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GWOC receiving standouts

Lebanon's Chase Cochran has picked up where he left off last season. The receiver had 633 yards in 2007. Through two games this year, Cochran has 193 yards on seven catches for the 2-0 Warriors.

Fairborn's Jordan Houser only has 88 yards on his seven catches, but he's made the most of them. Houser has three touchdown catches.

— Mark Gokavi

Good vibrations

Wayne's 20-12 victory against East St. Louis (Ill.) at Paul Brown Stadium was an impressive comeback. But it wasn't quite as amazing as the Warriors' last trip to PBS.

"Kids still remember the last time we were down here and we're behind and beat Centerville," Wayne coach Jay Minton said. "They always talk about playing in this venue."

Trailing 28-10 with 7:12 left in a 2005 playoff game, the Warriors rallied for a 29-28 victory. The Elks, however, have won the past two meetings since.

— Mark Gokavi

Road trip

Colts receiver Anthony Gonzalez is true to his school. The former Ohio State standout drove over from Indianapolis to see his high school alma mater, Cleveland St. Ignatius, play at Northmont.

"He said, 'I'm an hour and a half away,' " Ignatius coach Chuck Kyle said.

"It was great he could come. I saw him posing for pictures and signing kids' autographs. He's a great guy, wonderful, very kind, humble. He got out of practice and scooted over."

— Mark Gokavi

Buzzing around the field

Sidney is off to a 2-0 start in part because of the combination of Jack Foy and Josh Topp. Foy has 151 yards and five touchdowns. Foy has 278 yards rushing and three scores. Not to be forgotten is T.J. Golden, who has 120 yards and one TD.

— Mark Gokavi

They'll pass on that

Somebody let the air out of Lehman Catholic's 14-7 defeat of Milton-Union last week. The Bulldogs had a measly 15 yards passing. But that was twice as much as the Cavaliers' 7 passing yards.

And according to M-U Athletic Director Tom Koogler, that's not close to a game record for passing futility. Koog reports that Tippecanoe and M-U combined for 0 passing yards on a rainy night in 1988.

— Marc Pendleton

Air alert

Milton-Union and Lehman Catholic might want to borrow film of Sherwood Fairview's 83-52 defeat of Woodmore last week.

QB James Elchinger was 28-of-39 passing for 779 yards. That broke the single-game state record of former Fairview QB Ryan Radcliffe, now playing at Central Michigan. Elchinger also had seven TD tosses.

Two words for budding QBs, wideout want-to-be's and pass-blocking behemoths: Sherwood Fairview.

— Marc Pendleton

Be aware; be very aware

Football officials, coaches and captains will all have something in common this weekend. All will wear blue prostate awareness bands like the yellow ones made so famous by Lance Armstrong.

The OHSAA and the Ohio High School Football Coaches Association have targeted those First Friday games as prostate cancer awareness night. September is cancer awareness month.

— Marc Pendleton

Play ball

Sports has never played a greater role in high schools. So reveals the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Participation numbers for boys and girls have increased from the 50 states and District of Columbia each of the past 19 years. The girls reached an all-time high of 3,057,266 for the 2007-08 school year and the boys 4,372,155.

A more relevant breakdown is 54.8 percent of all high school students participate in sports.

— Marc Pendleton

Quick hitters

The Midwest Athletic Conference was again shown how tough it is in football, going 18-2 in nonconference games. The only losses were Versailles falling to Oakwood and New Bremen dropping to Olentangy Orange.

• Northmont's Megan Dibley had the first eagle in the school's girls golf history during a match with Troy and Alter on Aug. 28 at Miami Shores in Tipp City. Dibley had a 41 for the round as Northmont set a school record with a team score of 168. Alter (167) won.

• Area girls who have given verbal commitments for college volleyball include: Cassie Berning, Tippecanoe (Bowling Green); Lisa Treadway, C-J (Miami); Mariah Nussbaum, C-J (Radford, Va.); MacKenzy Harper, Lebanon (Auburn); Kendel Rollins, Lebanon (Liberty); Bethany Hoelscher, Fort Loramie (Findlay); Taylor Jones, New Bremen (Maryland); Jaclyn Dabbelt, New Bremen (Cleveland State).

— Dave Long