Playoff fields set after dramatic finales in WCAL, PAC and OCC

A few thoughts from the week in sports …

Area high school football fans couldn’t have asked for a more exciting finish to the regular season.

The league championships in the Wayne County Athletic League, Principals Athletic Conference and Ohio Cardinal Conference all came down to the week 10 finales. Emerging as champions in the respective leagues were Norwayne, Triway and Lexington.

Norwayne held off Hillsdale in a battle of WCAL unbeatens to win 24-17 and edge out the Falcons for the second straight year for the title. Norwayne (8-2, 7-0) started the season 1-2 before rattling off seven straight wins in the WCAL.

Hillsdale (9-1, 6-1) was vying for its first title since finishing in a tie atop the WCAL with Chippewa in 2011, but coach Trevor Cline’s team still looks poised to make another deep playoff run. The Falcons were the 2024 state runner-up in Div. VII.

The WCAL will send four teams to the playoffs: Norwayne (Div. V, Region 18, No. 4 seed), Hillsdale (Div. VII, Region 27, No. 1), Smithville (8-2, Div. VI, Region 21, No. 5) and Dalton (7-3, Div. VI, Region 21, No. 6).

Give Norwayne coach Adam Indorf and his team a lot of credit for not letting negativity creep in after losing to Triway (36-14) and Garaway (36-35) in weeks two and three.

Norwayne held Hillsdale’s high-flying offense to just 73 yards passing.

Smithville will try to win its first home playoff game since 2002, with the exception of the 2020 season, when every team made the playoffs.

The Smithies’ Mason Haines became the program’s all-time career rushing leader in last week’s 38-0 win over Chippewa, eclipsing Chandler Keener. Haines will enter the playoffs with 3,857 rushing yards.

Fifth-year Smithville coach Phil Olsen’s team is the first at the school to win eight games in a season since 2011.

Triway won a hard-fought 27-21 rivalry game at Orrville to win the outright Principals Athletic Conference title. The Titans (9-1, 5-1) lost their PAC opener to Northwest 32-29 but became an even tighter group after that to win six straight.

The Titans are firing on all cylinders entering the playoffs, with the ability to mix the run and pass and play physical on both sides of the football.

Triway, Manchester (7-3), Orrville (6-4), Northwest (6-4) and Canton South (5-5) give the PAC five of its seven teams in the playoffs. With Tuslaw and Fairless finishing 4-6, they didn’t miss by much.

It was a down year for the OCC, which will have only two playoff teams after Lexington (9-1) and Ashland (9-1) advanced. The Minutemen, whose only loss was to unbeaten Shelby (37-13 in week two), won a 43-35 thriller over Ashland in week 10.

No other OCC team had a winning record, with West Holmes and New Philadelphia both finishing 5-5, followed by Madison (3-7), Mansfield Senior (1-9) and Wooster (0-10).

Canton South won a 56-48 shootout over West Holmes in week 10 to qualify for the playoffs and end the Knights’ season.

Playoff schedule

Twelve teams in each region qualified for the playoffs, down from 16. The top four seeds in each region earned first-round byes. Seeds five through eight will host seeds nine through 12 in round one.

Earning first-round byes and the right to host in week 12 from the PAC and WCAL were Triway, Norwayne and Hillsdale. They will be off Oct. 31 and host games Nov. 7.

Triway will host the Fredericktown (8-2) vs. Fairview Park (8-2) winner, Norwayne will host the Delta (6-4) vs. Liberty Benton (10-0) winner and Hillsdale will host the Bishop Rosecrans (6-4) vs. Conotton Valley (7-3) winner.

The Titans and Falcons both have excellent draws to potentially win multiple games in the playoffs. The Bobcats received a brutal draw, with unbeaten Liberty Benton outscoring opponents by an average margin of 48-5.

First-round matchups on Friday are No. 9 Orrville (6-4) at No. 8 Clear Fork (6-4), No. 12 Cuyahoga Heights (7-2) at No. 5 Smithville (8-2) and No. 11 Columbiana (7-3) at No. 6 Dalton (7-3).

Parting shots

Waynedale has dropped Triway as a future opponent, and the Titans picked up Wooster as a week three opponent. The Titans will host the Generals in 2026, and the neighboring schools will play in Wooster in 2027.

Wooster and Triway haven’t played in football since they had a series from 1972-86. The Generals held a 12-3 edge back then. The Generals (0-10) were in Div. II this year while the Titans are in Div. V.

—The World Series game three played Oct. 27 was one of the greatest contests in baseball history.

The Dodgers beat the Blue Jays 6-5 in 18 innings on Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run. The game lasted six hours and 39 minutes and ended at 11:50 Pacific Time (2:50 a.m. Eastern Standard Time). I was one of the crazy baseball fans in Ohio who actually watched the last five innings. I’d fallen asleep in my recliner but decided to check the score before going to bed. After learning the game had gone to extra innings, I sat transfixed. I definitely paid for it the next day.

However, I’m glad I got to see a game for the ages. Shohei Ohtani might be the greatest player ever. He tied an all-time MLB record by reaching base safely nine times (4-4, 2 2B, 2 HR, five walks). Afterward, he told a reporter he badly wanted to go home and go to sleep to be ready to pitch in game four.

—When Ohio legalized gambling, I wrote a Bargain Hunter column in January 2023 stating it would be a “losing proposition for bettors and athletes.”

Several readers emailed me and said things like “Don’t be such a wimp,” “Chill out” or “I like to gamble. People just need to be smart about it.”

After the Guardians’ Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were kicked off the team for allegedly conspiring with gamblers this summer and NBA players and coaches were busted this week, gambling is continuing to be a major problem.

And who knows how much trouble “Ordinary Joes” have gotten into, losing more than they can afford.

Who wants to watch games if we think they’re “fixed?”

I fault the leagues and media for selling a gazillion dollars in ads to gambling sites. TV and radio guys even talk on air about what prop bets people should make. And, of course, criminals are contacting players to put the “fix” in. It’s ridiculous.

What’s the answer to the problem? Betting isn’t going away, but I think the pro leagues and media need to greatly reduce the amount of ads for it.

Aaron Dorksen can be emailed at aarondorksen24@gmail.com.