'08 OH RB Darius Ashley (Louisville signee)

[X Buckeyes07 X]

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Cincinnati (OH) St. Xavier

Ht: 5-foot-9
Wt: 185 lbs
Forty: 4.45 secs
Bench reps: 16
Vertical: 33 inches
Shuttle: 4.12 secs
GPA: 3.0

I understand that this might be moved to the reference locker considering there's no documented interest from OSU yet and some missing attributes, but I figured I'd start this because this kid is going to be a big time prospect. He absolutely dominated last year on the freshmen level last year and now is starting for undefeated and state #1 St. Xavier over a senior who was the All-GCL(Player of the year if I recall correctly?).

Through 7 games, he had 98 attempts for 650 yards and 12 TD's, averaging 6.6 per carry.

St. X has some other very good sophomores that will be playing in college, including 2 starting at linebacker this year and another that starts at WR, kicker, and punter. The linebackers aren't starting because of a lack of depth either, these are big time players.

I can't figure out how to copy and paste links of highlights for some reason, but here's a page you can find a few of Darius' TD runs at:

St. Xavier - System - Error 404

[X Buckeyes07 X]

Bombers blank Lancers
Top-ranked St. X leaves little doubt
By Tom Groeschen
Enquirer staff writer

St. Xavier football players hoisted the King Of The Road trophy skyward late Friday night, leaving little doubt who is the current king of North Bend Road.
Not to mention most other Ohio thoroughfares.
St. Xavier, ranked No. 1 in both the state and Enquirer Division I polls and No. 18 by USA Today, thrashed La Salle 28-0 in a huge Greater Catholic League South game.
A sellout crowd of about 8,000 watched on a chilly night at St. Xavier's Tom Ballaban Field.
La Salle, located a few minutes down North Bend Road from St. X, entered with a No. 3 Enquirer ranking and big momentum after having beaten GCL South teams Elder and Moeller the past two weeks.
"We definitely needed to set the tone early," said St. X senior defensive end Alex Albright, who is committed to Boston College. "They had some momentum coming in, and we had to stop that right away."
St. Xavier took care of La Salle's upset hopes with a dominant showing, with the Bombers' defense causing four turnovers before halftime and six overall.
It was 14-0 by halftime, and La Salle never came close to scoring.

The Bombers held La Salle to 119 total yards, and rode a three-touchdown performance from sophomore running back Darius Ashley to victory. Ashley carried 21 times for 128 yards.
"Darius is special," St. X coach Steve Specht said. "You're a good coach when you have good players like this.

St. X fullback Jimmy Hobson rushed 13 times for 76 yards and a TD.
St. Xavier senior Chris Cionni, a 2004 all-city running back who has been plagued by injuries this year, played only sparingly. Cionni, who broke two bones in his back earlier this season, sprained an ankle last week and saw action on only a few plays.
La Salle's defense played relatively well, holding St. X to 236 total yards. But the rushing stats said a lot, with St. X holding a 217-56 edge on the ground.
La Salle quarterback Tyler Sheehan, who has committed to Bowling Green and is considered the area's top quarterback, completed 9-of-23 passes for 63 yards with four interceptions. Sheehan, playing on an injured hamstring suffered earlier this week, rushed 10 times for 13 yards.
"We wanted to stop Tyler running that option, and we needed to take Michael Reed out of the game," Specht said.
Reed, La Salle's standout wide receiver, wriggled free for six catches and 56 yards. His long gain was 17 yards.
St. Xavier's starting defense has not allowed a touchdown in six of its seven games. It was the Bombers' fourth shutout this year, and St. X has outscored its opponents 203-38.
"There's a reason they're No. 1 in the state," La Salle coach Tom Grippa said. "We lost the game because of those turnovers."
St. X as usual had many defensive standouts. Louis Miller had a sack, two quarterback hurries and 2 ½ tackles for loss; Albright was in on six tackles; Tim Fagel had two interceptions and a fumble recovery; Joe Ries had seven tackles and 1½ tackles for loss; Kyle Meyer had 1½ tackles for loss; Fred Craig forced a fumble and had an interception; Frank Morand had an interception and a pass breakup; Nick Schneider recovered a fumble; and Brad Brookbank broke up a pass.
La Salle (5-2, 2-1 GCL-S) was seeking its first outright Greater Catholic League South championship in the program's 44-year history. The Lancers' only previous GCL football title was 1995, a shared championshipwith Elder.
St. X (7-0, 2-0 GCL-S) clinched at least a share of its second straight GCL South title.
St. X will conclude its own three-game GCL South league schedule until Oct. 28, the final week of the season vs. Moeller. That game will be played at Paul Brown Stadium.

