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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Beechcroft High School's football season is officially over, cut short due to safety concerns.

The Beechcroft Cougars were supposed to take the field Friday for their final regular season game – and Senior Night -- but that matchup against Northland won't happen.

"It really felt like this was going to be the one we were going to win, so having this game stripped from us really hurt," Beechcroft High School football senior Sherwin Armistead said.

For many players, this was the final chapter of their season, and for seniors, their high school careers. Instead, they're watching it end from the sidelines. 

"Let us play," Beechcroft High School football senior Harlem Walker said. "That's all we want to do. That's all we've been wanting to do. Our whole year has been riding up to this moment, and it's a core memory for us that we just want to experience."

Senior football players said they didn't expect their season to end this way.

"Especially going up against our team rival, this game meant a lot to us," Armistead said. 

The decision comes just days after two juveniles were shot Saturday night near the high school. According to Columbus police, multiple people were seen exiting a black Honda SUV and fired shots at multiple individuals. 

"As a team captain, that hurts a lot because those two players were our key players right there and it's sad to hear that they're the ones that got hit with the bullet," Beechcroft High School football senior Jaymir Radford said.

Police and the Columbus City Schools District have yet to confirm the victim's identities.

"They want to play for those injured boys," parent Janice Cubbage said. "So, I don't agree with the game being canceled. I don't agree with how it's being handled."

The district released a statement regarding the season's cancellation:

"Due to an ongoing concern directly involving the safety of Beechcroft High School football student-athletes, the Beechcroft team’s season will conclude with the last game of play being the week 9 HOME game on October 17, 2025. This means the game between Beechcroft HS v. Northland HS scheduled for October 24, 2025 will not occur, resulting in a forfeit loss for Beechcroft. The safety of Columbus City School’s students is always our first priority, and the Superintendent approved the request of Beechcroft’s Principal and the District’s leadership team."

"Just let us play," Radford said. "It don't have to be at our field. It don't have to be at Northland's field. We could go to like the old Columbus Crew stadium, that has maximum security."

According to players, they feel robbed and were looking forward to continuing their winning streak. 

"We were just really in our groove, and we can't do anything about it," Walker said. "It's like you have it right there in your hands and it's just taken from you."

Beechcroft's principal held a meeting on Wednesday night with players and parents, according to those NBC4 spoke with. They said the principal stood firm on his decision. 

"In the meeting, he said that the boys were targeted, that the shooter asked, ‘Did you play football? Yes or no?’ And that they shot," Cubbage said.

According to the district, the superintendent signed off on the principal's request to end the season early.

"I want the future for all children," Cubbage said. "I'm a mom of two. I want everybody to be safe going forward. So, I told him, 'What is it in the budget for CPD to be here at these games? What is the budget?' I was told is outside of his pay grade, so I don't know if he has reached out to them."

According to the seniors, they were told by the principal that they'd be honored on a different night. In the meantime, Friday's cancelled game will go down as a forfeit loss for Beechcroft.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the Felony Assault Unit at 614-645-4323 or Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614-461-8477 to leave an anonymous tip.

BEXLEY, Ohio (WCMH) - Otterbein University and Capital University continue their historic rivalry on the gridiron Saturday. 

The two schools are connected by more than the city of Columbus. Alum Creek runs from Westerville in the north down through Bexley. 

"The start of the rivalry is lost to the mists of time. We assume that it goes back, though, to the late 1800s, when there would be canoe races down Alum Creek. It might have also been a religious thing. We were United Brethren. They were Lutheran. And so, you know, we can't let that other church beat us," explained Otterbein Archivist Stephen Grinch. "As our sports began to develop in the late 19th, early 20th century, we found ourselves developing a very healthy rivalry with that school down in Bexley," Grinch said.

The rivalry has gone through ebbs and flows with different generations, said Grinch. "The rivalry has taken many different shapes over the years. Sometimes it's as simple as just flying a flag that says 'Screw Cap'. Am I allowed to say that on television?" Grinch joked.

The Otterbein/Capital rivalry pre-dates Ohio State's rivalry with Michigan. The first game played between Otterbein and Capital was a 60-0 win by Otterbein in 1894, though it isn't counted on the official record because football wasn't yet an official varsity sport at Capital. Ohio State didn't play Michigan for the first time until three years later in 1897.

"It's the small school experience. It's one thing to be a part of a big rivalry like the OSU Michigan rivalry. That's a wonderful thing. But it's also kind of impersonal. Whereas here at a smaller school, you bring people together, closer together," Grinch said. "Even though we are rival schools, there's still that bond and camaraderie. It's a lot smaller. It's a lot friendlier. And, I think it's a lot more fun, quite frankly," said Grinch, who has worked at Otterbein for 27 years after he called the school home as a student.

The rivalry has seen plenty of mischief over the years.

"Back in the early 70s, the band director Gary Tirey would have all of the school flags flown by the band at pregame and Capital's would, of course, always be upside down. We once managed to take down their goalpost, I think in the mid 60s. They were caught unfortunately, and they all had to spend a night in jail before our, Dean of Students went down to bail them out," Grinch said.

"They took the goalpost they tore down, and they cut it into rounds, and they painted them. And they sold them to the student body at Otterbein. And that's how they raised the money to pay back the Dean of Students," Grinch explained with a smile.

The President of the university's home was on Otterbein's campus and featured a sunken garden that, to the untrained eye, was hard to spot, especially in the dark.

"They were doing some mischief on the tower's front lawn, and a bunch of our guys saw them and started chasing them. Well, they'd made a beeline for the president's front lawn. President J. Gordon Howard said that he looked out his front window to see what the commotion was, and one by one, he watched as these Capital students run full speed and then, fall. Right into the sunken garden," Grinch said.

The rivalry takes on another chapter Saturday at 1:30 p.m. as Otterbein's football and men's soccer teams travel to Capital while volleyball and women's soccer host Capital.

Capital University Athletic Director Darrell Bailey is working to restore the old rivalry.

"It's been exciting. It's one of those things that we're trying to really reinvigorate. It's the sense of community because we want to evolve it into more than just the game. So currently it's the play, and it's each sport has their own version of this," Bailey said. "So, the next step of that is to add on academics. Then the community is involved, academics is involved as well as sport, because that's the embodiment of what Division three is all about," he said.

The schools battle in each sport for 'The Oar', an homage to the students of the late 1800's who would race canoes down Alum Creek.

"Why change something that's happened well before us? Why not embody it and make it something that both teams can, resemble and understand," Bailey said.

Otterbein holds the Oar, at least until Saturday. But Bailey said he has other expectations for Saturday's game.

"A victory, I expect the young men on the football team to come out with a vengeance, to be ready to play and put it on. To let them know that this is the year of the Capital," Bailey said with a smile.

Otterbein's football team enters the matchup with an 0-6 record while Capital is 2-4. Otterbein's only win in 2024 came in the rivalry game against Capital.

Grinch, who will surely remind his Capital friends of Otterbein's previous win, wanted to make sure everyone collects history while it happens.

"Write down your stories, label your photographs, and don't make scrapbooks," Grinch said.