ASHLAND — Ashland-area high school football fans might want to take a mental screenshot of this start.
Never before in this century have two Ashland County teams opened the season 5-0.
That’s where Ashland and Hillsdale find themselves after reeling in a pair of big home wins Friday night.
The Arrows overwhelmed Maple Heights with a 28-0 third-quarter lead before eventually finishing things off, 37-20.
Many considered the Mustangs (3-2) one of the toughest remaining tests on Ashland’s regular-season schedule.
Hillsdale, meanwhile, turned heads around Ohio with its 35-31 win over visiting Dalton. Thought by many to be double-digit underdogs, the Falcons ran stride-for-stride with the defending Division VI state runners-up, limiting the powerhouse Bulldogs to just 10 points after a 21-point first quarter.
Dalton (3-2) had won 12 straight Wayne County Athletic League games and is expected to make a push for another appearance in the Division VI regional finals. The Bulldogs’ other three losses since the start of last season came against state title-winning teams, but the Falcons looked every bit as talented.
Ashland has been getting votes in the AP Division II state poll the last two weeks. Hillsdale’s ranking vaulted from No. 10 in Division VII all the way to No. 4 this week following its momentous win – perhaps the highest state ranking in the history of the program.
These are not flukes.
The Arrows and Falcons are both going to be in the playoffs.
Both could win conference titles.
If they can take their respective leagues outright, it will be the first time for either program to do so in over a decade (Ashland’s last outright OCC title was 2011, Hillsdale’s last outright WCAL crown was 2010).
For AHS head coach Scott Valentine and HHS head coach Trevor Cline – both coaching at their alma maters – the theme is simply returning experience after playoff seasons in 2023.
“We knew we had a lot more experience this year than last,” Valentine said. “Over the last few weeks we’ve really come together as a team and everybody knows their roles.”
“A lot of them played varsity last year, so they got a lot of varsity experience,” Cline echoed. “You can tell that year of experience paid off because they’ve taken that jump into this year.
“Teams like Dalton last year, we were a little bit outmatched. This year, our guys were ready for that moment – ready to compete against a team at that level.”
Sure, only half the regular season has been played, but Ashland-area fans should pause and enjoy this moment.
Only three times this century have the Arrows been 5-0 to start a season (2024, 2020 and 2006). Valentine has a 178-120 record in 28 seasons as a head coach at four different schools. His 300th career game will be in Week 7 at home against Mansfield Senior.
He’s been 5-0 just three times.
As for Hillsdale, a 5-0 start has come along five times in the 2000s (2024, 2019, 2011, 2009 and 2007). Cline was the Falcons’ quarterback on that 2011 team and has been the coach for the last two.
If Hillsdale keeps winning, he will have his 50th career victory as a head coach by Week 7 (currently 48-24 in his seventh season).
It’s hard to look at the numbers, the history and the current personnel of both programs and not notice the striking parallels they seem to be running.
Both coaches say this might be the best overall team speed they have had.
Consequently, both offenses have been explosive.
Hillsdale’s 42.0 points-per-game average is on pace to break the program record set in 2010 (36.3).
Ashland’s 36.6 ppg average isn’t far behind its program-record 40.1 ppg set in 2010 as well.
Ironically, both teams advanced to regional championship games in 2010 – the only time in Ashland County history that two teams have done so in the same season. That year was also the last time either program won double-digit games.
But it’s 2024 we’re talking about right now, and if you haven’t been to an Ashland or Hillsdale game yet, here’s why you should put them both on your Friday night calendar.
Quarterback play
Ashland junior Nathan Bernhard and Hillsdale sophomore Kael Lewis are both young, multi-sport athletes who could re-set the QB record books at their schools.
The 6-6, 235-pound Bernhard was named by Sports Illustrated as the best junior quarterback in Ohio entering this season. Last week he surpassed 4,000 career passing yards and 500 career rushing yards.
He’s accounted for nearly four touchdowns per game this season.
“A (full sophomore) year of experience of being in the heat of the game and all those things going on around him as a quarterback, that year has allowed him to see things a lot quicker, enabled him to get the ball out of his hands quicker,” Valentine said of Bernhard, who already has 10 Division I college offers.
“… Then with people putting a lot of guys in coverage sometimes, he understands that sometimes you’ve just got to (take off on the ground).”
The 6-2, 170-pound Lewis might be in his first season as a varsity starter, but in his first two outings at home he set single-game program records (six passing touchdowns in Week 1 and 361 passing yards last Friday).
He’s on pace to set single-season school records in passing yards and touchdowns.
“Not a whole lot phases him,” Cline said. “Sometimes as a sophomore quarterback, when things aren’t going your way, you don’t know exactly how to respond because you’re not mature enough yet, but that’s not him.
“He’s mature beyond his years when it comes to playing quarterback.”
Here are their numbers this season:
Bernhard – 67-of-117, 1,116 yards and 11 TDs passing (3 INTs); 282 yards and 7 TDs rushing
Lewis – 58-of-83, 1,007 yards and 13 TDs passing (1 INT)
Breakout receivers
Each team has a game-breaking receiver who was barely on the radar last season.
At Hillsdale, senior Holland Young didn’t have a single reception in 2023, but he leads the team in catches, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns this year.
Against Dalton, he stole away a would-be interception from a Bulldog defender in the fourth quarter, turning it into a 40-yard reception that set up the game-winning touchdown.
Cline said Young was easily one of the team’s hardest workers in the offseason.
