By Brad Morris
SportingPumpkin.com
ASHVILLE — When Teays Valley scheduled Bishop Watterson for a Week 3 game last month, coach Mark Weber knew his team could be in for an uphill battle.
“We could’ve scheduled a win this week, but we wanted to schedule a team that would give us a barometer to see where we are going into the final three games of the regular-season,” Weber said.
Watterson, a member of the traditionally strong Central Catholic League, scored on its first four possessions of the game and rolled to a 39-0 non-league win over the host Vikings.
The Eagles (1-2) came into the game after losing 28-22 in overtime to DeSales to open the season and 28-21 last week against Bishop Hartley.
“They were battle tested coming in here against a couple of teams that will probably make deep runs into the playoffs,” Weber said.
Watterson quarterback Jacob Hoying was an efficient 16 of 21 passing for 183 yards and a touchdown, throwing primarily a combination of passes into the flat and slants. Brandon Trout hauled in eight of those passes for 80 yards.
“I felt we were two steps too slow to the edge run last week against Fairfield Union and we were two steps too slow to the pass this week,” Weber said. “Watterson has a nice quarterback and passing game. We saw some things that we’ll continue to work on.”
Cam Nickelson consumed 90 yards on 15 carries for the Eagles and scored four times.
An 18-yard punt return by Tyler Young after the opening possession of the night set the Eagles up on the TV 32-yard line. Facing a second-and-10, Hoying connected with Nickelson on a pass in the flat that he took 32 yards to the house. Jack Henry then completed a two-point conversion pass to Danny Siegel to make it 8-0.
Despite the final, the Vikings (2-1) moved the ball into Watterson territory three times in the first half, including reaching the Watterson 28-yard line on their second possession before turning the ball over on downs.
“We finished with 185 yards of total offense, so it wasn’t like we couldn’t move the football,” Weber said. “We just had a hard time sustaining drives, and we also had a couple of turnovers that led to touchdowns in the second quarter.”
The Eagles then put together an 11-play, 69-yard drive capped by a one-yard touchdown plunge by Nickelson on fourth down to make it 15-0.
Bishop Watterson added touchdown runs of four and 11 yards on a well-executed draw play by Nickelson in the second quarter and took a 32-0 lead into intermission on a 27-yard field goal by Carson Blank to close the half.
The Eagles outgained the Vikings 290-185, with 135 of those yards coming on the ground for the blue-and-gold.
Camden McDanel consumed 54 yards on 16 totes for the Vikings, Landyn Brown had 38 yards on four touches and Tyler Love covered 26 yards on six carries.
Teays Valley resumes Mid-State League Buckeye Division play next week at Hamilton Township (2-1, 2-1).
“We have a pretty young football team, so it’s going to be a teaching and learning environment starting (Saturday) when the kids come in,” Weber said. “Teams are made by how they face adversity and get better on it. We’re going to work hard as a coaching staff to help our kids get better from this and do what our teams have done in the past.”
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