Eastwood-Oak Harbor playoff game canceled due to coronavirus concerns

OAK HARBOR — Saturday's Division V playoff football game between host Eastwood and Oak Harbor has been canceled due to coronavirus concerns, the schools announced Tuesday afternoon. Oak Harbor announced that an outbreak has occurred involving its team members, and that the Rockets would have to cancel. Eastwood will advance to the next round of the postseason. "We had some positive cases and because of that we did some contact tracing," Oak Harbor athletic director Dan Hoover said. "We had one late last week and another one recently, so we had a meeting with our [Ottawa County] health department. "We had some kids that needed to be quarantined, and for the safety of all of our kids, as well as Eastwood's kids, we felt it was prudent to cancel that game. It was the right thing to do." Oak Harbor, which finished 13-1 last season with a loss in the Division V state semifinals to eventual champion Kirtland, was hit hard by graduation and ended this regular season at 3-3 overall. The Rockets hammered Doylestown Chippewa 69-17 in the first round of the D-V playoffs, then advanced to the third round after scheduled second-round opponent Elyria Catholic had to cancel because of a coronavirus outbreak. "We're extremely disappointed about it," Hoover said. "The kids have worked hard all year long, and the coaches have worked hard to get to this point. "The kids deserve to be where they're at [in playoffs]. With our senior leadership those kids have taken the bull by the horn in trying to do the right thing at practices and games to follow the COVID guidelines. "They did a great job with that. But, like we told the kids, 'This isn't an Oak Harbor football thing, because it's just the nature of the virus.' We did nothing wrong. It just happened to fall on some of our kids." Eastwood and Oak Harbor were supposed to play in the postseason for the second straight season. Oak Harbor won last year's playoff matchup. Eastwood's Eagles (6-1) will now have a Region 18 semifinal game on Oct. 31 against the winner of Saturday's third-round game between host Liberty-Benton (7-0) and Richwood North Union (6-2). ___ (c)2020 The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) Visit The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) at www.toledoblade.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.