LUCASVILLE — It started simply as a possible good-old fashioned western shootout.
But Braden Adkins, Anthony Bishop, Brody Hall and the West Senator defense dominated the second half.
That’s because the Senators scored 32 of the game’s 38 second-half points, as they pulled away from and vanquished the Valley Indians with a 44-20 Southern Ohio Conference Division II victory last Friday night on The Reservation at Valley High School.
The Senators spoiled Valley’s Homecoming Night, extended their win streak over the Indians to six, and remained undefeated with Wheelersburg for the frontrunning spot in the SOC II.
West won its third consecutive contest to raise its records to 4-3 and 3-0, while the Indians (5-2, 2-2 SOC II) fell for just the second time this season in seven tries —with their other loss being against Wheelersburg 52-7 in blowout fashion.
In that defeat, the Indians fell behind big time early — to the tune of the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s running-clock rule for the entire second half.
Against West, that runaway occurred late —as the Senators outscored the Indians 20-6 in the fourth quarter, with the 44-20 lead being the winners’ largest.
In fact, West converted just two of its seven extra-point attempts — as head coach Todd Gilliland was quick to point out in his postgame media interview.
The Senators missed two extra-point kicks, had another kick blocked, and failed to finish on two two-point conversion tries a full 13 minutes and 10 seconds apart.
Otherwise, they could have scored say 50 points —and the running-clock rule could have kicked in for the final 3:45.
Regardless, it was a well-played Senator second half for the win.
“We’re really pleased with the way our guys played. In the first half, we were making some mistakes defensively with our fits. But once our defense got comfortable, I thought they started playing pretty well,” said Gilliland. “The biggest thing defensively was pushing our DBs (defensive backs) up a little tighter to make plays. They (Indians) weren’t really taking deep shots. They were running those 10-yards and out, five yards and out routes, just going down the field and getting good down and distances. It wasn’t really anything big, it was more of us making the adjustment doing the right thing defensively. By doing that, it played a major role in the second half. It shut down their run game and forced them into maybe not being real comfortable on the offensive side of the ball.”
In short, what Gilliland meant was bottling up Valley senior running back Anthony Aaron, who had 101 first-half yards on 15 first-half carries.
His 61-yard touchdown sprint gashed the Senators on the second play from scrimmage, gave Valley a brief 7-6 lead, and offset West’s shotgun start —as Adkins opened the game by returning the opening kickoff 99 yards to the house.
In the second half, the Indians amounted just three first downs on their touchdown drive, while punting twice on their opening two possessions following three-and-outs.
Sandwiched around the scoring drive, which was an eight-play and 65-yard march that consumed three minutes and three seconds off the third-quarter clock and ended with Braxten Conaway’s quarterback keeper for eight yards, Valley turned the ball over on downs following four plays.
Trailing 44-20 and with 2:45 remaining, Adkins intercepted the Indians’ Hunter Cunningham for a second time — the first coming on the 17th play of a five-first down first-half drive, in which the Indians marched all the way to the West 2-yard-line.
Adkins’ end zone interception ended the long-driving Indian series, which spanned the final six minutes and 39 seconds of the first quarter —and the opening minute and 50 seconds of the second.
As for Aaron, he had just seven yards on eight carries in the final 24 minutes —giving him 108 yards on 23 totes for the entire game.
Conaway carried six second-half times for 58 yards, as he notched nine attempts for 82 yards and two TDs —the first coming on a five-yard run to cap a four-play and 32-yard drive and a minute and 42 seconds possession that started with a Senators turnover on downs.
Valley led 14-12 at that point, with half the second quarter gone by, before they didn’t score again until the Senators scored 19 unanswered.
The Senators stymied the Indians to 74 second-half yards, as Valley finished with 294 total.
Cunningham completed 12-of-18 passes for 98 yards to four separate Indians, while Conaway was 0-of-4 passing.
According to Valley fourth-year head coach Nolan Crabtree, his Indians lost the war in the crucial trenches.
“In my opinion, on both sides of the ball, we got beat up front. That’s just where it’s at,” he said. “We didn’t do well enough on the offensive side to create holes and spaces for Anthony. Just didn’t play well up front on either side. Defensively, we started having to go some cover-0 and pressure guys in the box because we weren’t doing our jobs stopping the run. They were able to get over the top of us. They just beat us in every aspect of the game, because basically we didn’t play good assignment football and didn’t do our jobs. They blocked better and were more physical on both sides of the ball. It’s a pretty simple game when it comes to that.”
Adkins indeed made it look easy for the Senators, as his all-around game was a highlight reel for the ages.
Besides returning the opening kickoff and intercepting Cunningham twice, Adkins made four receptions for 143 yards —two of which he caught for touchdowns on an identical play down the middle of the field.
Getting behind the Indians secondary, West senior QB Hall hit him over the top twice.
The first touchdown toss went for 52 yards with 3:33 left in the third to make it 24-14, while the second covered 64 yards with 7:36 remaining to make it 37-20.
It arguably had to be Adkins’ best game of his Senator career.
“Braden has been playing well for us all year. He’s done a great job offensively and defensively,” said Gilliland. “He did make the big plays for us tonight. That was a great way to get the game started with that kickoff return. Then he is a really good route-runner. We were able to run some playaction, get their safeties coming downhill where we having some success running the ball and go over top with it. Brody did a nice job of hitting Braden in stride and allowing him to just run and not having to wait on the ball. Once Braden catches it, he does a nice job of running at such an angle that it’s really hard to catch him. He did a good job of finishing off those throws and those plays. Really proud of the way Braden played.”
