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Tri-Village freshman Lyla Brewer was the WOAC Golfer of the Year and the only golfer to advance from the league to advance to the District Tournament. (Dale Barger photo)

DAYTON - None of the WOAC girls’ golf teams would advance out of OHSAA DII Sectional Tournament and just one golfer advanced to the district round, Lyla Brewer of Tri-Village.

Ansonia, Arcanum, Franklin Monroe, Mississinawa Valley, National Trail and Tri-Village all met up in the OHSAA DII Sectional Tournament at Stillwater Valley Golf Club.  20 teams competing in the sectional double the number in the Cincinnati sectional and a 1/3 more teams than the Xenia sectional.

Each sectional tournament takes the top four teams and top four individual golfers to go to the district tournament.

The Tri-Village golf team who won the Western Ohio Athletic Conference this year was the highest placer for WOAC schools finishing in 6th place just 5 strokes behind Versailles. The Tigers earned 4th and last team qualifying spot to advance to the district.

Arcanum was 8th, National Trail 14th, Mississinawa Valley 16^th and Franklin Monroe was 19th.

Tri-Village freshman Lyla Brewer who was the WOAC "Golfer of the Year" was the only individual golfer advancing to the district tournament.  She had the 3rd best overall score not on a qualifying team shooting a 90.

The OHSAA District Golf Tournament was held at Pipestone Golf Club with the top two teams and top two individuals not on a qualifying team to advance to the state tournament.

Lyla Brewer the shot a 91 and did not qualify to move on as she concluded her outstanding freshman season. She along with her teammates will all return next year with higher aspirations after getting a year under their belt playing together.


Tri-Village girls golf team won the WOAC in 2025 & returns the entire team next year.
(Dale Barger photo)
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The National Trail Boys Golf Team earned their second consecutive trip to the OHSAA DIII Boys State Championship Tournament. (Dale Barger photo)

The National Trail Boys Golf Team won the OHSAA DIII Sectional at Turtle Creek last week followed that up with a second-place finish in the district tournament at Pipestone Golf Club and is headed to the state finals for the second year in a row.

National Trail’s Senior Kellen Laird was runner-up medalist firing a round of 75.  Josh Brubaker tied for fourth place with a 79, Christian Rutan had an 85, Wyatt Gebhart 87 and Sawyer Davies 89 for a team total of 326, seven strokes behind first place Botkins.

National Trail's senior Kellen Laird would fire off a 75 and finished as medalist runner-up in the District Golf Tournament. (Dale Barger photo)

Only two teams qualify to go onto state, and the two lowest individual scorers not on a team that advanced qualify as well. There were no other WOAC teams or individuals in the DIII district event to move on.

Other WOAC teams who advanced from Turtle Creek sectional to the district was Newton and Twin Valley South.

Newton was led by Will Bowser 81 and Rhett Koffer 85 and Twin Valley South top two golfers were Blake Mowell 93 and Parker Howard a 94 in district play.

Mississinawa Valley, Tri-County North and Tri-Village didn’t qualify as a team but did advance from sectional tournament to play in the district.

Kohen Burns from Tri-Village shot an 87, Jaxin Beanblossom for Mississinawa had a 90 and Brayden Bacher had a 93 for Tri-County North.

The Arcanum boys golf team didn't advance out of sectional play ... but Luke Stephens qualified as an individual for the OHSAA DII District Golf Tournament. Stephens shot a 75 tying him for the 4th best score overall and he would win a dramatic playoff hole to advance to State.

Luke will play October 6-7 at the NCR Country Club South Course in the OHSAA Boys DII State Championship.

National Trail will play October 13-14 at NorthStar Golf Club in the OHSAA Boys DIII State Championship, the same course they played at last year.

Good Luck to Luke and National Trail at state.

Arcanum's Luke Stephens eyes a putt that he would make to win a playoff to qualify for the DII Boys Golf State Tournament. (Dale Barger photo)
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Arcanum's offensive line opened up some big holes for their running backs and drew praise from Coach Matt Macy on their plays in win over National Trail. (Dale Barger photo)

ARCANUM – Big plays by Arcanum in the 1st half helps propel them to a 41-6 win over National Trail in WOAC play. 

