Versailles Claims 5th Title In the 90's
Story Taken From Active DaytonVersailles reminded the rest of state it is still the King of Ohio small high
school football Saturday afternoon.The Tigers claimed their fifth state championship in the last eight years by
championship in the last eight years by humiliating Liberty Center, 28-7, for the
humiliating Liberty Center, 28-7, for the Division V title before 7,408 fans at Paul
Brown Tiger Stadium. They'll be welcomed home at 2 p.m. today at the
Versailles High School gym.Liberty Center, the defending state champion, came into the game with
a 13-0 record and a No. 1 ranking in the final state Division V poll.
Versailles was also 13-0, but could get no higher than No. 4 in the final
poll.Most media reports around Ohio had Liberty Center, which hadn't
given up more than two TDs in any game this year, the clear favorite to
win back-to-back titles.Disrespecting the King can have serious physical consequences as
Liberty Center found out. Versailles had played well while winning titles
against Loudonville in 1990 (29-26), Huron in 1993 (16-6), Wellsville
in 1994 (28-7) and Bellaire in 1995 in a wild 50-44 double overtime
win.But no Versailles team has been so well prepared by its veteran
coaching and or so physically dominating in a title game as it was
Saturday, out gaining Liberty Center 409 yards to 158"They just hammered us," said Liberty Center running back Ryan
Zeiter. "Nobody has hit us that hard on both sides of the ball all year. It
was like they had something to prove and weren't going to let anything
get in their way."Versailles' last appearance in the championship game was in 1996. The
Tigers came into that game as three-time defending champions with a
state record 54-game winning streak. Marion Pleasant won that
championship, 26-14. Senior Tim Ange was a starting sophomore
center on that team."It was like all the accomplishments we had that year didn't mean
anything because we didn't win the state title," said Ange. "There's 13
seniors on this team who've wanted to get back here the last two years
to win a championship. We didn't get it done last year, so this year just
made us that much more determined."In the early going it was down and dirty football as both teams ran
inside the tackles to see who was the toughest. "You could tell after the
first couple of series that they weren't used to being hit like we were
hitting them and we were gaining the momentum," said Versailles senior
linebacker John Monnin. "Some of them didn't want any part of a
couple of our guys."After the first quarter it was no contest. Versailles had the ball three
times and scored three times using the same play. Junior quarterback
Jason Shardo threw swing passes to the left flat with T.J. Phlipot taking
one in from 26 yards out, Sean Borchers for 25 and Joe Raterman for
24."We felt they were a little vulnerable on the flanks so we worked on
that a lot this week in practice," said Versailles coach Al Hetrick. "Our
coaches upstairs (in the press box) made good calls in spotting those
plays were open and the execution was perfect."The most telling factor of the game may have been after Versailles
scored, the defense held Liberty Center to three plays and forced them
to punt. "They just put it to us," said Liberty Center coach Rex
Lingruen. "We saw on tape where they dominated teams in games for a
quarter or so. But not for a whole game like they did to us."The final statistics were all Versailles'--262 yards rushing to 59; 147
yards passing to 99 and 22 first downs to 7.Hetrick, who is in his 31st year of coaching, never gets into the game of
comparing one state championship team to another. "They're all special
and it'll never get old, no matter how many we win," he said. "This team
probably had a tougher road to go than the others because they had to
beat the No. 3 (West Jefferson), No. 2 (Marion Pleasant) and No. 1
(Liberty Center) teams in the poll to win it. The seniors on this team
wanted their own championship and they went out and got it.Stats
Offense Versailles L. C. First Downs 22 7 Rushing Att. 50 24 Rushing Yards 262 59 Passing Yards 147 99 Total Yards 409 158 Pass Comp./Att. 9/20 7/14 Int Thrown 0 0 Fumbles/Lost 0 1/0 Penalties 4/30 3/25 Total Plays 70 38 Time Of Poss. 29:28 18:32 Individual Stats
Rushing
Versailles
Players Game: Attempts/Yds Season Attempts/Yds T.J. Phlipot 16/80 Sean Borchers 24/135 Nick Beasley 1/3 Jason Shardo 2/6 Scott Borchers 6/34 Matt Curtis 1/4
Passing
Player Game:Comp./Att./Yds./TD's/Int Season: Comp/Att./Yds./TD's/Int Jason Shardo 9/20/147/3/0
Receiving
Player Game: Catches/Yards Season: Catches/Yards Sean Borchers 3/51 Joe Raterman 4/47 Scott Borchers 1/23 T.J. Phlipot 1/26