Battle for Broad Street
Updated: Oct 7
By: Gia Killilea
Watkins Memorial and Licking Heights High Schools met for their highly anticipated annual football rivalry game, the Battle for Broad Street. Both teams demonstrated intense energy and enormous school pride.
Licking Heights and Watkins Memorial first met in 1957, 69 years ago. The teams have faced off 45 times over the course of the rivalry. The rivalry paused in 1991 due to the disbandment of the LCL. The rivalry remained inactive until 2006, when they revived the rivalry as a non-league matchup. Since 2006, Watkins Memorial holds an 11-10 record against Licking Heights. The Warriors have held a 5-game winning streak against the Hornets.
This rivalry is not just about this Friday night game. But the competition started earlier in the week. On the Monday evening a week before the game, the Pataskala Rotary Club hosts a joint community spaghetti dinner at The Nutcracker Family Restaurant to prompt this competition. Licking Heights won the eating competition at the spaghetti dinner.
The rivalry extends off the field into a massive community service effort where both school districts compete to see who can collect more canned food items for local food pantries. This competition between the schools is called the “Pack the Pantry” canned food drive. Southwest Licking brought in 28,378 items to win the food drive. But both schools combined brought together a massive 43,625 non-perishable food items.
Watkins Memorial won this year's Battle for Broad Street football game, defeating the Licking Heights Hornets with a final score of 16-14. Licking Heights jumped to an early 14-0 lead in the first quarter, completely catching Watkins off guard. Watkins didn’t panic but relied on Graham Smith and their running game to punch in two tough rushing touchdowns to make the game 14-13 in the Hornets' favor.
After that rough first quarter, the Watkins defense locked things down. They did not allow Heights another point the rest of the game. The game wrapped up in the fourth quarter when the defense made a massive stop. To allow Jax Day to secure the victory with a late field goal, bringing the final score to 16-14.
This game may just seem like any other high school football rivalry. But this game is much more than that. This game brings the community of Pataskala together. From the friendly competition at the spaghetti dinner that happens the Monday before. To the “Pack the Pantry” food drive that brought together 43,625 non-perishable food items. This rivalry unites Pataskala.
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