Arcanum and National Trail traded possessions to start the game.  After Trail moved to midfield Arcanum stiffened forcing and took over at the 18-yard line.

 MJ Macy on the first play of their second possession busted through the line and split two defensive backs and was off to the races going 82 yards for the games first score.

National Trail although a bit stunned was able to collect themselves and methodically began moving the ball mixing in a few passes and tough runs. 

Arcanum's Ross Wagner stripped the football to stop a good drive by the Blazers. The ball was recovered by Paxton Besecker. (Dale Barger photo)

The Blazers appeared to be on their way to answering the bell when quarterback Aidan Martin got to the outside turning up field along the sideline … but  sophomore defensive back Ross Wagner came from behind to strip the ball from Martin that was recovered by freshman Paxton Besecker to stop the drive.

On the very next play lightning struck again as Macy popped through the guard and tackle on the right side and high tailed it to the endzone again, this time going 65 yards to go on top 14-0 with 2:38 left in the 1st quarter.

“We kind of ran into a buzz saw last week, and we weren't quite ready, but we kind of refocused, Trail is a good team, and it took everything we had to stop them on the first two drives,” Arcanum football coach Matt Macy said.

We were fortunate to get some big plays said Macy whose line was still a bit banged up from their physical game with Preble Shawnee last week, who handed the Trojans their only loss this season.

“We kind of figured out the puzzle and ran the ball well, obviously, things were clicking on offense. We didn't get many reps on offense, but those explosive plays were kind of neat,” Macy smiled.

“Marcus Rayburn, our right guard was checking plays on which way he wanted to run it, and we ran behind him, I know that's kind of odd, but I thought it worked out pretty well tonight. He did a great job calling the directions of the plays he wanted,” Macy praised.

Getting stops in football is big … but when your offense can make big plays that takes a lot of starch out of an opponent.  National Trail showed toughness responding with another nice drive.  A couple of completed passes to Jonah Brinkley, a few good runs by Martin and Bousman got the Blazers in the red zone.

National Trail's Jonah Brinkley ran this one in from 6-yards for TD but it turned out to be the only score in the game for the Blazers. (Dale Barger photo)

A pass to Henry Roberts in the endzone that looked like a TD was called out … but Martin hit Roberts on the next play moving them to the 6-yard line.  Brinkley would then take it in for a TD on the next play.  The extra point was no good and the score was 14-6.

Arcanum’s next drive got them into Blazer territory and facing a big 4^th and 1 at the 45 they would go for it.  Bishop Cartwright tried to follow the massive push upfront by the bigs and then somehow bounced outside unnoticed and he went 45-yard up the sidelines for the TD and with the extra point from freshman Joey Marshall they made the score 21-6.

National Trail went on the move again their next possession trying to stay within striking distance and found themselves in the red zone with time ticking down in the half.

A near miss on a throw from Martin to Roberts in the back of the endzone was just out of his reach as the Trojans stopping them from scoring.

“They got down to the five, but we did a great job stopping them,” Macy commented.

“Man, they’ve got a ton of talent, and they are hard to deal with, they do some really good things,” Macy added.

National Trail moved the ball on their first drive of the 2nd half, but the drive was thwarted when freshman defensive back Raysean Miles intercepted a pass inside the twenty and returned it to near midfield. 

MJ Macy then bolted 52-yards for his 3rd TD of the game.  In all he rushed for 260-yards on 16 carries.

National Trail saw the #13 often as they chased MJ Macy all night.  He ran for 3 TD's of 82, 65 and 52 yards. (Dale Barger photo)

From there out the Blazers just weren’t able to overcome their penalties and the big plays of the Trojans in the game. 

Arcanum added two more TD’s from sophomore Hudson Knaus of 55 and  four yards to complete the scoring for a 41-6 win for the Trojans.

“I think our offensive line was awesome tonight and without our best offensive lineman who was out. We had Colton pole a junior fill at left tackle, it's a hard position to play and he seamlessly came in and was great filling in,” Macy complimented.

“I'm pretty real proud of our O-line coming together after a hard week because we had Freeman out and Marcus Rayburn who was out a lot of the week played with an injury tonight,” Macy explained.