For the Arrows, sophomore Killian O’Brien already has proven himself to be one of the biggest play-making talents in all of northcentral Ohio.
In Week 2 alone, he had three touchdowns and 161 yards on just four catches and also pulled down an interception. O’Brien had a 74-yard catch in Week 3, then added both a 55-yard catch and a 56-yard interception return for a touchdown in Week 5.
Here are their numbers this season:
Young – 21 catches, 406 yards, 6 TDs receiving (19.3 yards per catch)
O’Brien – 12 catches, 339 yards, 4 TDs receiving (28.3 yards per catch)
Clutch kickers
The oft-forgotten kicking game has been key for both teams, who have veteran junior kickers they can count on for consistency. Both have shown the ability to hit field goals when needed as well.
Hillsdale’s A.J. Brown hit all five of his PATs against Dalton, which helped lock in the win in a 35-31 outcome. He cleared 100 PATs for his career in the game.
Ashland’s Carson O’Brien, meanwhile, has made at least four PATs in 4-of-5 games this season. His 22-yard field goal against New Philadelphia was the difference in a 17-14 win in Week 3, and he drilled a career-best 40-yard field goal last Friday.
Having a trustworthy kicker is a commodity in high school, especially when the postseason rolls around. These two are massive difference-makers.
Here are their career kicking numbers:
Brown – 104/113 PATs, 4/6 FGs, 116 points in three seasons
O’Brien – 43/52 PATs, 6/7 FGs, 61 points in two seasons
Dominant defenses
The seeds for a victory are planted in the first half of almost every game. The Ashland and Hillsdale defenses have proven that this season.
The Falcons have four wins by at least three possessions. Much of that can be credited to the fact that they have outscored teams 69-0 in the second quarter.
Nearly as impressive, the Arrows have put their defensive stamp on games in the first quarter. They have a 54-13 scoring advantage on teams in the opening 12 minutes and have not allowed a first-quarter point since Week 2.
All of it comes through having defensive anchors and both squads have plenty.
For Ashland, junior linebacker Gunner Lacey and senior defensive back Tyler Sauder both surpassed 200 career tackles earlier this season and are getting heavy college interest. Lacey has at least nine tackles and a tackle for loss in all five games.
Meanwhile, senior linebacker Gavin Hoffman has been a massive disruptor in the backfield with a team-high seven sacks and has a pair of interceptions.
The Falcons have linemen Lincoln Jones (senior) and Jake Haven (junior) who have combined for nearly 200 career tackles and six sacks this season, and junior linebacker Brady Heller leads the squad in tackles.
Here are their numbers this season:
Hoffman – 31 tackles, 9 TFLs, 7 sacks, 2 INTs
Lacey – 54 tackles, 12 TFLs, 4 sacks, INT
Sauder – 49 tackles, 3 TFLs, sack
Haven – 22 tackles, 4 TFLs, 4 sacks
Heller – 49 tackles
Jones – 30 tackles, 3 TFLs, 2 sacks
Ashland & Hillsdale similarities
The similarities carry over elsewhere for Ashland and Hillsdale.
Both have 7-1 records at home since the start of last season.
Both have six captains (Ashland’s are seniors Sauder, Hoffman, Michael Franz, Josh Ingani, Cooper Smith and Joey Isenhart; Hillsdale’s are juniors Heller, Haven, Jesse Trevathan and Owen Sloan, and seniors Bradey Krichbaum and Grayson Allis).
For Ashland, Franz has scored multiple rushing and receiving touchdowns as a senior while accounting for nearly 400 yards of offense.
Hillsdale’s speedy juniors Hayden McFadden and Brock Bower have turned in similar scoring and yardage production as rushing and receiving weapons.
Add in Sloan for the Falcons and you get the area’s top running back threat (518 yards, 10 TDs on the ground this season, 1,839 career rushing yards). Cline said he’s almost always the fastest player on the field.
Both teams know the second half of the regular season will reveal just how historic these seasons could be – not just for their programs, but for the area as well.
League titles and playoff seedings will be on the line. They both have the pedigree to repeat that rare run to the regional championship game.
Ashland and West Holmes (3-2, 2-0) are the only OCC teams with winning records through five weeks. The league’s head-to-head scores have been largely unpredictable thus far.
Valentine admitted it’s been one of the more hard-to-guess OCC fields he can recall; six of the seven teams have at least one league win already and many of their overall records are skewed by stout nonconference competition.
“With where things are for the playoffs with more teams getting in (16 per region), people are picking up tougher nonleague games early on,” Valentine said. “That’s something we try to do to help us determine where we’ve got to get better.
“When it used to be eight playoff teams (per region) – and early in my coaching career it was four teams – a loss early on, you had to battle every week to get in.”
It’s the usual suspects rising to the top in the WCAL.
Dalton hosts Norwayne (4-1, 2-0) for their annual showdown in Week 8. The last time neither of those teams at least shared the WCAL crown was a decade ago – which is the last time Hillsdale won it (a co-title with Chippewa).
The Falcons’ Week 10 game at home against the Bobcats is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated in Ohio. It no doubt will go a long way in deciding the postseason path for a Hillsdale program whose eight-year playoff streak is already an area record.
“Every year that we’ve had a really good football team at Hillsdale, it’s just been how ‘team-first’ the players are,” Cline said. “It’s neat watching them celebrate the success of their teammates. … When you have that, special things can be accomplished.”
