Versailles Claims 5th Title In the 90's    
Story Taken From Active Dayton

                   Versailles 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.

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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