by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
ASHVILLE — Teays Valley scored on its first four possessions Friday night on the way to a 34-21 win over Amanda-Clearcreek.
“We wanted to come out and establish the run and we struggled a little bit. So, we had to go to the air and we did a good job there,” TV coach Brian Cross said. “I think we threw the ball pretty well. We mixed a couple of play-action passes in and just got up on them 28-7.”
The Vikings took the opening drive 72 yards in 11 plays with Spike Woods scoring from eight yards out.
They used six plays to go 53 yards on the second possession with Kole Nungester connecting with Jeremiah Fabbro on a four-yard score.
While TV put itself in a bit of hole with a pair of penalties on AC’s next punt, it didn’t really matter.
Nungester put the ball in the air on the first play and found Harrison Payne for a play that covered 71 yards and gave Payne the school record for career touchdown receptions. (It was the 18th of his career.)
“He’s a heck of a receiver. He’s got good speed, he’s got good hands, he runs disciplined routes,” Cross said. “We try to get him the ball as much as we can. Tonight, we tried to run him on some jet sweeps, tried to get him a couple screen passes – anytime we can get him the ball and let him use his athleticism, it’s a bonus for us.”
A bad snap on AC’s next punt attempt gave the Vikings a short field and they needed only three plays to cover 30 yards. The biggest chunk of that was eaten up on an 18-yard pass play from Nungester to Payne that was stopped at the 1. Fabbro went the last yard for the score. Spencer Maxwell’s fourth PAT kick gave the Vikings a 28-0 lead.
With only one first down to this point in the game, the Aces were able to put a drive together. They picked up three first downs in covering 59 yards and a three-yard touchdown pass from Logan Stevens to Peyton Beavers wrapped up the drive with 1:44 on the clock. Drew Dossman’s kick put the score at 28-7 — which is where it stood at halftime.
“They did a lot of disciplined things right,” AC coach Chet Saum said. “And we’re still shooting ourselves in the foot. We had three or four offsides/false start penalties — we had some aggressive plays, but some dumb plays to put us in a hole.”
The second half started with the Aces driving into TV territory only to turn it over on downs.
TV went three-and-out and the Aces grabbed a couple first downs but a bad snap on third down led to another punt.
This time the Vikings put 11 plays together and wrapped up the drive with a 17-yard pass from Nungester to Woods. The PAT kick was partially blocked leaving the score at 34-7.
Woods got the ball back for TV when he intercepted Stevens on AC’s first play. But the ball went back to the Aces two plays later when Stevens intercepted a Nungester pass. His return and a 15-yard penalty gave AC the ball at the 20-yard line.
On third down, Stevens connected with Bodie Martin for a 20-yard touchdown.
AC got the ball back two plays later when Brandt Blosser recovered a Viking fumble.
The Aces wasted no time as Colton Westhoven hauled in a pass on first down — even with the defender’s hand in his face — to cover 31 yards and close the gap to 34-21 with eight minutes remaining.
The Vikings stayed primarily on the ground in moving the ball down the field. They had taken more than four minutes off the clock when they lost another fumble. This time it was Chase Hanna recovering.
While looking for some similar magic from the previous fumble recovery, it was TV’s Cavin McDowell coming down with the first down pass to give the ball back to the Vikings.
This time they picked up a couple of first downs and were able to take a knee at the end to close out the win.
“In the second half, those 15-yard penalties – those are inexcusable, we’re not going to have that – then we turn the ball over, we fumble, we throw an interception, we give them great field position, they take advantage of it and make a game of it,” Cross said. “We were kind of holding on for dear life, but we were still able to control the football, take it down the field and run out the clock.”
The Vikings ended the night with a fairly balanced offense as they rushed for 187 yards and threw for 174. Woods was the workhorse with 23 carries for 71 yards while Nungester had 90 yards on 11 carries. Payne had six catches for 104 yards.
“They’re a dang good football team,” Saum said. “Their quarterback, Kole, he makes a ton of really smart plays. We were in good spots a couple of times, and he just made a really smart play to take us out of them.”