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...425/1074/SPT03

[X Buckeyes07 X]

St. X continues as top team in city
Bombers face La Salle Friday
BY CHRIS YEAGER AND | ANDREW JONES
ST. XAVIER 44, ELDER 10
St. Xavier dominated its opponent last Friday night just as it has done all year en route to a perfect 6-0 record. This time its opponent wasn't just another opponent -- it was GCL South rival Elder -- and the Bombers manhandled the Panthers in a 44-10 victory.
"We don't know how good we are. We just have to keep working on things because we can get better," said Bombers head coach Steve Specht.

"It was probably our best offensive game of the year. Defensively, we played and were fundamentally sound. The defense had great execution and tackled very well," said Specht.
Senior running back Chris Cionni rushed for 34 yards on seven carries with one touchdown. Sophomore running back Darius Ashley added another 90 yards on 18 carries with two touchdowns. But it was senior quarterback Brad Scherer who was responsible for establishing the running game as he rushed for 149 yards on only nine carries. He also threw for 153 yards while completing nine of 13 passes.
For Elder, quarterback Nick Zeiser completed six of 21 passes for 118 yards, and had 30 yards rushing.
Second string quarterback Derrick Ventry came in and completed seven of 12 passes for 122 yards.
The Bombers will need a repeat performance from Scherer and company Friday night at home against a La Salle team coming off victories over Elder and Moeller the previous two weeks.
"They are as good as anybody in the city, and they have a special kid at quarterback who runs and throws well. We have to bring our 'A' game if we want to win," said Specht.
But the Bombers have only played it's 'A' game all year.

http://news.communitypress.com/apps/...381/1093/Local

[Honor&Glory]

Darius is a nice player for being a sophomore and he has great speed...but I do have questions about his size. There is no doubt that he is getting some great coaching at St. X and is about the same size as Colerain's Terrance Sherrer when he was a Sophomore (Minnesota verbal)...I look forward to seeing Darius play in the coming years...he will be fun to watch.

[RB07OSU]

Originally Posted by Honor&Glory

Darius is a nice player for being a sophomore and he has great speed...but I do have questions about his size. There is no doubt that he is getting some great coaching at St. X and is about the same size as Colerain's Terrance Sherrer when he was a Sophomore (Minnesota verbal)...I look forward to seeing Darius play in the coming years...he will be fun to watch.

He still has quite some time to get bigger and 5'10 is tall enough as long as he bulks up some.

[BGriffBuckeye]

Yeah, at 5'10" he is pretty biog for a Soph in HS, imo. He has plenty of time to grow.

[westbuck04]

Height and speed are the two most overrated aspects of a running back. I'll take a guy who's 5'8 but built like a brick **** house, with good feet and vision over the 6'2 thouroughbread who can't find the hole, any day of the week. And as long as a guy can run around 4.6, it's plenty fast enough.

I haven't seen him play, but from what I'm told, Ashley is a STUD! Can't wait to see him develop over the next few years.

