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PH wins outright league title

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By LYNN GROLL
groll@crescent-news.com
With an outright NWOAL title on the line of Friday evening at Wauseon's Harmon Field, the men in the pits made sure that Patrick Henry wouldn't be sharing the league crown with its Henry County neighbor to the north, Liberty Center, who finished 9-1 overall and 7-1 in the league.

The Patriots (10-0, 8-0 NWOAL) dictated the play in the trenches against Wauseon and easily coasted to a 47-10 triumph over the Indians for their seventh consecutive NWOAL championship.
With the victory, PH locked down the No. 1 spot in Division V's Region 18 and will host a first-round playoff game on Saturday against an opponent to be determined.

"This gives us confidence going into the playoffs," said PH mentor Bill Inselmann, who is hoping to claim his 150th career victory in the Patriots' opening playoff game Saturday. "We love playing Wauseon before the playoffs because they're as big as any team we're going to see and it gets us ready for the playoffs.

"It's nice to not have to share (NWOAL title), that's important," added Inselmann. "An undefeated season is special, but the most important thing, it gave us that number-one seeding in the computer region and that was most important to us."

Junior tailback Justin Buenger gashed the Wauseon defense over and over behind a veteran offensive line to the tune of 408 yards.
Buenger got off to a fast start with a 71-yard dash into the end zone on the opening play of the game before adding TD runs of 14, 56 and 21 yards later on.

"All the credit goes to that line," praised Inselmann. "I didn't think we'd dominate, Wauseon is big and they're physical. So I couldn't be happier with the way our line played tonight."
Buenger became the program's all-time regular season rushing leader with a 267 yard night on 17 totes. The 267 yards lifted Buenger's season total to 1,375 yards which broke Dane Erford's record of 1,356 yards set during the 1971 season.
"
It's the line, they block great every game," remarked Buenger. "They're all seniors and I'm going to miss them next year."
Josh Strub set the single-season, including playoffs, record for yardage at PH with 1,503 in 2005 and Buenger needs just 128 to match Strub's mark.
Buenger also tied Erford for the PH season scoring record with 150 points this season while the all games record is held by Marc Krauss (191 points) set during the Patriots' state championship campaign of 2005.
"
They're front five are outstanding, they're front seven on defense is outstanding," lauded Wauseon mentor Mark Emans. "We knew that going in. I thought the weather might help us a little bit but they're good and that's why they're the No. 2 rated team in the state. They're very good and they might be as good as last year. I don't know if Bill would think that, I don't know, but I think defensively they're better than last year. They're as good as last year and can go deep into the playoffs if they can stay injury free.

"They come off the ball so well," added Emans. "We didn't have an answer for their quickness off the ball on both offensive and defensive lines."
Just like the PH offense won the battle at the line of scrimmage, the same could be said for the Patriots' defensive front. PH held the Indians to 35 yards rushing on 36 attempts and only 50 yards passing on four completions.
The return of starting quarterback Luke George from a leg injury was another plus for Inselmann and the Patriots as they head into week 11.
"Any time you play at home it's a big boost, especially in the playoffs" concluded Inselmann. "That's going to have our kids ready, that's huge. One thing I'm very, very pleased with right now is we're healthy. We didn't think we'd have Luke George tonight. We weren't trying hold anything back or trick anybody. He actually went to the doctor Friday morning, this morning, at 9:30 a.m. and got cleared. His leg is 85 percent they said, and next week, if he didn't get injured tonight, was going to be 100 percent next week. We rolled the dice and played him, and that was nice and we got him out. I'll tell you what, it was so easy to call plays tonight because the line of scrimmage. All the credit in the world goes to our line play."

While the Patriots look for another deep run into the playoffs, Wauseon ended its season at 5-5 overall and 5-3 in the NWOAL.

"I think after losing the group that we lost last year, and the new group that came in did some nice things," said Emans. "5-5 is not a terrible season, but it's not the kind of season we were hoping for. We played a lot of young guys. We've got a lot of young guys coming back for next year, so hopefully this was a hold our own season that we can build on next year."