Northwestern vaults to top of CBC stats after opening win

Northwestern made a grand Central Buckeye Conference statement in last week’s high school football season-opening 49-7 win at Southeastern. The Warriors vaulted to the No. 1 positions in three CBC individual statistical categories.

Northwestern senior quarterback Chris Hart completed 12 of 21 passes for a CBC best 254 yards and four touchdown passes. Senior running back Eli Berner put 185 yards rushing on the Trojans in just nine carries, another CBC best. Defensively, sophomore Joe Emory had a conference-best two sacks.

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And there’s more. Sophomore Ben VanNoord’s 113 yards receiving on four catches is just three yards shy of CBC leader Ben Whitten, a senior from Benjamin Logan.

Northwestern (1-0) is at Northeastern (0-1) of the Ohio Heritage Conference on Friday. The Jets opened with a 20-13 setback at Worthington Christian. Last season Northwestern mounted a 15-point lead and held on to edge Northeastern, 21-18.

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• Springfield (1-0) was one of only nine – there’s 20 - Greater Western Ohio Conference teams to post a Week 1 win, defeating visiting Lancaster 20-14. Springfield also won 55-21 at Lancaster to open the 2017 season.

On Friday Springfield faces a mighty challenge at Fairfield (1-0). The Indians mauled GWOC National East defending champ Centerville 49-21 last week and appear to have a shot at challenging perennial power Cincinnati Colerain for a Greater Miami Conference title.

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Springfield regularly plays GMC teams, but this is the first meeting with Fairfield since the North/South merger.

• Tecumseh (1-0) will host its second straight GWOC opponent in Butler (0-1) before heading on the road for four straight games at Bellbrook, Northwestern, Urbana and Shawnee. The back half of the Arrows’ schedule is more home friending, with three of its final four games at Spitzer Stadium

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The Arrows’ 31-0 Week 1 defeat of Fairborn is its lone regular-season game against another Division II, Region 8 team. They’ll play D-III and D-VI schools the rest of the way. Butler took out Tecumseh 42-0 last season.

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• It didn’t take long for Mechanicsburg (1-0) and Greeneview (1-0) to separate themselves from Ohio Heritage Conference contenders. Mechanicsburg blitzed host Kenton Ridge 54-14 and Greeneview won at Cross County Conference member Arcanum, 49-27.

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Both these OHC powers should remain unbeaten heading into a Week 4 showdown at Jamestown. Greeneview hosts Waynesville (1-0) on Friday and Riverside (0-1) visits Mechanicsburg.

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• Email game information as soon as possible to sports@coxohio.com.

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