Tigers bid for playoff win comes up short

Tigers led early, but fell to the Panthers 48-40 in Friday night playoff game at Little Miami

By Chuck Gibson

LOVELAND, OH (October 11, 2020)  – The Loveland Tiger football team probably played their best quarter of football in a 24 point first quarter at Little Miami Friday night, but could not hang on for the win falling 48-40 to the Panthers in first round high school football postseason action.

Senior quarterback Calvin Cloud led the charge throwing for three first quarter touchdowns. Kicker Adam Koscielicki added a field goal to round out the first quarter scoring barrage by Loveland. The Tigers used two successful onside kick recoveries to help get out to the early lead. Cloud found his receivers for two more touchdown completions during the game going 28 of 50 and piling up 396 passing yards and five total touchdown passes for the night. Receiver Ethan Lund caught 11 of those passes for 131 yards in the game. Koscielicki added another field goal in the 2nd quarter making him two for 2 for 2 on the night to go with his 4 for 5 on PAT’s giving him 10 points for the game.

The Loveland offensive explosion amassed 448 total yards and 40 points, but it just wasn’t enough on this night at Little Miami. The Panthers exploded for 519 total yards (245 passing and 274 rushing) and 48 points to claim the 48-40 win and move on to a second playoff game. They’ll meet the LaSalle Lancers next week.

Though the game was a playoff game and labeled a “postseason” game for Loveland, the Tigers season continues next Friday at Milford. The game is the rescheduled matchup from the originally scheduled Friday, September 11, game which was postponed due to a Milford COVID-19 case and concerns for safety of all players and personnel involved. The Milford Eagles lost to Colerain 38-7 in their playoff matchup Friday night.

Loveland now rests at the bottom of the ECC standings in football with a conference record of 0-4 and an overall record of 1-5 with their only win of the season coming against Holmes in Kentucky.

Milford sits in the middle of the ECC pack in fifth place with a conference record of 1-3 and an overall record of 2-4

 Loveland visits Milford Friday, October 16, at 7 p.m.

TIGER TRACKS:

Boys Soccer: The Loveland boys soccer team collected another win Saturday afternoon at Tiger Stadium defeating Winton Woods 1-0. The Tigers lone goal came on a penalty kick conversion by Zach McHenry.

The conference win raised the Tigers ECC record to 6-1-0 (10-2-2 overall) and set them firmly in first place nearly 100 percentage points ahead of second place Turpin (5-1-1 in ECC, 8-2-2 overall) Anderson is third with an ECC record of 6-2-0 and 9-4-2 overall.

Girls Soccer:  The Loveland girls soccer team will host a pair of conference games at Tiger Stadium to wrap up their fall schedule next week. Tuesday, October 13, they will match up with Lebanon High School and then Thursday, October 15, will close out regular season play at home against Anderson. Both matches begin at 7 p.m. The girls remain undefeated for the fall and await sectional tourney draw on Sunday, October 11.

SOCCER POSTSEASON NOTE: The sectional tourney draw takes place today. Matchups and schedule will be announced later. Loveland Beacon will update as soon as information is available

Cross Country: Boys and Girls teams competed in the Kings Duals Meet on Saturday, October 10, in a final tune-up for the ECC Championship Saturday, October 17, at Home of the Brave Park in Symmes Township. This “Tweet” from Loveland Cross Country sums up another cross country success story this fall: “Congratulations 🎉🎊 to our girls team who raced past Lakota West at the Kings Duals.  Now the attention & total focus shifts to the Championship portion of our schedule.  We host the ECC Championships next weekend. The girls finish the regular season at 43-2, 13-0 in the ECC.”

Check http://www.lovelandtigers.org for more about Loveland High School Athletics

 Check http://www.eccsports.com for results, standings, and more.