Chillicothe (1-4) heads to Gallia County Friday to open SEOAL play with Gallia Academy (3-2).

The good news, it’s the second half of the season and a chance to start over for the Cavaliers. It’s been a season filled with injuries and young players gaining experience under Friday Night lights.

Last week at DeSales, Chillicothe had trouble finding consistency in their first handful of series while the Stallions capitalized on the field position the Cavs left for them (DeSales’ 41, 47 & 48 yard line).

The Blue Devils earned a 40-12 victory over Vinton County, behind strength in numbers. Ten different runners were used by Gallia’s Mike Eddy, who said “This has been one of those perfect years, because it hasn’t been about one guy or two guys… if you want to pick a player of the game, we’ve had a different guy every week… it’s been exciting.”

Something Gallia Academy has going for it is experience. Coach Eddy has senior class which he describes as one he’s going to miss after graduation “and behind them, I’ve got a great group of juniors.”

Junior Wade Jarrell returns at quarterback for the Blue Devils. Eddy describes Jarrell as a dual threat. “He’s probably just as good as a running back as he is as a quarterback” Ty Warnamount, Nick Clagg and Cody Russell are among the players making noise for Gallia.

The Blue Devils open with a shootout victory with Athens (52-34), but then dropped two straight to undefeated Licking Heights and Ironton (21-7 and 14-13) before managing back-to-back wins the last two weeks over Marietta (63-13) and last week over Vinton County.

Eddy feels Chillicothe is strong up front “I think their kids are pretty athletic up there… going to have to play a more physical brand of football and be able to hope to be there in the fourth quarter.”

Coverage on WBEX and wbex.com via iheartradio begins at 7:05pm with Dan Ramey and Jim Day.