Crabtree offered his explanation on defending the Senator run, which opened up the passing attack.
“We had no safety help there because we committed extra guys to stop the run,” he said. “You’ve got to make tackles and play your assignments, and we didn’t do a good job of that.”
Hall completed 6-of-11 passes for 155 yards, with Gunnar Shonkwiler making the other two receptions for a dozen.
Not to be outdone was the junior running back Bishop, who racked up 145 rushing yards and a hat trick of touchdowns on 25 carries.
The Senators secured six first downs on their scoring drive for the 12-7 lead, as Bishop’s 10-yard run capped off a 12-play and 72-yard series which devoured 4:35 off the first-quarter clock.
With West leading 18-14, and following a four first-down and 11-play and 63-yard drive which ate up 4:36, Bishop dashed 38 yards for his second score.
Finally, Bishop checkmated the Indians with a 16-yard run —as West went just 23 yards in four plays in 2:49, following Valley’s second second-half turnover on downs.
West ran for 185 yards on 38 attempts, as Bo Wroten carried six times —including for the one-yard dive which made it 24-14.
The Senators’ surge in the second half was initiated on the final play of the first —when Valley picked up four first downs and moved from its own 21 to the West 25.
That’s when standout senior placekicker Jaylen Bender lined up for a 42-yard field goal attempt, but a low snap blew up the play —and the result was no kick with an eight-yard loss.
A good field goal would have extended the Indians lead to 17-12, and with the football beginning the second half.
It didn’t come to pass, though, and West went into halftime with momentum —and kept it the rest of the way.
“As a coaching staff, we talk about winning that last three or four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half. With the bad snap, stopping that was a momentum changer for us. Their kicker, no doubt, is capable of making that kick from 40 to 45 yards,” said Gilliland. “Then out of the second half we got the three-and-out and then we score to take the lead. That really shifted the momentum and it propelled us for the second half.”
A second half which saw Valley, which hosted Oak Hill for Friday night in another SOC II bout, “not play well in the trenches”.
“I think that’s pretty evident we just did not play well enough up front tonight. That will get you beat,” said Crabtree. “It’s definitely disappointing. You go in with a halftime lead, you feel like you’re going to come out and settle in. Honestly, give Coach (Todd) Gilliland) credit. His kids just fought harder than ours did in the second half. It was a tale of tale halves for sure in terms of our play.”
Same was true for the Senators, which returned to the SOC II trail on Friday night —with a key contest at Northwest (4-3, 2-1 SOC II).
“It’s a momentum booster for us. We knew Valley was a good football team and this was going to be a challenge for us,” said Gilliland. “We knew we had to play really well to win and we did that in the second half. I feel like we’re getting better each week.”
*
West;12;0;12;20;—;44
Valley;7;7;0;6;—;20
W — Braden Adkins, 99-yard kickoff return (kick failed), 11:46, 1st (6-0 W)
V — Anthony Aaron, 61-yard run (Jaylen Bender kick), 11:23, 1st (7-6 V)
W — Anthony Bishop, 10-yard run (pass failed), 6:44, 1st (12-7 W)
V —Braxten Conaway, 5-yard run (Jaylen Bender kick), 6:13, 2nd (14-12 V)
W — Bo Wroten, 1-yard run (run failed), 5:34, 3rd (18-14 W)
W — Braden Adkins, 52-yard pass from Brody Hall (kick failed), 3:33, 3rd (24-14 W)
W —Anthony Bishop, 38-yard run (Cristian Quirasco kick), 10:55, 4th (31-14 W)
V— Braxten Conaway, 8-yard run (kick failed), 7:52, 4th (31-20 W)
W — Braden Adkins, 64-yard pass from Brody Hall (kick blocked), 7:36, 4th (37-20 W)
W —Anthony Bishop, 16-yard run (Eli Blevins kick), 3:45, 4th (44-20 W)
Team Statistics
W V
First Downs;16;16
Scrimmage plays;49;58
Rushes-yards;38-185;36-196
Passing yards;155;98
Total yards;340;294
Cmp-Att-Int.;6-11-0;12-22-2
Fumbles-lost;2-0;2-0
Penalties-yards;7-25;3-21
Punts-Ave.;1-36;3-21
Time of Possession;23:11;24:49
Individual Leaders
RUSHING — West: Anthony Bishop 25-145 3TD, Bo Wroten 6-21 TD, Westyn Ratcliff 3-20, Braden Adkins 2-12, Tilton Rapp 1-2, Brody Hall 1-(-15); Valley: Anthony Aaron 23-108 TD, Braxten Conaway 9-82 2TD, Hunter Cunningham 2-10, Konor Wilson 1-4, Team 1-(-8)
PASSING — West: Brody Hall 6-11-0-155 2TD; Valley: Hunter Cunningham 12-18-2-98, Braxten Conaway 0-4-0-0
RECEIVING— West: Braden Adkins 4-143 2TD, Gunnar Shonkwiler 2-12; Valley: Braxten Conaway 3-39, Lex Logan 4-25, Blake Lundy 2-18, Isaiah Clark 3-16
