GREENE COUNTY — If you bet someone that Xenia hasn’t lost a Football Friday game yet this season, you’d be right.
That’s because Xenia hasn’t played a game on Friday this season. The Buccaneers will play their second consecutive Thursday night game Aug. 31 when they travel north to take on the Troy Trojans.
Game time is set for 7 p.m.
Last Thursday, Xenia fell at home in the Backyard Battle to neighboring Greater Western Ohio Conference foe Beavercreek, 35-6.
The Buccaneers couldn’t seem to get their offense untracked, and they were held to 91 yards in total offense.
Xenia’s defense played well, with seven players recording double-digit tackling numbers. Hasan Akinyele and Antonio Olvera lead the GWOC in tackles with 18 each, and Roman Johnson is right behind them with 17, and defensive back Jelani Tucker snared a pair of Beavers passes returning one for a score.
The GWOC stat book has Beavercreek in possession of the ball for 47 minutes and 57 seconds, with Xenia having it on offense for 2 seconds. That may not be true, but for Xenia’s defense it probably felt like it.
Xenia finished second in the GWOC American South, behind state runner-up Trotwood-Madison, a year ago.
Troy lost last week to perennial playoff powerhouse Trotwood-Madison, 48-0. Even still, quarterback Sam Coleman managed to gain 80 yards through the air on 5-of-20 passing. Matt McGillivary and Derek McDonagh caught two passes each, with McGillivary breaking one for a 46-yard gain and 61 yards in all.
Last season, Troy won the Greater Western Ohio Conference’s American North division with an undefeated 5-0 mark in the North, and they were 10-2 overall. They defeated Anderson, 41-35 in the opening round of the Division I high school football playoffs, before falling to Miamisburg, 28-21, in the second round. Both of Troy’s losses last season were to Miamisburg.
The last time Xenia and Troy met in a football game, the Buccaneers won in Troy in 2015 by a score of 45-42. In that game, then-quarterback Danny Naylor competed 26 of 37 passes for 371 yards, with touchdown passes to Ray James (34 yards) and Rocky James (6 and 37 yards).
