Even though the home opener for football down in the Pit is very far from now I still wanted to take a deeper look into the upcoming season. This past year we went 8-2 for the in the regular season and 2-1 in the playoffs before losing to Lakota West.

This year we will be lead by the seniors that won GCL in their JV season and the upcoming Juniors who were co-champions with Moeller. The Panthers open the 2023 football season with Pickerington North at The Pit on August 18th. Elder has six home games and four road contests this season. Elder will compete against schools from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, & Virginia.

Looking at the roster and records from the teams that are located in Pennsylvania & Virginia, well those two games aren’t looking the most challenging  for the Panthers. Pickerington North will be a hard matchup but with the positive result from last year, I think the Panthers can win this year as well.

La Salle is very hard to judge since this past season they went 2-9, although the Júnior Varsity Panthers lost to them in their final game. St X lost last year 42-10 to Elder but only lost to Moeller by 3. Although St. X will be losing key seniors such as Evan Fleetwood and Joey Wassler.

5. Springboro 

I was very skeptical about putting them here since they played nobody that Elder played but we only won by one point this past season. They are ranked 26th by MaxPreps in Ohio

4. Louisville St. Xavier

This past year we beat them 24-13 in a tough battle on Military Appreciation Night. They lost in overtime in the playoffs which shows that they have guts and can battle. They finished 1st in 6A District 3, and had a 10-2 record. In Kentucky they are ranked second. Although the JV teams didn’t play each other they met back in their freshmen season and they lost 26-30. The upcoming seniors beat them in their JV season 27-6. Taking a deeper look onto their website I saw that they have been lifting three days a week just like our football team and have practice/meetings everyday.

3.Indianapolis Bishop Chatard

Bishop Chatard went 11-4 during the regular season and 6-0 in the playoffs and won the IHSAA 3A State Championship. This past year they lost to Roncalli in conference play by three and we defeated Roncalli by a single point. Last year Elder beat Bishop Chatard 21-16. Chatard will always put up a good fight against the Panthers as they have done in recent years.

2. Lakewood St. Edward

St. Eds is a phenomenal team, they have won the OHSAA Division 1 State Championship the last two

years, but I feel as if Elder could have won last year’s matchup. Elder had the lead in the first quarter 6-0, and at halftime the score was 6-3 Elder, but then let it slipped away in the second half and we lost, 14-17. Coach Ramsey is 7-12 against Eds. I have no doubt that Eds will be fine on defense. Slater and Gregory are both stars. I just don’t see that defense being as physically dominating with those two exceptional talents on the edges graduating. said PDC. The offense will need to fill a few holes , biggest one will be RB. Bell became a big weapon and hammered teams. But with “a returning QB and our big Offensive line plus a few skilled guys we might be dare I say better next year,” said edsfootball10.

1. Moeller 

Moeller is a well rounded team with many members committing to D1 colleges. In recent news, star running back Jordan Marshall ’24 just committed to Michigan. Moeller lost to St. Eds in a bloodbath this year 6-0. When the Panthers took them on down at Nippert Stadium the fan turnout was well over 5,000 people in attendance. Marshall had seven touchdowns that game. As of March 6th Moeller announced coach Bert Bathiany as the new head man. He has 15 years of experience from all levels. This past year he was at Lexington Catholic High School, prior to that he was the defensive coordinator at Tiffin University. Lets hope our veteran coach can out coach the new guy.