Big Blue coach will miss Friday night's game

Today’s Game

HAMILTON — Hamilton High School football coach Jim Place isn’t an avid texter, but he will be tonight.

While Big Blue is battling Taft at Stargel Stadium in Cincinnati, Place will be at his daughter Peggy’s wedding in Dayton, cell phone at the ready.

“(Assistant coach Mike Dole) promised to text me at the end of each quarter and after each score change,” Place said. “It’s going to be strange not being there.”

Defensive coordinator Chris Wells will handle the head coaching duties tonight as Hamilton tries for its first victory of the season.

“I’m a little nervous, but mostly I’m excited,” said Wells, who also ran practice Thursday while Place was at the rehearsal dinner.

“I just want to step in and be myself and don’t try to be coach Place, because nobody can do that,” Wells added. “The other coaches on the staff have been unbelievable. Everybody’s stepping up just a little more than normal and doing extra things to make it work.”

Hamilton enters the game fresh off a 47-20 loss to Moeller that dropped Big Blue to 0-2, while the winless Senators come in still stinging from last week’s loss to Badin in which they blew a 14-0 lead.

The game-tying score came on a fourth-quarter interception return for a touchdown, which was one of just 10 turnovers Taft has committed in the first two games.

“Ten turnovers in two weeks, you can’t win anything like that,” Senators coach Mike Martin said. “We’ve got to protect the ball if we’re gonna beat Hamilton.”

Taft features four wide receivers who stand 6-foot-3 or taller to give quarterback Cameron Mitchell some big targets and, the Senators hope, some big plays.

“The key for us is we have to stop the big plays,” Wells said. “Taft is more of team that tries to hit you with a big play as opposed to a team that drives on you.

“They’re going to have a big height advantage on us, so we have to make sure we really pressure the quarterback and not give him all day to throw.”

In addition to being 0-2 this year, the Senators are 0-2 against Hamilton the last two years, with the emphasis on the “0.”

Hamilton blanked Taft 14-0 in 2007 and 16-0 last year.

So Wells said he knows Big Blue is gonna get the Senators’ best shot.

“We really feel like we’ve got to win, but we talked to the team today and let them know Taft really wants this win, too,” he said. “Both teams are hungry for a victory, and somebody’s gonna walk out off there with one. We need to do everything we can to make sure it’s us.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or jmorrison@coxohio.com.