AC finished the night with 149 yards passing but netted negative one yard in the run game.
“As soon as we stop beating ourselves, we can do some things,” Saum said. “That’s what I told the boys at the end is they can hold their heads up because we’re starting to do things right. This is the first time I haven’t walked away with a pit in my stomach.”
Friday was the final meeting between the two schools for the foreseeable future. They first met in 1962 and have played each other 36 times. The Aces had a run of winning 13 of 14 between 1991 and 2004, while the Vikings have won 10 of the last 12 meetings.
Up next
The Vikings (4-3, 3-1) travel to take on MSL co-leader Bloom-Carroll next week. The Bulldogs (6-1, 4-0) are coming off a 35-6 win over previously unbeaten Logan Elm (6-1, 3-1) and haven’t lost a league game since 2019.
“We’re happy that we won, we’re not happy with the way we won. We didn’t play good, crisp football the whole second half so that’s a little frustrating,” Cross said. “We know we have our work cut out for us next week. Bloom-Carroll is a heck of a football team. We’ve seen them on film, and they’ve got some special players. They’ve got good size, they’ve got good toughness.
“We’ll watch the film, put together a game plan and go play them and see what happens.”
The Aces (2-5, 0-4) are headed to Logan Elm for a big rivalry game.
“I think it goes back to the 60s when they changed the school district lines, so we’ve had a hatred for Logan Elm for a long time,” Saum said. “Coach Holbert does a really good job making do with what he’s got, just like we try to do. We’ve seen a little bit of film on them. They do a lot of good things, they’re disciplined and they can score.
“We’ll do what we can to stop them and play the best Amanda football we can.”
This will be the 56th meeting between the two schools as they have played each other in all but three seasons since 1964 with the Aces leading the series 35-18-2.
Teays Valley 34, Amanda-Clearcreek 21
By Quarters 1 2 3 4 F
Am.-Clearcrek 0 7 0 14 21
Teays Valley 14 14 0 6 34
First Quarter
TV — Spike Woods 8 run (Spencer Maxwell kick), 6:09.
TV — Jeremiah Fabbro 14 pass from Kole Nungester (Spencer Maxwell kick), 2:37.
Second Quarter
TV — Harrison Payne 71 pass from Kole Nungester (Spencer Maxwell kick), 11:31.
TV — Jeremiah Fabbro 1 run (Spencer Maxwell kick), 7:54.
AC — Payton Beavers 3 pass from Logan Stevens (Drew Dossman kick), 1:44.
Fourth Quarter
TV — Spike Woods 17 pass from Kole Nungester (kick blocked), 10:27.
AC — Bodie Martin 20 pass from Logan Stevens (Drew Dossman kick), 8:58.
AC — Colton Westhoven 31 pass from Logan Stevens (Drew Dossman kick), 8:00.
TEAM STATISTICS
AC TV
First downs 10 21
Rushing yards 26-(-1) 42-187
Passing yards 149 174
Comp.-Att.-Int 11-20-2 12-19-1
Total yards 148 361
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 2-2
Penalties-Yards 5-52 6-63
Punts-Ave 3-39 1-35
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Amanda-Clearcreek — Logan Stevens 8-0, Landon Covell 9-10, Bodie Martin 7-8, Tanner Affolter 1-4, Drew Dossman 1-(-23). Teays Valley — Spike Woods 23-71, Kole Nungester 11-90, Harrison Payne 3-12, Jeremiah Fabbro 4-4, Lane Schooley 1-10.
PASSING – Amanda-Clearcreek — Logan Stevens 11-20-2-149. Teays Valley — Kole Nungester 12-19-1-174.
RECEIVING – Amanda-Clearcreek — Peyton Beavers 2-14, Bodie Martin 7-8, Colton Westhoven 3-77. Teays Valley — Spike Woods 1-17, Harrison Payne 6-104, Cavin McDowell 2-14, Luke Burgett 1-17, Ethan Schwalbauch 1-14, Jeremiah Fabbro 1-8.
