United giving EOAC foes a break
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HANOVERTON -- The United football team is going to watch someone else in the Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference win this weekend.
It looks like the Golden Eagles are going to be off this week after not finding anyone to play them in a date vacated when Leetonia left the league.
“It’s kind of nice to get a bye week, I guess, but I want to play football,” United senior linebacker M’Kyan Haynes said. “I want to play someone.”
United school officials were negotiating with pair of Division VI teams that are also off -- the Hannibal River Pilots (5-0) and the Madison-Plains Golden Eagles (4-1) -- but could not come to an agreement to travel to United on Friday.
United athletic director and head football coach D.J. Ogilvie said United offered teams half the gate, to pay for their meals on the way to the game and to feed the team after the game.
“We were hoping we’d get a game,” Ogilvie said. “It’s been that way since November. At this point in the season, if something’s open, everybody knows about it.”
A game against Hannibal River would have been intriguing. The Pilots have outscored their foes a combined 195-48, including a 49-14 win over Oak Glen (W.Va.) on Sept. 4.
The Division II Youngstown Defenders (1-4) have an open date this weekend, but United wasn’t interested in pursuing that.
The Eagles are getting three extra days off because of the open week -- this past Saturday, Wednesday and this coming Saturday.
“We’re going to focus on getting better,” United senior quarterback Tom Brown said. “I just wish we had a game, but that’s all right. It gives us an opportunity to get better on something we need to work on.”
Not that the 4-1 Eagles have had too much to work on. They are coming off EOAC wins over Columbiana (56-7) and Lisbon (55-7).
United has won 20 straight EOAC games, scoring an average of 44.0 points a game during that span.
They will continue their bid for a fourth straight league title at East Palestine on Oct. 2.
Ogilvie said when he coached in Florida, there was always a bye week and he liked it.
“We took a day off,” he said. “We lifted a little more. Shortened practice a little bit, try to get their legs back a little bit. The biggest thing is maybe a kid is injured or is banged up a little bit, it’s a nice week to heal up on things.”