it won't be the Chiefs, who finished with an 11-1 record, or 10-1 Louisville, which fell last week to Marion-Franklin. Louisville and Logan were the top two seeds in Region 7 (Brookhaven was No. 3, Marion-Franklin No. 8), not to mention that Louisville was the Associated Press DII poll champion and Logan finished third.
The Chiefs will forever rue their luck on this Friday the 13th in suburban Columbus.
For the only time all season, the Chiefs never led. And for the only time all season, they gave up points in the opening quarter.
On the very first play from scrimmage, Angle was sacked from the blind side by Brookhaven defensive end Derrick Bryant — who has verbally committed to UCLA — and fumbled. Brookhaven recovered at the Logan 20-yard line and scored just four plays later.
Sophomore quarterback Tajuan Green, who would throw three touchdown passes on the night, rolled to his left and hit senior tight end Deonta Stenson in the back left corner of the end zone with a 6-yard touchdown pass just 2:08 into the game.
While Bryant's big play set a tone, it wouldn't be the Bearcats' only big play of the night.
Late in the opening quarter, following a short Brookhaven punt, Angle started a drive that would result in Logan's only touchdown.
He connected with fellow senior and step-brother Mason Mays (nine receptions, 115 yards) with a 20-yard pass-and-run on the first play of the second quarter, advancing the ball to the Brookhaven 23.
Two plays later, Angle was hit hard and fumbled the ball forward, but senior receiver Jordan Rutter alertly emerged from the scrum with the ball and a Logan first down at the Brookhaven 8.
Two plays later, Angle was forced to scramble well behind the line of scrimmage by a ferocious Brookhaven pass rush, but somehow eluded nearly the entire Brookhaven front wall, scrambled away, cut back up the middle and maneuvered his way into the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown run and a 7-7 tie with 9:20 to play in the first half.
Brookhaven answered. Quickly. And with a bang.
On the ensuing possession, on second-and-10 from his own 25-yard line, Green went deep for Stenson and hit him perfectly in stride several yards behind a Logan defender. There was no catching the speedy Stenson, who went the distance... just 25 seconds after the Chiefs had tied the game.
“The fumble set up their first score, but we fought back and had a nice drive, took it down and scored... and they come right back with the big pass,” said Amyx, noting “things we were worried about from them — making big plays — they did.”
“Our mantra has been 'fight, scratch, claw, win,' whatever it takes, and to stay true to what we do,” said Brookhaven coach and former Ohio University quarterback Anthony Thornton, “to not get your head down over one play (and) just keep playing. Our kids have done that throughout the course of the season.
“I'm so proud of my guys tonight. We got it done — when we weren't expected to,” he added. “The expectation at Brookhaven is if you can play, you need to get it done. Make a play. That's what I told (Green): 'make a play.' And that's what he did. I'm proud of him. For a sophomore, that was lights out.”
Not to mention the two crushing TD receptions from Stenson, who missed a tackle on defense on Angle's TD run.
“After he missed a tackle he's got his head down,” Thornton said. “Shut up, line up, (and) we'll throw you the ball.”
The Chiefs nearly turned one of their patented two-minute drills into points at the end of the half. Starting from the Logan 20, Angle converted fourth-and-one and third-and-two with quarterback keepers and also got some extra help in the form of a 15-yard Brookhaven pass interference penalty to get to the BHS 45.
But when Angle was called for a questionable intentional grounding penalty, the Chiefs just couldn't recover and eventually turned the ball over on downs at the Brookhaven 35. Mays was stopped short of a first down on a fourth-and-six pass play.
The third quarter will live in infamy in Logan football lore.
It started out okay. The Bearcats drove to the LHS 29-yard line behind workhorse tailback Donivan Lipsey, a costly Logan holding penalty on third down and a Green-to-Deshawn Alston 12-yard pass play. However, Logan's T.J. McCray got his hand on a Green pass and Bobby Russell made a terrific diving interception to halt the drive.
The Angle-to-Mays tandem went into overdrive. Mays took in a couple 10-yard first-down pass plays before taking a screen pass 31 yards down the left sideline to the Brookhaven 17.
One play later, however, disaster struck. Angle threw incomplete deep into the end zone and was hit borderline late by a Brookhaven defender with 8:20 left in the third period. No penalty was forthcoming, however... and to add injury to insult, Angle hobbled off the field with his leg injury.
Although the knee was iced down on the sidelines, it never sufficiently recovered to allow him to come back into the game except for an appearance on defense to take a well-deserved bow in the final seconds as Brookhaven was running out the clock.
Logan was thus without its biggest weapon for the rest of the night. He finished 11-of-23 for 135 yards, and for only the second time in his career as a starter didn't throw a touchdown pass, the only other time being last year's second-round playoff loss to Louisville.
He finished his career with 5,112 passing yards.
“You have a kid out of the lineup who is responsible for probably 80 percent or better of your offense,” Amyx said. “That's something we looked at all year... if he goes down, what are we going to do? Unfortunately, when it happens in a game, you don't have a week to get a kid ready.”
