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Ohio high school football: Columbus area OHSAA live scores, updates from Week 3
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- Ohio high school football: Columbus area OHSAA live scores, updates from Week 3
Week 3 of the 2024 Ohio high school football season is here, and we covered rematches of two games that we also covered last year.
Dave Purpura was in Pickerington, where North beat host Central 38-27 in a battle for community bragging rights. North won 39-34 last year .
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Frank DiRenna was in Powell, where Olentangy Liberty stayed unbeaten by routing visiting Gahanna Lincoln 31-0. Gahanna won last season's matchup 46-28 .
We also watched DeSales defeat Africentric 35-14 in a game streamed live on NFHS Network .
Several games started 15 to 30 minutes late because of storms. Here are Week 3 scores from central Ohio .
Week 3 got underway Thursday night with three central Ohio teams – all from the City League – in action. East beat Toledo Scott 32-0, West defeated Millersport 47-12 and South fell to Dayton Belmont 18-17.
Olentangy Liberty's Elliot Rankin celebrates as his team defeats Gahanna Lincoln on Friday.
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OHSAA scores, updates from Week 3 of Ohio high school football season
Olentangy Liberty blows out Gahanna Lincoln
Entering play Friday, 23 central Ohio teams were undefeated. One of them was Liberty, which is now 3-0 for the first time since 2019 after a dominating win over Gahanna.
The Patriots opened the scoring on Grayson Davis' 1-yard touchdown run with 4:10 left in first quarter. Cameron Cole's interception in Gahanna territory helped set up the TD.
Andrew Leonard hit Jake Struck in the back of the end zone for a 20-yard TD and a 14-0 Liberty lead with 10:15 left in the second quarter.
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That was the score at halftime. Gahanna failed to reach midfield in the first half.
Liberty added to its lead when Leonard connected with Struck for a 34-yard TD to make it 21-0 with 7:43 left in third quarter.
The Patriots went ahead 24-0 on Luca Tempesta's 22-yard field with 3:46 left in third.
Antonio's Kish's 1-yard TD run gave Liberty a 31-0 lead with 8:31 remaining in the game.
Liberty lost its first four games last year on the way to a 4-8 finish. In 2019, the Patriots won their first eight games in a 10-2 season.
Pickerington North beats Pickerington Central for community bragging rights
The battle of Pickerington featured a matchup of teams coming off high-scoring performances in Week 2 . Central defeated Huber Heights Wayne 45-40 and North beat Grandville ( Michigan ) 53-51 on a Brandon Fowler 32-yard field goal as time expired .
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After a 30-minute weather delay, North needed only two plays to strike first. On a draw play, Ohio University commit Michael Taylor bolted 43 yards down the center of the field for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 9:39 left in the first.
Central responded with a 13-play drive that included a fourth-and-6 conversion, but the possession stalled inside the 20. Carson Goulet's 35-yard field goal got the Tigers on the board and trimmed their deficit to 7-3 with 3:56 left in the first.
North came back with a long drive of its own, but like Central, the Panthers stalled closer to the end zone. A 58-yard pass from Jarin Mock to Myles Arnold got North to the Central 23, but the Panthers lost 4 yards on ensuing plays and turned the ball over on downs late in the first.
Another lengthy Central drive got the Tigers to the North 30, and Goulet nailed his second field goal of the night – from 46 yards and with plenty of room to spare – to get Central within 7-6 with 9:08 left in the half.
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Central finally capitalized on another long drive when Kaejuan Alexander scored from a yard out with 4:42 left in the half. That gave the Tigers a 13-7 lead.
North responded with another quick scoring drive, capped by Taylor's second touchdown run of the night from 3 yards to make it 14-13 with 2:46 left in the half. Taylor scampered 26 yards on the previous play after a Central encroachment penalty gave North a first down at the 29.
Back and forth they went, as Central answered with its second consecutive touchdown drive. Rocco Williams found a wide-open Jayden Nelson from 57 yards, and the Tigers went back in front 20-14 with 1:47 left in the half. That was the score at halftime.
North started the second half almost as fast as the first. The Panthers drove five plays, powered by runs of 25 and 12 yards from Taylor, and then Preston Bowman caught a pass from Mock on second-and-12 at the Central 25, cut right and then back left and went untouched to the end zone to put the Panthers back ahead 21-20 just 1:59 into the third quarter.
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After forcing a turnover on downs near midfield, Taylor sprinted 52 yards on first down and added runs of 3, 2, 1 and 1 yard in the red zone, the last his third touchdown of the night to put North ahead 28-20 at the 5:31 mark of the third.
North's third-quarter onslaught continued when Mock threw a screen pass to Taylor on third-and-14 at the Panthers 20, and Taylor took it the rest of the way to make it 35-20.
North outgained Central 245-1 in the third quarter and took a 35-20 lead to the fourth.
Brandon Fowler's 19-yard field goal pushed North's lead to three possessions at 38-20 with 8:51 left.
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Central's first second-half touchdown came with 5:59 left when Williams connected with Jayden White from 33 yards out to trim the deficit to 38-27.
Taylor set North's single-game rushing record in the final four minutes by reaching 264 yards, three more than Godwin Igwebuike amassed against St. Charles in 2012.
Africentric quarterback injured in loss to DeSales
Africentric quarterback Joshua Smith left Friday's game with an injury after being brought down with a horse-collar tackle early in the second quarter. At the time, visiting Africentric led 8-7. DeSales forced a turnover on downs and took a 14-8 lead on Kaleb Johnson 's 15-yard TD run with 7:50 left in the first half.
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Johnson's TD followed a highlight-reel play by quarterback R.J. Day, who spun out of a sack and threw a 39-yard completion to Bryce Herrick down the near sideline. Day is the son of Ohio State football coach Ryan Day.
On its next possession, Africentric's punter took the snap at the goal line but decided to run with the ball, failing to get the first down. DeSales quickly scored again, going ahead 21-8 on Jonathan Brown's 13-yard TD run.
Africentric responded with a 39-yard TD pass from Derron Gray Jr. to Caleb Anthony to make it 21-14.
On the next DeSales possession, Anthony intercepted a Day heave with 1:34 left in the first half, but Africentric was forced to punt and the game went to halftime with DeSales ahead by seven.
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The Stallions made it 28-14 on Day's 23-yard TD pass to Dax Middleton with 7:01 to play in the third.
The Nubians started the ensuing possession with a 39-yard completion from Gray to Anthony, but Gray and Anthony fumbled a handoff exchange two plays later and DeSales recovered at its 8-yard line.
DeSales made it 35-14 on Brown's 23-yard TD run with 8:14 to play in the game.
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Central Ohio high school football scores, OHSAA updates Week 3
