Senior Tackle: Cade Stover gets huge win, spends weekend with Buckeyes

Ohio State commitment Cade Stover is set to embark on his final season of high school football and basketball at Lexington (Ohio) High School. Lexington, a small town of just about 4,700 people near Mansfield, is a farm community that’s played an instrumental role in raising Stover, the country’s eighth-ranked outside linebacker. He committed to the Buckeyes in late April this year, picking Ohio State over Penn State, Notre Dame and 20 other schools. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound athlete is on the verge of becoming his school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball, and Cade Stover will share all of the ups and downs of his senior year with Lettermen Row in this weekly journal.

Last Friday, we played in the craziest game of my high school career. Easily the craziest game.

I told you guys last week, but we’d not beaten Ashland in the last decade. It had been ten years, but that all changed last Friday night.

We went into the half trailing 21-7, had multiple three-and-outs and were playing with no rhythm.

Then the third quarter happened, and we came out as a totally different group. We rushed for almost 34o yards as a team in that quarter. The game was tied up with three seconds left and we had the ball at the 3-yard line.

The ball was wet because the conditions were bad, and our center had a low snap, rolling the ball back to our quarterback. He scrambled, sprinting for the end zone — and then he fumbled the ball.

Our 300-pound offensive tackle jumped on the loose ball. His first touchdown ever, of course, and it came in the biggest win our city has had in years.

It felt so good because Ashland’s players were talking all week on Twitter and social media. We kept our mouths shut and just got the job done. The win moved us up in the No. 5 seed.

The one kid that was talking the most trash will probably not talk that much after, though.

This past weekend was great. I spent Saturday at Ohio State, and I brought some of my best friends and we had a great time. We watched the Buckeyes go to 7-0, and they’ve moved up to the No. 2 team in the country. It’s pretty amazing to see how they continue to play, and it gets me more excited to get there again and to be a part of it.

It’s awesome to be a part of this 2019 class, we’ve got a lot of great kids in it and the 2020 class. I’m really excited to keep growing my relationship with the guys in both classes, and I’ve become especially close with Doug Nester, Noah Potter and Paris Johnson. It’s a great feeling to be from Ohio and to know what we’re all getting ready to be a part of the program. We can’t wait to get there and show out for the state of Ohio and Buckeyes fans everywhere.

After getting back from Columbus, it was back to work on Sunday. Thankfully it was dry enough to cut corn. My little sister Abby has to run the grain cart, the wagon that goes in the field and gets the corn from the combine and dumps it into the semis. She’s never driven the cart before, but I think that’s because she likes to act like she doesn’t want to. Secretly, I think she does.

My friend Kyle showed up after a while and relieved her of her duties, but she did a great job. I know it’s not a life everyone understands, but the farm and how we live is cool because my entire family is involved. Abby was in the cart, dad was in the semi, Kyle and I were there. It’s cool. We cut a ton of corn and stored it in the bins.

We ended a long harvest with a homemade spaghetti dinner that my mom made — and homemade apple pie. How would anyone not want that life when they grow up? It’s weekends like the last one that leave no doubt what I want to do with my life.