Ironton, Westfall face off in second round of playoffs

Published 12:00 am Monday, November 14, 2005

Round two will have a familiar look.

The Ironton Fighting Tigers second game in the Division IV Region 15 postseason football playoffs will be against a team they played in the first round last season in a stadium that was the site of an early season loss.

Ironton (9-2) plays the Westfall Mustangs (9-2) at 7 p.m. Saturday at Jackson High School's Holzer Field.

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The Fighting Tigers beat Westfall 41-21 in the first round last season at Tanks Memorial Stadium.

Earlier this season, Ironton lost 17-7 at Jackson, the first time Ironton coach Bob Lutz had ever lost at Jackson.

Jackson's stadium has field turf. The loss at Jackson was the third on field turf - the two others were at Ohio University. However, Ironton snapped the jinx late in the season with a 33-21 win at Belfry, Ky.

&#8220Where you play isn't that big of a deal. Usually, that's more about convenience for the fans. The main thing is to be playing,” Lutz said.

&#8220You can't worry about what kind of surface. You don't like to play in

the mud, so (field turf) kind of eliminates that problem. I'm more concerned with how well we play. It has to be better than our last game.”

Ironton beat Rock Hill 28-14 in the quarterfinal game last Saturday, but the Fighting Tigers were fumbled five times and lost three of them.

Westfall advanced with a 21-17 win over West Muskingum.