Arcanum senior lineman Marcus Rayburn gets pancake block to spring MJ Macy for a TD. (Dale Barger photo)

“I’m really  happy with the way the boys bounced back today from start to finish we played a great ball game,” Macy concluded.

Arcanum improved to 5-1, 4-1 and they will host Twin Valley South this Friday. 

National Trail fell to 1-5,1-4 and they will host Tri-County North in a game that will be host by T-Mobile with lots of things going on.  As you may know National Trail has been selected as a top 25 Finalist for the Friday Night 5G Lights $1 Million facility upgrade!  They are the only school in Ohio to make the top 25 and needs support and voting from WOAC Schools

Hudson Knaus gets dragged down from behind.  He scored two TD's in the game on runs of 55 and four-yards. (Dale Barger photo)
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Preble Shawnee boys win first ever league championship in soccer.  (Barger Photo)

CAMDEN – Preble Shawnee Boys by way of their 7-0 win over Twin Valley South clinched the 2025 Western Ohio Athletic Conference Boys Soccer Championship.

It would be the first boys soccer league title in school history and broke a three-year championship run by Dixie.

The Arrows challenged the Greyhounds back in 2023 but lost the title game at home 2-1. This year Shawnee won their first head-to-head with Dixie 2-1 and then tied them in their second match-up.

The win over Twin Valley South gives Preble Shawnee a 6-0-1 record with Dixie in 2^nd place at 3-1-2. The Greyhounds have two conference games remaining, even with wins in those games it would not be enough to overtake the Arrows who have one conference game remaining with Franklin Monroe.

Preble Shawnee got off to a quick start scoring three goals in the first three minutes of the game.

Senior Ethan Fields (#25) squeezed the ball in just past the corner post and the goalie to score in a 7-0 win over Twin Valley South. (Barger photo)

Senior Ethan Fields went one on one with the goalie for the first score less than a minute into the game.   He followed that up with a second goal at 38:22 in the game. 

The scoring continued with Trent Geise banging one in outside of the box with less than three minutes off the clock.

Twin Valley South and senior goalkeeper Luke Cross played tough for the next 35 minutes holding the Arrows at bay.  Cross made several good saves in the game, but Shawnee scored one more time on a penalty kick off a line drive boot from Colton Schroeder to give Shawnee a 4-0 lead at the half.

Fields would set-up sophomore Kyle Bruno to start the second half with a nice assist and Bruno delivered for his first career goal and his reaction was priceless as he gave Fields a big hug after.


Senior Trent Geise splits defenders and gets one past the goalie.  He had two goals on the night.  Geise is 3rd in the league in assist with 6.  

Trent Geise would score at the 28:10 mark on a penalty kick going mono e mono with the keeper and his kick whizzed past Cross’s outstretched diving hands to make the score 6-0.

Fields probably scored the easiest goal in his career with the goalie running to try and meet the ball, Fields won the foot race, then collected himself with time to set up the kick as a South defender sprinted then dove to try and get between him and the goal but unable to stop the kick that hit the back of the net to complete the scoring in the game at 7-0.


TV South Sr. goalie Luke Cross was the busiest man on the field taking arrows all night. He came up big stopping this one & leads the league with 103 saves. (Barger Photo)

Preble Shawnee’s Jason Lucy now in his 10th year as coach with Preble Shawnee boys soccer, was happy for his team and soccer program finally winning a league championship.

“This conference title means a lot to this team, I’ve got eight seniors, and I’ve been preaching to them, this is your year, it’s what you guys want to make out of it,”  Lucy stated.

“We’ve had the talent in the past … but maybe didn’t have as good a supporting cast and this year we have a great supporting cast, plus it doesn't hurt having Ethan Fields,” Lucy commented.

“He is the best player in the league, an Ethan Fields doesn't come around very often, and he’s proved it, scoring in every game except two non-conference games where we were shut out,” Lucy added.

Fields broke the school record for goals in a career back on September 2^nd with 51 and since then has added 14 more bangers to up his career total to 65. 

Impressive enough on its own merits, Fields easily could have been greedy a few times, but instead he shared the ball as evidenced by his 3 assist in the game including one special one to Kyle Bruno.

