Troy 7 Piqua 6

Well, that was a little needlessly dramatic. But hey, a win's a win (especially in this rivalry)...a conference championship is a conference championship...and a playoff berth is a playoff berth.

This is the first Troy football game I've attended this year, but it's not the first time I've seen the Trojans play. Due to Troy High School's mass communications program, the home games are generally streamed online, and so I've been able to see those games, at least. Not being able to attend any games in person has been hard...but I've been to every Troy-Piqua game since my first as a sophomore in 1992, and that was a streak I wasn't about to break. I had today off from work, so I made the journey from Columbus to Troy (to visit my parents) and then to Piqua for the game. Weather-wise, I could have picked a better night, as it was cold and rainy the entire time, but it was good to be in a stadium to watch my beloved Trojans play once again.

I started to have a bad feeling about this game on Troy's first offensive series. After kicking off and forcing Piqua to punt, Troy took the field without star tailback Jaydon Culp-Bishop, the GWOC's leading rusher, and promptly went three and out. Then, after another Piqua punt, Troy came out once again without JCB in the backfield, and had another three and out. Piqua's run-heavy offense held onto the ball for a lot of time, so that was it for the first quarter. JCB joined the offense in the second, but by that point they were really out of sync.

There's a line in the movie Dodgeball that sums up how the Trojans looked on offense for much of the night. I won't repeat it here, because it's not PC, especially when applied to high school kids, but it's out there, and if you've seen the movie, you probably know what I mean. The defense, on the other hand...Piqua's run game gave them some trouble here and there, but Troy was able to keep them bottled up when it mattered. When they finally got their offense in some semblance of order and scored with just a few minutes left in the game to take the 7-6 lead, it was more relief than anything. And the last few minutes, standing and cheering for the final defensive stand to seal the game, were super fun--the way this rivalry is meant to be.

With the win, Troy now holds a 2-game edge in the series, now played 134 times, 65-63-6. They also finish the regular season at 9-1, a perfect 5-0 and outright champions of the GWOC North--the final time that particular honor will exist, with a number of teams (including both Troy and Piqua) breaking away from the GWOC to reform the Miami Valley League. (Personally, I wish they would have gone back to being the Greater Miami Valley Conference, which was what they were in back in my day.)

So that's the regular season. Next up is the playoffs, and the Trojans will host a game in the first round. It looks like the opponent will be Harrison, from west of Cincinnati, who finished up their regular season at 7-3. That will be made official at some point this weekend. I won't be able to make the game next week, unfortunately, but hopefully it will be streamed online so I can catch it.