LONDON, Ohio — The best defense left in Division IV, Region 16 spent Friday night proving the label. Second-seeded London shut out third-seeded Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy 14-0 on Friday night, November 13, at London in an OHSAA Division IV, Region 16 semifinal, according to the Mansfield News Journal’s statewide scoreboard. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Week 13 scoreboard and TriState Football’s scoreboard both confirmed the 14-0 final.
London’s identity was never a secret. The Red Raiders entered the semifinal allowing just over seven points per game, with three shutouts already on the season, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer’s semifinal preview. Friday’s blanking of a 10-1 team was their fourth shutout of the fall — and the most valuable, because it came with a regional final berth attached.
The offense behind that defense is just as defined. London is almost exclusively a ground-and-pound team, with nearly 3,000 combined rushing yards and 41 rushing touchdowns entering Friday, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. Fourteen points, on a cold November night, behind that run game and that defense, was exactly the shape of game London wanted.
CHCA arrived as the toughest test on London’s schedule, and its offense had the credentials to stress the wall. Eagles quarterback Nolan Lum was coming off an efficient quarterfinal — 11-of-14 passing for 170 yards and two touchdowns in a 38-20 win over Wilmington, a game in which CHCA also ran for 263 yards, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer’s preview. Against London, that offense never reached the end zone at all.
London reached the semifinal the hard way a week earlier, holding off Valley View 27-13 in a game sealed by a late interception, according to Press Pros Magazine’s game report. The Red Raiders have now won seven straight games since September, and the last two have followed the same script: a physical defense, a patient run game, and a fourth quarter managed on London’s terms.
CHCA’s season ends at 10-2, its only losses coming against the region’s finalist and in the season’s second week, per the Cincinnati Enquirer’s preview account of the Eagles’ run. London improves to 10-2 and is one win from the state semifinals — a stage the program’s defense, allowing a touchdown a week, gives it every reason to believe it can reach.
In Friday’s other Region 16 semifinal, Urbana beat Kenton Ridge 27-20, according to the Mansfield News Journal’s statewide scoreboard. That sets up a regional final between two programs that have not needed shootouts to get here.
What happens next: London (10-2) faces Urbana in the Division IV, Region 16 final on Friday, November 20, at a site the OHSAA announces on Sunday, November 15. The winner advances to the state semifinals on November 27.
Photo: Thomas Cox, CC BY-SA