NEW ALBANY — In a Week 9 score more familiar to baseball fans, New Albany defeated visiting Pickerington North 5-3 on Friday night, Oct. 16, in a game that featured no touchdowns at all.
Every point came the hard way in a defensive duel at New Albany. Pickerington North struck first and carried a 3-2 lead out of the first quarter, and neither offense could dent the scoreboard in the second quarter as the defenses settled in and field position became the whole game.
New Albany finally moved in front 5-3 by the beginning of the fourth quarter, and that slim margin held the rest of the way. The fourth quarter was scoreless as well, closing out one of the lowest-scoring games anywhere in Ohio this season — eight combined points, and not a single trip to the end zone by either team.
The result leaves both teams in identical positions heading into the final week of the regular season. New Albany and Pickerington North are each 7-2 overall and 3-1 in the Ohio Capital Conference’s Ohio Division, level in league play with one game left before the playoffs.
For New Albany, the win was a statement of a different kind than the shootouts that usually decide the OCC-Ohio. The Eagles protected home field in a game where a single mistake — a turnover, a short field, a missed assignment — would have flipped the outcome, and their defense answered every Pickerington North possession after the Panthers’ early field goal.
Pickerington North, meanwhile, will rue a night on which its own defense was nearly perfect. Holding a 7-2 opponent to five points on the road is the kind of performance that usually wins, but the Panthers’ offense never found the one drive it needed, and the early 3-2 lead slowly turned into a two-point defeat.
Both teams close the regular season next Friday in Week 10, after which the OHSAA playoff brackets will be set. Whatever happens then, Friday’s 5-3 final in New Albany has already secured its place as one of the most unusual box scores of the 2026 Ohio high school football season.