News Release – Ohio High School Athletic Association
Commissioner Daniel B. Ross, Ph.D.
For Immediate Release – Nov. 12, 2017
Noting the OHSAA Football Regional Finals
All games are Friday at 7:30 p.m.; all-session tickets for the state finals continue
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Following the announcement Saturday of the upcoming football regional final pairings and game sites, the Ohio High School Athletic Association published the weekly football notes packet Sunday. The football regional finals kick off at 7:30 p.m. next Friday, Nov. 17, at sites around the state.
Later this week, the OHSAA will announce how the regional champions will be paired in the state semifinals on Fri-day, Nov. 24.
Welcome to the Regional Finals
Regional championship trophies will be awarded to 28 schools Friday night as Week 13 of the high school football season has arrived. The regional finals kick off at 7:30 p.m. Friday at neutral sites selected by the OHSAA based on availability.
Ticket Information
Fans are encouraged to buy their playoff tickets in advance at the participating schools, which keep a percentage of the revenue. For regional playoff games, tickets are $8 presale and $9 at the gate. All-session tickets for the state championship games are now on sale, which includes a ticket option that has indoor access in the stadium club level. Parking passes are not sold. Access to the Pro Football Hall of Fame is included with some ticket packages. Please visit the football page at OHSAA.org for details and the online ticket purchase link, or:
http://bit.ly/2gMW5FK
Football Playoffs Information
Media Information
Credentials for Playoff Games
For the first four rounds of the playoffs, media shall contact the host site’s media coordinator by 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Contact information for the media coordinator for each game will be posted within the brackets at OHSAA.org. Media coordinators will work with the athletic director at the schools and follow the OHSAA’s press box priority seating scale:
http://www.ohsaa.org/Portals/0/Sports/Football/FBMediaPressBoxMemo.pdf
Playoff Telecasts and Broadcasts
Spectrum is the official TV partner of the OHSAA and will make its playoff game selections by noon on Monday. Spectrum has exclusivity of the games it selects. Other games are available for tape-delay telecasts, which can be shown beginning Saturday morning. Rights fees for audio broadcasts and delayed-video telecasts are posted at:
http://www.ohsaa.org/Portals/0/News/Media/TournamentBroadcastRates.pdf
Championship Games on the OHSAA Radio Network
Now in its eighth year, the OHSAA Radio Network will broadcast the football state championship games. Stations that commit to carry state championship game broadcasts from the network will have their rights fees waived throughout the playoffs. The championship games will be available from Skyview Satellite and online. Please contact Tim Stried at the OHSAA for more information or visit:
http://www.ohsaa.org/news/radio
Excerpts from the Weekly Notes Packet
Inside the Regional Finals
Eight of the regional championship games pit the No. 1 vs. No. 2 seeds (Regions 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, 18 and 25 - see pairings on page 9). There are 20 undefeated teams still alive in the playoffs, but only two regional finals include undefeated teams squaring off against each other, including Div. IV, Region 13 (Steubenville vs. Perry) and Div. VI, Region 21 (Rootstown vs. Kirtland).
Of the 18 teams that won their final regular season to jump into the Top 8 of their region and qualify for the playoffs, two have advanced to the third round, including Bellevue (Div. IV, Region 14) and Jeromesville Hillsdale (Div. VI, Region 22).
Of the four teams that qualified for the playoffs for the first time this year, only one - Middletown Madison (Div. V, Region 20) - has advanced to the third round. Four other schools won their first-ever playoff game earlier this month, including Hilliard Bradley (Div. I, Region 3), Barberton (Div. II, Region 5), East Canton (Div. VII, Region 25) and Portsmouth Sciotoville (Div. VII, Region 27).
Regional Finalists by Seed
The following seeds have advanced to the regional finals:
No. 1 seed - 19
No. 2 seed - 13
No. 3 seed - 10
No. 4 seed - 3
No. 5 seed - 6
No. 6 seed - 3 (Akron SVSM, Jeromesville Hillsdale, Hannibal River)
No. 7 seed - 2 (Day. Chaminade Julienne, Duncan Falls Philo)
No. 8 seed - 0
Regional Final Rematches
REGION 1: Regular season rematch. Cle. St. Ignatius beat Mentor 41-31 in week 2.
REGION 3: Ohio Capital Conference (Ohio Division) regular season rematch. Pickerington Central beat Pickerington North 24-21 in week 8.
REGION 4: Regular season rematch. Cin. St. Xavier beat Cin. Colerain 20-17 (OT) in week 2.
REGION 6: Southwestern Conference regular season rematch. Avon beat Olmsted Falls 31-17 in week 2.
REGION 8: Regular season rematch. Cin. Winton Woods beat Cin. La Salle 18-15 in week 5.
REGION 14: Northern Ohio League regular-season rematch. Shelby beat Bellevue 46-0 in week 4.
REGION 15: Muskingum Valley League regular season rematch. Duncan Falls Philo beat New Concord John Glenn 28-17 in week 4.
REGION 24: Midwest Athletic Conference regular season rematch. Maria Stein Marion Local beat Coldwater 13-7 in week 3.
REGION 28: Midwest Athletic Conference regular season rematch. Minster beat Delphos St. John’s 41-14 in week 3
The Division VI, Region 24 final will be played between Midwest Athletic Conference schools and perennial state powers Maria Stein Marion Local and Coldwater. These two programs have combined for 140 playoff wins and 15 state championships all-time, 11 of those titles coming since 2007. Both schools have made nine final four appear-ances in the last 10 years with Marion Local missing in 2010 and Coldwater missing in 2008.
Also from the MAC, Minster and Delphos St. John’s will meet in the Division VII, Region 28 final. The two schools have combined for 81 playoff wins and eight state championships all-time.
