COLUMBUS – No change.

Wednesday, October 25, 2000

COLUMBUS – No change. The Ironton Fighting Tigers remained eighth in this week’s Associated Press high school football poll.

Ironton’s position in the Division IV poll showed the Fighting Tigers with 104 points. Akron Manchester is seventh with 130 and Youngstown Ursuline had 145, good for seventh place.

The Fighting Tigrs (7-1) have a chance to move up in the poll’s final week with a win over Columbus DeSales Friday.

DeSales (7-2) is also ranked eighth, but the Stallions are in Division II, the second largest school-size division.

Sandusky Perkins appears headed for its first poll title after beating Oak Harbor last week. Oak Harbor posed the only challenge on the Pirates schedule.

Germantown Valley View is second with 292 with Coshocton third, Licking Valley fourth, and Coldwater fifth.

Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph is ninth and Wellington cracked the poll at No. 10.

Utica, a possible playoff foe for Ironton, is ranked 14th.

Portsmouth remains No. 1 in Division III and Portsmouth Notre Dame is still fourth in Division VI.

Delphos St. John’s is one win away from its fourth straight Division VI title in the Ohio Associated Press high school football poll and tying the state record for consecutive victories.

To win their 54th straight game, the Blue Jays will have to go on the road Friday and defeat one of the state’s better Division IV teams in Coldwater, which is 8-1 and ranked fifth in the division. Versailles set the record of 54 consecutive victories from 1993 to 1997.

St. John’s led its division of the statewide poll of sports writers and broadcasters for the seventh straight week, as did defending state playoff champions Cleveland St. Ignatius in Division I and Sandusky Perkins in Division IV.

Also holding onto their leads in the poll, which counts only regular-season games, were Youngstown Chaney in Division II, Portsmouth in Division III and Liberty Center in Division V. The top three teams in all six division were unchanged from last week.

The smallest gap between first and second was in Division IV, where Perkins held a 29-point margin over Germantown Valley View.

Moving into ninth place in Division III was Millersburg West Holmes, while five teams who weren’t in the top 10 last week moved into 10th place in their divisions. They were Marion Harding (Division I), Toledo Rogers (Division II), New Richmond (Division III), Wellington (Division IV) and Hemlock Miller (Division IV).

Moving out of the top 10 were Canton GlenOak (Division I), Amherst (Division II), Jackson and Columbus Watterson (Division III), Louisville Aquinas (Division IV) and Amanda-Clearcreek (Division V).