Lebanon and Winton Woods, two teams with identical 7-2 overall records and 6-2 marks in the Eastern Cincinnati Conference, meet in the Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown presented by Mercy Health Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine tonight with plenty of implications on the line. Kickoff is 7 p.m. at James VanDeGrift Stadium on the Lebanon Junior High School campus, 160 Miller Road.
The winner will help solidify its position heading into the upcoming OHSAA State Football Tournament - which begins next Friday, October 31. Lebanon is No. 6 in Division I, Region 2 of the Harbin computer ratings. With a win, the Warriors could move up to anywhere between No. 1-4 according to JoeEitel.com, a website that projects where teams will finish in the ratings.
Winton Woods is No, 5 in DI, Region 4. The Warriors could move up to fourth, according to Eitel, with a win and – in the process – earn one of the first-round byes. The top four teams in each region earn a first-round bye, while the teams finishing 5-8 host a first-round game. Both Lebanon and Winton Woods need to win and then see the outcome of other games involving teams vying for the same position.
Winton Woods is coming off a 37-30 loss to unbeaten ECC leader Anderson, a game the Warriors feel they had a chance to win. The team's only other loss is to Kings, 16-14. Anderson can win the league outright with a victory against Loveland tonight, while Kings can claim sole possession of second with a win against Walnut Hills.
The Lebanon-Winton Woods winner will be in third place.
It is Senior Night at Lebanon, with quarterback Luke Faler playing his final regular-season game at home. Faler, son of Warriors' coach Micah Faler, is just 66 yards from becoming the school's all-time passing leader. In the last two games, Faler has completed 48-of-77 passes for 726 yards with nine touchdowns and no interceptions. He has thrown for 1,862 yards, 21 TDs and just one interception this season.
Faler will be tested by a talented Winton woods' defense that is fast and opportunistic. Junior Jayvion McKinney-Cooper leads the ECC with eight sacks. Winton Woods has allowed just one team, Anderson to score more than 16 points and leads the league in fewest points allowed, surrendering just 114 through nine games.
Winton Woods won last year's meeting, 28-14, after Lebanon held a 14-0 lead at halftime and had a chance to make it 21-0 before being stopped at the Warriors' 1-yard line. Winton Woods cut it to 14-7 after three quarters before putting up three TDs in the final quarter to prevail. In that game, Isiah Garrett ran for 174 yards and quarterback Rayshawn Brown threw a pair of TD passes.
STATE SB CHAMPS HONORED: At halftime of tonight's game, Lebanon High School will honor the Warriors' DI state championship softball team from last spring with a special presentation of their state rings. Lebanon finished on a 13-game winning streak, including a 3-1 victory over Centerville in Akron in the state final to earn the program's first state title. Coach Brian Kindell and his team wound up the season with a 28-4 overall record.
