Tiffin Columbian, Shelby combine for 165 points in OT shootout

October 22, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

Tiffin Columbian’s Cliff Miller ran for 516 yards on just 25 carries in Friday’s game with Shelby. Yet it was a short gain that didn’t even count in the stats that was his biggest carry of the night.

Miller scored on a 2-point conversion run in overtime, giving Tiffin Columbian an 83-82 win over Shelby in a wild Northern Ohio League battle.

Miller powered Columbian to a 75-54 lead by scoring on 65-, 5-, 2-, 74-, 99- 45-, 37- and 61-yard runs, as well as a 70-yard kickoff return. Shelby tied the game, though, with three touchdowns in the final 5:48 of regulation thanks to freshman Brennan Armstrong, who threw for 306 yards and five TDs and ran for 214 yards and four scores.

A 5-yard run by Armstrong and Cody Stine’s PAT kick gave Shelby (2-6) an 82-75 overtime lead. Miller then scored his tenth TD of the night, on an 8-yard run, and ran in the 2-point conversion to win it.

Miller’s nine TDs tied the state record for rushing TDs in a game; his 62 points is tied for third most in Ohio history and is the most by an Ohio player since Howard “Tick” Hamilton scored nine TDs and eight PATs for 62 points against Vandalia Butler on Nov. 10, 1939. Miller’s 10 TDs ranks second all-time behind Erastus “Tunk” Simmons who scored 12 TDs when Medina played Spencer in 1923. Miller’s rushing total was 16 off the state record.

MORE RECORD-SETTERS

Pandora-Gilboa tailback Jacob Basinger rushed for a school record 343 yards on 21 carries and scored seven TDs in the Rockets’ 52-13 win over North Baltimore; Liberty-Benton’s Austin Combs rushed for 149 yards and scored three TDs in a 41-6 win over Arcadia, giving him a school-record 3,413 career rushing yards and breaking the mark held by a guy named Aaron Craft; Canfield South Range’s Joe Alessi ran for 324 yards and four TDs in a 49-20 win over Columbiana, breaking school records for TDs (31) and rushing yards (1,949) in a season; Lisbon Beaver Local’s Robert Johnston broke his school record with 339 yards and three TDs on 31 carries in a 26-17 win over Cambridge; n Friday. He scored on runs of 31, 89 and 66 yards; Minerva’s Dalton Hartshorn ran for 250 yards on 20 carries, including TDs of 60 and 62 yards, in a 35-32 win over Canton South; Oxford Talawanda’s Maurice Thomas, a Miami University commit, carried 38 times for a school-record 339 yards and three TDs in a 34-28 win over Trenton Edgewood; and Luke Ogi ran for a school record 340 yards to go with five scores as Millersburg West Holmes, which is 5-3 after an 0-3 start, to a 49-8 win over Lexington.

FLYING HIGH

Two-time defending state champions and D4 No 1 Clarksville Clinton-Massie defeated Wilmington 49-7 to run its South Central Ohio League winning streak to 43 in a row. The Falcons of Dan McSurley have won 58 of their last 60 SCOL games, including 29 straight at Frank Irelan Field. Clinton-Massie has won 18 straight games overall, with its last loss Sept 27, 2014, at Columbus DeSales, 21-16.

BUSY GUYS

Carey’s Bryan Powers scored on 29-, 9-, 5- and 8-yard runs and caught a go-ahead 51-yard TD pass in a 48-37 win over Bucyrus; and Timmy Timbrook ran for 307 yards and six TDs to lead Sherwood Fairview by Holgate, 48-20.

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

Chillicothe Zane Trace didn’t attempt a pass in its 54-8 win over Chillicothe Huntington, running 28 times for 462 yards; Jeromesville Hillsdale is 7-1with five straight wins, and its first-team defense has only given up no more than one touchdown in six of the seven wins; led by Travis Pickering who has totaled 4,000 rushing yards and 50 TDs over his career, Ashland Mapleton has won six in a row after opening 0-2; unbeaten Loudonville, led by 4,000-yard career rusher QB Kolton Edmondson, has won four straight by at least 48 points; Jake Davis of Gnadenhutten Indian Valley went for 179 yards on 31 carries in a 34-27 loss to Wooster Triway, pushing his career total to 6,432 yards and 10th place on the OHSAA list; in that same game, Triway’s Parker Carmichael passed for 366 yards to move into sixth place on the OHSAA’s unofficial career list with 10,554 passing yards; Zanesville West Muskingum snapped a 29-game losing streak by defeating Buckeye Trail, 26-7; Newcomerstown’s Austin Zufelt completed only five passes in a 48-20 win over Malvern, but all five went for touchdowns; Bellevue’s Alec Foos had 207 all-purpose yards and seven total TDs (5 rushing, 2 receiving) in a 64-23 win vs. Ontario; Sandusky St. Mary scored six TDs on just 17 offensive plays in the first half of a 53-0 win vs. Fostoria St. Wendelin; Dresden Tri-Valley won its 32nd straight Muskingum Valley League game with a 34-0 victory against Thornville Sheridan.

REMEMBERING JACOB

Chillicothe beat Washington Court House 56-0 on a different kind of senior night.

The Cavaliers honored Jacob Wolfe, who died in an accident in 2012 and would have been a senior on this year’s team. Fellow senior Kevin Martin wore Wolfe’s number 62 during the game.