BEST PLAYOFF WINNING PERCENTAGE (updated Nov. 12, 2017)
(minimum 50 playoff games)
1. Maria Stein Marion Local, 69-10, .873
2. Delphos St. John’s, 54-11, .831
3. Cleveland St. Ignatius, 72-16, .818
4. Coldwater, 71-16, .816
See full leaders list on page 6.
Proving the Pollsters
Thirty-five of the 70 teams that appeared in the final Associated Press poll are still alive in the playoffs. All seven teams that won poll championships are still playing - Cle. St. Ignatius (Div. I), Avon (Div. II), Trotwood-Madison (Div. III), Steubenville (Div. IV), Pemberville Eastwood (Div. V), Maria Stein Marion Local (Div. VI) and Norwalk St. Paul (Div. VII). The final AP polls appear on page 8 of this packet.
All 70 teams that appeared in the final AP poll earned a playoff berth. Those 70 teams went 59-11 in the first round of the playoffs. Of those 59 wins, 57 were home games for the ranked team, while two ranked teams won on the road in the first round - Girard (Division IV) and West Jefferson (Division V).
Last year, the only team to be ranked No. 1 in the final poll and go on to win a state championship was Maria Stein Marion Local (Division VI).
2017 OHSAA Football Playoffs – Regional Finals Pairings
Pairings are shown with seeds and current records.
First team listed is the home team. All games played on Friday, Nov. 17, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Game times subject to change.
Division I – Games at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17
Region 1: 1 Cle. St. Ignatius (11-1) vs. 3 Mentor (11-1) at Bedford Bearcat Stadium
Region 2: 1 Tol. Whitmer (12-0) vs. 2 Powell Olentangy Liberty (10-2) at Findlay Donnell Stadium
Region 3: 5 Pickerington North (10-2) vs. 3 Pickerington Central (11-1) at Cols. St. Francis DeSales Alumni Stadium
Region 4: 1 Cin. St. Xavier (11-1) vs. 2 Cin. Colerain (10-2) at Mason Dwire Field at Atrium Stadium
Division II – Games at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17
Region 5: 1 Akr. Archbishop Hoban (11-1) vs. 2 Barberton (12-0) at Green Memorial Stadium
Region 6: 1 Avon (12-0) vs. 3 Olmsted Falls (11-1) at North Ridgeville Ranger Stadium
Region 7: 5 New Albany (8-4) vs. 2 Massillon Washington (9-3) at Mansfield Senior Arlin Field
Region 8: 1 Cin. La Salle (10-2) vs. 2 Cin. Winton Woods (11-1) at Cin. Withrow Angus King Stadium
Division III – Games at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17
Region 9: 1 Canfield (12-0) vs. 6 Akr. St. Vincent-St. Mary (9-3) at Salem Reilly Stadium
Region 10: 1 Tol. Central Catholic (10-2) vs. 2 Bay Village Bay (12-0) at Sandusky Strobel Field, Cedar Point Stadium
Region 11: 5 Dresden Tri-Valley (11-1) vs. 3 Cols. Bishop Hartley (11-1) at Newark Paul “Hoss” Starr Stadium at White Field
Region 12: 1 Trotwood-Madison (12-0) vs. 7 Day. Chaminade Julienne (9-3) at Riverside Stebbins Edmundson Stadium
Division IV – Games at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17
Region 13: 1 Steubenville (12-0) vs. 2 Perry (12-0) at Niles McKinley Bo Rein Stadium
Region 14: 5 Bellevue (9-3) vs. 2 Shelby (12-0) at Ashland Community Stadium
Region 15: 5 New Concord John Glenn (10-2) vs. 7 Duncan Falls Philo (9-3) at Zanesville Sulsberger Stadium
Region 16: 4 Clarksville Clinton-Massie (11-1) vs. 2 Cin. Wyoming (12-0) at Lakota West Firebird Field
Division V – Games at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17
Region 17: 1 Canfield South Range (12-0) vs. 3 Sullivan Black River (11-1) at Canal Fulton Northwest Dr. Martin Smilek Stadium/Jim Schalmo Field
Region 18: 1 Pemberville Eastwood (12-0) vs. 2 Marion Pleasant (10-1) at Lima Senior Spartan Stadium
Region 19: 1 Wheelersburg (12-0) vs. 3 Johnstown-Monroe (10-2) at Chillicothe Herrnstein Stadium
Region 20: 5 West Jefferson (11-0) vs. 2 Middletown Madison (10-2) at Beavercreek Frank Zink Field at Miami Valley Hospital Stadium
Division VI – Games at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17
Region 21: 1 Rootstown (12-0) vs. 3 Kirtland (12-0) at Solon Stewart Field
Region 22: 1 Findlay Liberty-Benton (11-1) vs. 6 Jeromesville Hillsdale (9-3) at Tiffin Frost-Kalnow Stadium
Region 23: 1 Nelsonville-York (12-0) vs. 3 Coal Grove Dawson-Bryant (11-1) at Jackson Holzer Field at Alumni Stadium
Region 24: 4 Coldwater (9-3) vs. 2 Maria Stein Marion Local (12-0) at Sidney Memorial Stadium
Division VII – Games at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17
Region 25: 1 Dalton (12-0) vs. 2 Cuyahoga Heights (10-1) at North Canton Hoover Memorial Stadium
Region 26: 1 Norwalk St. Paul (12-0) vs. 3 Pandora-Gilboa (10-2) at Clyde Robert J. Bishop Jr. Stadium
Region 27: 1 Danville (11-1) vs. 6 Hannibal River (8-4) at Zanesville Maysville Athletic Complex
Region 28: 4 Minster (8-4) vs. 3 Delphos St. John’s (8-4) at Wapakoneta Harmon Field
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