Kyle Bruno was ecstatic to get a start in the game and happy after scoring his first career goal, gives a hug to Ethan Fields who gave him an assist on the play. (Barger Photo) 

“Kyle's a sophomore and doesn't get a whole lot of playing time I looked at him today and he was so excited, so I told him, you're starting today.  He was like seriously and I said yeah, so to see that exchange between him and Ethan was pretty neat,” Lucy smiled.

“Ethan is a special player, I think his first year he had 29 goals, and like 13 assists that year, so yeah, he's going to take shots when he needs to, but if he's under pressure he’ll lay off or get others involved,” Lucy praised.

While the Arrows have been blessed with Fields offensively they also can look to their defense as well.  Sophomore Andrew Ungers and Senior Alex Schatzle are 3rd and 4th in the league with saves in the goal.  Schatzle has 40 saves and has filled in nicely for an injured Unger who has 62.  Unger also is 2nd in league with three shutouts and Schatzle is 3rd with two.

Another senior defender is Colton Schroeder and he anchors the team’s middle on defense acting as an enforcer.

“I think Colton grows another an inch every time we interact.  He’s like 6’3 and 200 pounds, fast with a rocket on both feet, and can use either foot sending it 50 yards,” Lucy complimented.

“It’s tough for an offense or an attacker to see a guy that big up there and thinking what I'm going to do?  Not only that, but he also has the skill to play up front,” Lucy added.

Colton is also the kicker for the Arrows football team and he has made a field goal from 34 yards and is 30-for-32 on extra point attempts this season.

Senior Colton Schroeder has been a beast on defense and with his leg he can kick 50 yards off either foot. (Barger Photo)

While the Arrows can celebrate a WOAC Championship they would also like to build off their momentum going into the post season.  Their overall record is 6-5-2 with losses to Franklin 2-1 and to Valley View and Brookville, both games were tied at zero at the half … but Shawnee was unable to put anything together in the 2nd half.

“We tied Carlisle, 5-5 so hopefully playing the bigger schools helps, I'm looking at the remaining schedule, and tell the kids, we got to win out to finish with 10 wins.  It would be nice to have double digit wins and hopefully use that as momentum going into the post season," Coach Lucy concluded.


Coach Jason Lucy instructs his team and after 10 years he got to celebrate with them the first boys soccer league championship. (Barger Photo)
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National Trail High School has been named one of 25 finalist schools nationwide to receive a $25,000 prize through T-Mobile’s Friday Night 5G Lights Program.
 
Congratulations to National Trail High School in New Paris, Ohio who has been named one of 25 finalist schools nationwide to receive a $25,000 prize through T-Mobile’s Friday Night 5G Lights program, a nationwide competition celebrating the power of high school football to bring communities together. This $25,000 grant can help the school make any needed upgrades to their equipment or facilities, and they are the only finalist from Ohio. The school also earned a $5,000 “5K Friday” award earlier in the season.

What this means
National Trail joins a group of high schools nationwide recognized for school spirit, creativity, and community support.  The school will be recognized at a special Friday night celebration featuring games, giveaways, and free concessions for attendees – all hosted by T-Mobile.

• EVENT DATE: October 3 Home Football Game
• LOCATION: 6940 Oxford Gettysburg Rd., New Paris

What’s next
National Trail is now one step closer to the grand prize, which along with a $1 million field upgrade, will receive a renovated weight room from Gronk Fitness, a consultation with stadium experience experts, an all-expenses-paid trip to the SEC Championship Game for 16 school representatives and a tailgate party revealing the finalized upgrades in 2026.

2,100 schools entered the contest – making this a true standout win. Community voting determines which school wins the grand prize – it is open today through Oct. 24 – and supporters can vote once per day during that time period. The more daily votes, the higher the chance of winning the grand prize, which will be announced on October 30. This is the voting page specific to National Trail High School: Vote for National Trail

Below is the National Press release and Contest Information.  Please show your support for National Trail High School and follow the contest link to vote

• Press Release: https://www.t-mobile.com/news/un-carrier/game-on-t-mobile-unveils-top-25-high-schools-in-friday-night-5g-lights-competition
• Contest Info: www.FridayNight5GLights.com
  
  B-Roll

National Trail’s Football team gets ready to take field before a game. The Blazers are a finalist for an opportunity to win a 1 Million Dollar Field Renovation.  (Dale Barger Photo)
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