After Zach McDaniel came in and threw an incomplete pass, the Chiefs brought Derek Montgomery in to attempt a 32-yard field goal. He missed wide left, but Brookhaven was obviously offside on the play, and when given another chance from five yards closer, Montgomery nailed the kick to draw the Chiefs within 14-10.
The Chiefs then got a golden opportunity when Green fumbled a snap from center and Caleb Valkinburg recovered at the Brookhaven 25.
One play later, the Chiefs dipped into their bag of tricks... and appeared to come out with the perfect play.
Jordan Jurgensmier threw to McDaniel in the left flat, who then went deep for Mays in the end zone. Mays made a terrific catch for a 25-yard touchdown, apparently putting the Chiefs in front.
Bu there was some yellow laundry on the field. Logan was called for making two forward passes on the same play, with an official ruling that McDaniel received Jurgensmier's original pass ahead of the line of scrimmage, instead of behind it, nullifying the touchdown.
“I thought the (first) pass was a backward pass. I really did,” Amyx said, “but that's not how (the official) saw it, so we have to live with the call. That hurt, obviously. It seemed like every time we got a penalty it called back a touchdown or a big play.”
Logan was eventually forced to punt and never really recovered. But the Bearcats tried to give them extra chances.
Moments later, when a Brookhaven receiver was hit after making a catch, the ball popped into the air and Mays grabbed it and returned it eight yards. But the Chiefs fumbled the ball away on the very next play; then, two plays later, Brookhaven fumbled it right back again.
Brookhaven thus committed four turnovers in less than seven minutes of third-period game time... and still survived.
“We'd seen some fumbles (from the Bearcats) on the game films, so we were hoping to get some of them tonight, which we did,” Amyx noted.
Brookhaven committed six turnovers last week in its 27-20 overtime win over Walnut Ridge.
Green, who finished 18-of-29 passing for 247 yards, drove the Bearcats deep into Logan territory before giving the ball up on downs early in the fourth period.
But after forcing Logan into a three-and-out, the Bearcats finally scored the clinching touchdown. They drove 56 yards on nine plays — Lipsey ran for 35 yards on seven carries — before Alston took a 16-yard fade pass from Green in the corner of the end zone with 4:06 to play.
That sent most of the huge contingent of Logan fans — who easily outnumbered Brookhaven fans at least 6-to-1 — heading for the parking lot.
“I didn't expect them to throw it as much, but we were giving them some things, especially some underneath stuff, because we didn't think they would have the patience to move the ball all the way down the field,” Amyx said. “I think it was a good plan... we gave up some stuff underneath, but we weren't giving up the big play other than that one (in the second quarter) play. That was our game plan, and they took advantage of it.
“They were taking what we were giving them, and we said if they're going to beat us, let's make them beat us throwing the football,” he added.
And that's just what Brookhaven did.
“(The Chiefs) backed off and let guys make plays. We weren't going to do that,” Thornton said.
Lipsey ran the ball 33 times for 152 yards — the second-most yardage by an opposition running back against the Chiefs all season (Lancaster's Nathan Carpenter had 182) — and Brookhaven finished with 399 yards of total offense.
In addition, the Bearcats held the Chiefs to just five second-half first downs and had the ball for 17:05 of the game's final 24 minutes.
Logan finished with 170 yards on offense — all through the air. The Chiefs finished with zero rushing yards on 20 attempts, registering just two runs for double-digit yardage: runs of 16 and 14 yards by Mays in the opening quarter.
“Patrick getting hurt killed our offense,” Amyx said. “Our defense played great. We had opportunities... and I just think about what could have been had he been in there when we had the ball in scoring position a couple times. I was real proud of the way the defense played.
“We had two different quarterbacks in there trying to find one to give us something,” he added. “They were trying to make a play and maybe just got a little too excited. They hadn't had the reps that (Angle) has this year, and it showed.”
The loss is disappointing, to be sure, but it takes nothing away from another great season of Chieftain football.
“I'm proud of them. They played their hearts out,” Amyx said. “It's unfortunate Patrick got hurt, but those things happen in a football game. And they still hung in there and played tough all the way through. Zach and Jordan both came in and gave a gutsy performance. We threw everything at them we could.
“I would just liked to have seen what would have happened had (Angle) finished, how it would have finished up,” he added. “It might not have been any different... but I have a feeling it might have.”
There will be many pleasant memories when he reflects back upon his 20th season at the helm of the Chiefs.
“I'm going to think of all the wins, the back-to-back 10-0 (regular seasons), the fact we could do it two years in a row,” he said. “That was a big goal for (the players) — they wanted to do that again — and not losing a league game and staying undefeated (at Logan Chieftain Stadium). Making the playoffs and winning a home playoff game again. Those kind of things.”
And next year's seniors will have some huge shoes to fill from the Class of 2010.
“Nothing's going to change,” Amyx said. “Our goals will always be, number one, to win the (Southeastern Ohio Athletic League) championship, then go 10-0 and make the playoffs — and try to get past the second round. That's been a killer the last two years.”