Chillicothe’s Cartae Ligon and Huntington’s Frankie Hirsch headline the area’s honorees on the Ohio Prep Sports Media Association’s Southeast District football teams, released Saturday, November 14, according to the Chillicothe Gazette. Ligon was named the Division III Defensive Player of the Year, and Hirsch earned Division VI co-Offensive Player of the Year honors — his second consecutive district player of the year award, the Gazette reported.
Ligon’s two-way season drove Chillicothe to an 8-3 finish, according to the Chillicothe Gazette. The Gazette reported that Ligon led the Cavaliers with 110 tackles, seven tackles for loss, a sack, four interceptions and two forced fumbles, while also amassing 2,359 all-purpose yards and scoring 36 of the team’s 54 touchdowns on offense — a workload that made him the area’s most complete player this fall.
Hirsch’s honor carries a program-history footnote. The Chillicothe Gazette reported that Hirsch led Huntington to its first Scioto Valley Conference title since 1986 and its first-ever home playoff game, completing 99 of 178 passes for 1,462 yards and 21 touchdowns while adding 852 rushing yards and 10 more scores. He is the first player in program history to earn the district player of the year honor twice, according to the Gazette.
Huntington’s success was recognized on the sideline as well. The Chillicothe Gazette reported that head coach Clay Beeler was again named the Division VI District Coach of the Year after guiding the Huntsmen to a 7-4 mark, the program’s most wins in a season since 1999. Hirsch shared the co-Offensive Player of the Year honor with Portsmouth West’s Anthony Bishop and Nelsonville-York’s Cameron Sullivan, according to the Gazette.
Zane Trace earned a major honor of its own. The Chillicothe Gazette reported that Blake Brower was named the Division VI District Lineman of the Year after playing both sides of the ball — helping the Pioneers rush for 2,860 yards as a team while collecting 69 tackles, five and a half tackles for loss, four sacks and six fumble recoveries on defense. Waterford’s Hayden Jones was the division’s Defensive Player of the Year, according to the Gazette.
The first-team lists were deep with area names beyond the headline awards. The Chillicothe Gazette reported first-team selections including Unioto’s Isaac Coy, Levi Beam, Brayden Harsha and Dylin Stanley and Chillicothe’s Garrett Rosenberger and Conner Rutherford in Division III; Waverly’s Gunnar Myers, Hez Nelson and Bryson Spangenberg in Division IV; Piketon’s Malachi Lamerson, Caleb Johnson and Jacob Bryant in Division V; and, in Division VI, Huntington’s Gordon Cyrus, Junior McDonald and Jarred Johnson, Zane Trace’s Brice Johnson and Jake Stauffer, and Southeastern’s Brayden Burns and Landyn Smith.
The district honors are the area’s final word on a season that has now moved fully into the regional-final round of the state playoffs for the surviving teams. For the seniors on these lists whose seasons have ended, the all-district teams are the lasting record of what they did this fall — and for Ligon and Hirsch, the two names at the top of it, that record now includes player of the year honors reported by the Chillicothe Gazette from the association’s release.
Photo: RealNordyNed, CC BY-SA 4.0