Friday Preview: Philo looking to rebound and stay alive in playoff race

DUNCAN FALLS, Ohio – With only two weeks left in the regular season, the Philo football team will look to put last week’s loss behind them and try to stay alive in the playoff hunt.

Philo held a 3-0 lead at halftime against Maysville. But the Panthers were able to move the ball and score two third quarter touchdowns to win 13-10. Now they welcome 1-7 Morgan to town. Morgan was scoreless at halftime last week with Shenandoah, who was ranked tenth in D-VI. The Zeps scored a late touchdown to avoid the upset and win 8-0.

At 5-3 Philo is still alive in the playoff race. They currently sit at eighth in Region 15. The top eight in each region make the post season. But Philo head coach Dirk Lincicome isn’t concerned with week 11 right now.

“We can’t afford to talk about that coming off a loss Friday. This was a week that we needed to refocus and basically recommit to our program, to each other, to our season, and we’re going to find out what we’re made of,” said Lincicome .

At 1-7, The Raiders’ season hasn’t gone exactly according to plan. They brought back a lot of talent from a team that went 5-5 last year. So far this year they’re only victory came in week four when they beat winless West Muskingum 61-34. That one game has accounted for 61 percent of all the points they’ve scored this season.

But coach Lincicome knows Philo can’t sleep on Morgan after seeing them take a ranked team to the wire last Friday.

“They do a lot of different things offensively looking at them on tape. I wouldn’t say that they are searching for an identity. I would just say that they are very diverse in what they do. They are hard to game plan for because they’re so diverse,” said Lincicome.

Friday’s Philo-Morgan game kickoffs from Sam Hatifeld Stadium at 7 p.m. You can listen to play-by-play on Z92 Radio. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m.

Other Key Friday Night Games:

-Undefeated Licking Valley will have their toughest test of the season when they travel to 7-1 Granville. If the Panthers can win against the Blue Aces then they will secure the LCL Buckeye Division championship.

-Tri-Valley will welcome West Muskingum to Dresden. If the Scotties win then they will win the Muskingum Valley League title outright.

Complete list of all the area matchups click here.