Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

The Ohio Valley Conference gets underway in full force this week with six of the eight teams starting leaguer play.
Fairland played at Ironton last week to start the conference season. The Fighting Tigers stayed unbeaten at 3-0 win a 49-7 win and visit rival Ashland, Ky., on Friday.
Fairland (2-1, 0-1) will host Southern Ohio Conference foe Waverly on Friday.
The Dragons must contend with junior quarterback Haydn’ Shanks (6-3, 190) and senior running back Payton Shoemaker (5-9, 150) who helped lead the Tigers to a 9-2 record and a Division IV playoff berth.
They key game of the week as the defending league champion Gallipolis Blue Devils hosting the Chesapeake Panthers.
Chesapeake has a lot of speed in the backfield while Gallipolis features James Armstrong as their duel run/pass catching threat.
The Coal Grove Hornets (1-2) travel to play the South Point Pointers (1-2) in a game that matches the running of Austin Stapleton and Austin Stormes against the passing attack of quarterback Alex Lambert to receivers Chance Gunther and Larry Fox.
The Portsmouth Trojans (3-0) got to Rock Hill to play the injury-riddle Redmen.
When Portsmouth hits the field, opposing teams will first and foremost look to try and stop speedy running back Talyn Parker who ran for more than 2,400 yards last season.
Rock Hill (0-3) has lost three of its four backfield starters due to injuries and has had to start a couple of freshman on the offensive line.