[Honor&Glory]

Originally Posted by westbuck04

Height and speed are the two most overrated aspects of a running back. I'll take a guy who's 5'8 but built like a brick **** house, with good feet and vision over the 6'2 thouroughbread who can't find the hole, any day of the week. And as long as a guy can run around 4.6, it's plenty fast enough.

I haven't seen him play, but from what I'm told, Ashley is a STUD! Can't wait to see him develop over the next few years.

He is a stud in the making, no doubt...how many Sophomores have come through St. X that have been able to keep a great RB like Chris Cionne on the bench? Not many...Ashly will be the center piece for the Bombers to make a run at the D1 State Title for the next three years.

[X Buckeyes07 X]

The stats I've seen so far have Darius down for 135 yards on 19 carries with 2 TDs in X's 22-0 victory over St. Ignatius today. I'll edit with a game article as soon as one becomes available.

[X Buckeyes07 X]

http://www.cleveland.com/hsfootball/...170.xml&coll=2

Wildcats drop finale, jeopardizing playoff streak



Sunday, October 23, 2005 Eddie Dwyer

Plain Dealer Reporter
St. Ignatius' chances of an 18th consecutive Division I playoff appearance are out of the Wildcats' hands.
The state's top-ranked St. Xavier Bombers saw to that Saturday afternoon.
St. Xavier, behind another solid performance by its defense and the running of sophomore tailback Darius Ashley, defeated the Wildcats, 22-0, in a nonleague football game at Parma's Byers Field. It was the Cincinnati team's fifth consecutive regular-season victory over St. Ignatius and marked the first time since 1991 that the Wildcats were shut out in a regular-season game.
Villa Angela-St. Joseph defeated the Wildcats, 8-0, in 1991 and Mentor blanked St. Ignatius, 31-0, in the 2003 regional-semifinal playoffs.
With the loss, St. Ignatius drops to 5-4 and will now need help from other teams to keep its postseason streak alive. The Wildcats, who do not have a 10th regular-season game, will await the outcomes of three Friday games - Glenville at John F. Kennedy, Mentor at Euclid and Brunswick at Strongsville. Victories by Glenville, Mentor and Brunswick should give the Wildcats either the sixth, seventh or eighth qualifying spots in Region 1.
"We'll practice [this week] with a positive attitude," said St. Ignatius' coach Chuck Kyle. "And as I will tell those kids in the locker room in a few minutes, the next time we play, the records will be 0-0.
"But if we get in, we get in. And whoever we get, we'll come out and give it all we've got. That's all we can do."
What St. Xavier (9-0) gave Saturday was more than enough as the Bombers got touchdown runs of 27 and 39 yards from Ashley and held a 13-0 lead at halftime. Ashley finished with 136 yards rushing on 19 carries, including 111 yards on 10 first-half carries.
"Backs don't make great runs, great lines do," Ashley said. "Anybody watching the game could see that the holes were huge."
St. Xavier's defense, which has allowed just 45 points this season, limited the Wildcats to 21 yards of offense in the first half, including 1 yard passing. St. Ignatius senior quarterback Rudy Kirbus finished 10-of-22 for 92 yards. He was sacked four times and intercepted three times, with senior cornerback Brad Brookbank coming up with two of the picks.
"We've played two amazing defenses right in a row," said Kyle, referring to St. Edward and St. Xavier. The Wildcats also suffered their third major injury of the season when junior defensive back/wideout Ben Jurevicius injured his shoulder while making a diving, 37-yard reception on the first play of the second half.

[BearBuck27]

You gotta love the quote about his line. Seems like a great team player.

[BuckeyeFromHecK]

i feel underappreciated to not be the first 08 prospect on here..kidding.

[crazybuckfan40]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeFromHecK

i feel underappreciated to not be the first 08 prospect on here..kidding.

All you gotta do is start it up.

[BGriffBuckeye]

Any photos of Darius?

[X Buckeyes07 X]

Originally Posted by BGriffBuckeye

Any photos of Darius?

The two links at the top of the first post are pictures of him.