GNADENHUTTEN — A couple uncharacteristic turnovers and some big plays by its opponent helped to bring Circleville’s turn-around season to an end Friday night in the Division IV playoffs in a 48-14 loss at defending state champion Indian Valley.
The big plays hit early as Indian Valley’s Grady Kinsey broke off a 70-yard TD run and a 47-yard scoring run in the first quarter.
After the Tigers lost a fumble early in the second, the Braves used seven plays to cover 80 yards with a 20-yard scoring pass from Ryker Williams to Colt James wrapping up the drive.
Another lost fumble gave Indian Valley a short field and Kinsey scored from eight yards out four plays after the turnover to put his team up 28-0.
Circleville followed with a 10-play drive that culminated with a nine-yard scoring pass from Hudson Phalin to Lamont Holloway with 1:22 left.
The Tigers got the ball back two plays later after Chase Foster made an interception.
CHS picked up a couple of first downs before the drive stalled out on downs with six seconds left and the half ended with the Braves leading 28-7.
“Those were forced turnovers, so you can tip your hat to it. We weren’t sloppy with the ball,” Circleville coach Jay Sharrett said. “They’re just fast off the ball and it makes us flinch a little bit. And we lost the handle on the ball.
“But I’ll tell you what, this senior class, what they did for this program. And, you know, we’re not really a program yet, but we’re on our way there. We were just a team trying to build a program. But these seniors, they absorbed everything I threw at them, and I couldn’t be prouder, I couldn’t be happier for them. We played 12 games, and we got beat by some pretty good teams. I mean, (Indian Valley) might go on to win the state championship.”
Indian Valley started the second half with the ball and wasted no time expanding its lead. On the third play, Williams connected with Kinsey who went 52 yards for a 35-7 IV lead.
After forcing a three-and-out, the Braves’ first play of the new possession was a pass from Williams to James and this time it covered 48 yards. A failed PAT kick left the score at 41-7 but started the running clock for a lead greater than 30 points.
Circleville went three-and-out again. Indian Valley tried to deliver a knockout punch with a long pass on first down but it was Circleville’s Drake Klinger coming down with the ball.
Circleville put together a 12-play drive that finished off with a one-yard scoring run from Kole Nungester and stopped the running clock early in the fourth quarter.
Another big play from the Braves just two plays later – a 65-yard run from Reese St. Clair – made it a 48-14 to cap the game’s scoring.
Even though the sting of the largest point differential of their four losses is still fresh, Sharrett knows the team has made huge strides in his first season with the Tigers.
“I think when we do our self-scout, when we go back to week one, and we won that game 16 to 15, there was some games in that first four stretch that could have went either way,” Sharrett said, “But those guys kind of believed in what we were doing, and then it went right. But even if we lost a game, we still learned from it.
“One thing I liked about these seniors and this team, they didn’t get bitter, they wanted to get better. And each Monday, we come out there, even after a loss, and say, ‘This is what we’ve got to do or we’re gonna drop this ball game Friday,’ and they tightened down the hatches. We won eight games, went 8-4, 12 weeks — that’s a long season.”
The 12-week season was made possible by a group of 13 seniors who accepted what Coach Sharrett was trying to teach them.
“I don’t really like the phrase buying in because it’s free, you know? So they just absorbed it and ran with it and set the table for the freshmen, sophomores and juniors next season,” Sharrett said. “I can be a little bit much at first, but from the weight room to off season during the summer, all the things that we did, it was probably more football than most of them had ever anticipated doing.
“We probably started seven or eight guys that didn’t play a down last year, but they got in the weight room, we found a couple things they could do, and that’s why we got knocked out here in the second round, and we got a chance to play in the playoffs.”
Among those seniors playing their final game for the Red and Black was Phalin who led the team in rushing with 82 yards on 21 carries and completed 18 passes for 159 yards Friday.
Kline, a fellow senior, caught eight passes for 80 yards.
For the Braves, Kinsey (committed to the US Air Force Academy) finished with 187 yards on 10 carries, two catches for 62 yards and he scored four times. He passed 2,000 rushing yards on the season and is just shy of 8,000 for his career. Kinsey now has 126 touchdowns for his career – seven shy of the state record.
Williams threw for 185 yards completing eight of his 10 attempts. James had three catches for 71 yards.
Indian Valley (10-0) stays home again next week to face Jonathan Alder (10-1).
Indian Valley 48, Circleville 14
By Quarters 1 2 3 4 F
Circleville 0 7 7 0 14
Indian Valley 14 14 14 6 48
First Quarter
IV — Grady Kinsey 70 run (Colt James kick), 9:33.
IV — Grady Kinsey 47 run (Colt James kick), 1:49.
Second Quarter
IV — Colt James 20 pass from Ryker Williams (Colt James kick), 7:56.
IV — Grady Kinsey 8 run (Colt James kick), 4:21.
CV — Lamont Holloway 9 pass from Hudson Phalin (Kaden Paxton kick), 1:22.
Third Quarter
IV — Grady Kinsey 52 pass from Ryker Williams (Colt James kick), 10:19.
IV — Colt James 48 pass from Ryker Williams (Colt James kick), 9:11.
Fourth Quarter
CV — Kole Nungester 1 run (Kaden Paxton kick), 10:47.
IV — Reese St. Clair 65 run (Colt James kick), 9:35.
TEAM STATISTICS
CV IV
First downs 21 13
Rushing yards 50-120 18-255
Passing yards 159 185
Comp.-Att.-Int 18-27-0 8-10-2
Total yards 279 440
Fumbles-Lost 5-2 3-0
Penalties-Yards 3-15 6-62
Punts-Ave 4-26 0-0
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Circleville — Hudson Phalin 21-82, Ray Ezell 7-28, Kole Nungester 1-1, Jack Kline 2-1, Jace Captain 9-1, Braxton Dunkle 1-2. Indian Valley — Ryker Williams 5-(-4), Grady Kinsey 10-187, Reese St. Clair 2-66, Bradley Barr 1-6.
PASSING – Circleville — Hudson Phalin 18-27-0-159. Indian Valley— Ryker Williams 8-10-2-185.
RECEIVING – Circleville — Ray Ezell 3-11, Kole Nungester 2-25, Jack Kline 8-80, Chase Foster 1-(-2), Jace Captain 2-30, Lamont Holloway 1-9, Jacob Reichelderfer 1-6. Indian Valley — Grady Kinsey 2-62, Reese St. Clair 1-27, Sam Sahw 2-25, Colt James 3-71.
