WOOSTER - Week 6 features two marquee rivalries.
Rittman and Chippewa have battled for more than a century and have silverware on the line as winner comes home with The Big Chief Trophy. The Chips dominated for a decade before Rittman snapped that streak last year and the all-time series is led by Chippewa 59-57-7.
Wooster and West Holmes have been duking it out for "big school" supremacy in the area since the Ohio Cardinal Conference came to be in 2003. And over the past two decades, the Generals have 15 of 21 meetings but it's the Knights who are currently on a three-game win streak over their rival.
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Passionate rivals bring back Captain's Lunch before Week 6 clash
Five miles is all that separates Doylestown and Rittman.
"Both communities are are very prideful," Chippewa coach Danny Edwards said. "With the two towns being so close, the kids grow up playing each other in a lot of youth sports."
It's a rivalry that dates back to 1923 which, unofficially, makes it the 12th oldest in the state of Ohio.
"It's a healthy rivalry," Rittman coach Tyler Dennis said. "There's a lot of respect … it's just an exciting rivalry."
To make it even more exciting, the programs decided to renew one of the most important parts of the rivalry — the Captain's Lunch — before Rittman heads to Chippewa on Friday.
"It's something that was done in the past just to make sure that things are kept respectable between the two teams," Dennis said. "We brought it back this year because coach Edwards and I talked about some things we could do to help grow the rivalry."
Senior Isaiah Radebaugh (93 carries, 446 rushing yards, six touchdowns) and classmate Nate Deyling (42 tackles, 11.5 for loss, four sacks, one forced fumble, two recoveries) lead both sides of the ball for the Chips and have really been instrumental in the team's growth this season.
"Winning the Coventry game gave us a lot of confidence," Edwards said. "We played a really good Hillsdale team the following week, then we went out against Northwestern … I don't know how many teams can bounce back from a 63-0 defeat then go out and beat a team the following week 49-14. It's amazing to watch how resilient they are."
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Rittman is reeling after back-to-back losses following a 3-0 start to the year, but see this as the perfect opportunity to get the season back on track.
"In a rivalry game, you can throw records out the door," Dennis said. "Usually in rivalry games, whoever is able to run the football, stop the run, and not turn it over (wins). Those are the three keys Friday night."
Rittman is led by senior running back Artie Sonego who has nearly 1,100 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns already. He will be the focal point of Chippewa's defensive scheme.
"You can't emulate that in in practice," Edwards said. "But I think the team that has the fewest turnovers wins this game. And I'm a firm believer that you have to win all three aspects of the game."
Leppla's return to Wooster adds fuel to the fire
In February, Keaton Leppla returned home to take over his alma mater after spending the last five years on staff at Wooster under Austin Hotler.
Now, they'll be squaring off for the first time in Week 6.
"That obviously intensifies the rivalry a little bit," Leppla said. "All the kids and all the coaches know me.
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"West Holmes and Wooster are 15 miles apart, so it's that next door rivalry. Wooster's the biggest place with the most stuff near Millersburg, so there's a lot of time spent up there, a lot of mingling and intermixing between kids — everybody knows everybody."
That's part of what makes it so exciting. The players all know each other as the two largest schools in the area, and when you add in friends meeting on opposite sides in a rivalry game, it just makes it all that much more thrilling.
"We're good friends, but we certainly won't be good friends on that night," Hotler said with a laugh. "We're both extremely competitive individuals and there's no question we both want to win. I'm gonna be excited to see him over there because I know that was the dream. And I think anytime you get in this profession, you're aspiring to not only put your kids in a position to grow, but also your coaches. And when one of your coaches gets an opportunity to chase his dream, you're proud.
"Having said that, you don't want to lose to them. We'll be excited, and we're certainly proud of him, but we definitely want to beat him."
That will be a challenge in itself with the Knights coming in off two big wins against Mansfield Senior and Madison led by senior quarterback Morgan Smith (872 yards passing, seven touchdowns; 379 yards rushing, five touchdowns).
"They're a good football team, and they're kind of on a hot streak right now having won their last two and playing very physical football on both sides of the ball," Hotler said. "The key for us is putting it all together. We've shown some flashes through the course of the first five weeks of how talented our program can be, but we haven't consistently been able to put it together."
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The Generals will look to tap into the Week 2 success they had against Kent Roosevelt, their lone win of the season. Seniors Hayden Meese (23 catches, 390 yards, three touchdowns) and Julian Franklin (87 carries, 859 yards, eight touchdowns) will be the driving force of the offense.
"Stopping the run is No. 1 priority, it's what they've had the most success at doing," Leppla said. "And Meese is a really good football player, they do some really nice things in creative ways to get him the ball in space.
"We're going to be aware of where No. 2 and 22 are on the field at all times."
zholden@gannett.com | 419-617-6018 | Twitter/X: @Zachary_Holden
This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Week 6 Football Preview | Big Chief trophy, big school supremacy the marquee rivalry games
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