“It’s been an up and down season for us,” said Cougars coach Steve Channell, whose team has won three of its last four games after starting the year 1-4.
“These kids have done a good job of keeping a strong work habit and keeping a positive attitude,” Channell continued. “I think it’s great for Week 10 to be a meaningful game for us.”
Edgewood has won the league the last three seasons, and dating back to the days in the Mid-Miami League, the Cougars have captured 10 of their last 13 league championships.
Mount Healthy is looking for its first league title since 2005, when the Owls won the Southwest Ohio Public League championship.
“People are starting to realize we’re doing things right, and to be playing in a championship game, there’s a lot of excitement going on right now,” said Mount Healthy coach Arvie Crouch, who is in his first season with the Owls after working as an assistant coach at Hamilton for many years.
Ross (5-4, 3-1) has gone even longer than the Owls without winning a league title, with the dry spell going all the way back to 2001.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve been playing for anything in Week 10,” Rams coach Brian Butts said. “Five weeks ago we were 2-3 and we told the kids, ‘Hey, it’s a five-week season.’ We felt we could play with all five (league) teams and our goal was to go 5-0.
“Well, we stubbed our toe against Mount Healthy. Arvie’s team outplayed us,” Butts continued. “So we said, ‘OK, we can still be co-champs. Let’s go 4-1 and get better every week,’ and I think we’ve done that.”
Fantastic Finish II
The Greater Miami Conference could finish in a dead heat as well as Lakota West (8-1, 6-0) and Colerain (7-2, 6-0) head into their final games unbeaten.
Because of the conference’s rotating schedule, the two teams did not meet this year.
West, which has never won a football title since the school opened in 1997, travels to Lakota East on Friday, while Colerain, which has won at least a share of nine consecutive GMC championships, will visit Oak Hills.
Fantastic Finish III
There isn’t a tie for first place in the Greater Catholic League Central Division standings, but there could be.
Badin (6-3, 3-3) will play at McNicholas (5-4, 4-2) on Friday night with a chance to win a share of the Rams’ third league title in the last three years.
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