Preview: Talawanda football returns home for final regular season game against Blanchester

After four straight games on the road – the last two of which were against conference opponents for the final time before a move to the Southwestern Buckeye League – the Talawanda High School football team returns home for one last regular season game.

The 7-2 Brave will take on the 5-4 Blanchester High School Wildcats at Wilhelm Athletic Complex to try to better their odds in regard to playoff seeding.

Last time out, Talawanda dominated the Mount Healthy High School Fighting Owls, 41-6.

Compared to the previous week when they lost to Harrison High School, the offensive output was rooted in the passing game, with sophomore quarterback Jake Van Gorden tossing 15 pass attempts and completing 10 for 184 yards and four touchdowns. It was a performance that Head Coach Andy Stuckert called “probably (Van Gorden’s) best performance.” 

Van Gorden’s longest pass was a 65-yarder to senior wide receiver Camar Ellis, who finished the game with 102 yards on three receptions and one touchdown. 

Senior tight end Joey Beckett hauled in the most catches and touchdowns of anyone donning red, blue and white. He finished the game with five receptions, 79 yards and three touchdowns. Sophomore running back Brody Abney and senior quarterback-turned-utility player Oliver Bennett had seven carries for 6 yards and a touchdown. 

Talawanda’s defense also continued the trend of stifling the opponent’s offense, with senior defensive back Carter Jordon nabbing an interception and senior free safety Kemper McAfee recovering a fumble. 

Mount Healthy only scored a passing touchdown in the second quarter but missed the point after. 

“I thought we played one of our better games as far as offense, defense and special teams all playing complimentary (football),” Head Coach Andy Stuckert said. “That’s what we’ve been waiting on all year because we’ve walked away from some of the games feeling like we played really well on defense but not always on offense.”

The victory against Mount Healthy was the first time since a 42-0 home win on Sept. 18 against Dayton Carroll in which the Talawanda offense posted 40 or more points. That game was also the last time the Brave played a home game. 

Now, the focus is on the final game of the season against Blanchester: a team that kept the Brave on their toes last season almost exactly a year ago and needs a win to make the postseason.

On Oct. 23, 2025, Talawanda came away with a 44-36 win on the road against the Wildcats. 

The leading offensive playmakers were Van Gorden from the pocket, who tossed 11 completions on 16 attempts for 144 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. And, as was a common theme last season, senior running back Lance Cantrell dominated the backfield with 160 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 17 carries, good for a per-carry average of 9.4 yards. 

For Blanchester this season, their leading player statistically has been in the pass game. Senior wide receiver Cooper Reynolds has tallied 37 receptions and 991 yards, good for 110.1 yards per game, through the team’s nine games of the season, placing him eighth across Ohio in total receiving yards. 

The next closest player in the Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference (SBAAC) is junior Deon Brown of Western Brown High School, who is 178 yards behind him for second place in the conference.

Reynolds has been the main target for senior quarterback Brayden Behyemer, who averages almost 170 yards per game. He sits at 1,355 yards, fourth-best in the SBAAC, on 72 completions with 16 touchdowns and a completion percentage of 58.5%. 

For reference, Talawanda’s Van Gorden enters the matchup with 1,524 yards (50th-best across Ohio) and 14 touchdowns on a 67.7% completion rate. 

On the defensive side, Wildcats junior middle linebacker Cory Kidd sits second in the conference in tackles with 97. And Behyemer, when he’s not under center, leads the team (and is tied for the SBAAC lead) in interceptions as a safety with four. 

With all of those factors in mind, the most important part of the game for Talawanda against Blanchester is honoring the senior class. 

The Brave have 25 seniors who are not guaranteed another game at home due to potential playoff setups, so making sure they’re given a moment in the spotlight is of the utmost importance to the Talawanda coaching staff, parents, students and fans. 

“It’s a bittersweet moment because I know they’re leaving, and they’ve done so much to get our program to where we want it to be,” Stuckert said. “Hopefully we’ve given them some tools that they can take with them, but at the end of the day, it’s going to be sad to walk in the locker room and not hear the characters that we have in that room. We’re going to miss that next year.”

The Brave and Wildcats will begin action in the final game of the regular season at 7 p.m. ET on Oct. 23 at Talawanda High School.