London avenges week two loss, blows out Chillicothe
By: Joe Collins
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LONDON, Ohio (WOUB) — The week two matchup brought a hard fought, close contest that Chillicothe came away with 27-24. Friday night the Red Raiders were out for revenge. This time around, by the third quarter there was already a running clock. London used 390 yards on the ground and touchdowns on their first six drives to dismantle the Cavaliers 42-12.
“I’m very proud of them,” London head coach Kyle Cutler said. “They showed a lot of grit. That’s a very good football team we played. They beat us before, so I’m proud of the result.”
Things were rough for Chillicothe right from the opening kickoff, which they fumbled. Just four plays later, Elijah Mitchell burned them for one of his three touchdowns on the night when he made three sharp cuts and broke away from the secondary for a 25-yard touchdown. That put up London 7-0. This would start a trend of Red Raider ground dominance.
Mitchell and sophomore back Noah Sollars form a speed, strength running back duo, with Mitchell being the lightning aspect and Sowlers emulating thunder. Drive number two for the Red Raiders was also scoring drive number two. The story of the drive was thunder as Sollars carried the rock the majority of the time, but it was wideout Zach Jones who’d get the touchdown on a one-yard run.
Mitchell only got 11 carries on the night but finished with 177 yards and three touchdowns. He shares the same name with a running back for the San Francisco 49ers, and his second touchdown was an NFL type of play. He got a handoff on an end around, got to the sideline, then cut back towards the middle of the field and went sideline to sideline. 74 yards and touched the pile on for the score that made it 21-0. Mitchell added a seven-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that gave him his third of the night. Sollars finished the night with 172 yards on 20 carries to go along with his touchdown.
“They did an awesome job,” Cutler praised of his running backs. “They ran with tremendous effort and attitude. The guys up front were blocking and it was one of those nights were everything was clicking.”
For Chillicothe, they are known for having the number one ranked junior in the state of Ohio. Tight end and LSU commit Tayvion Galloway always manages to stand out and even earned a Gridiron Glory Player of the Year nomination as a junior, something that is very uncommon. However, he was completely shut down by London. He only managed two catches for nine yards the entire game, with his two catches coming in the second quarter and the fourth.
With the win, London moves on to the regional quarterfinals where they’ll go on the road to take on the three seed in region 11, the Bishop Watterson Eagles. As for Chillicothe, they end the season losing three of their last four games after starting 6-1.