Derrick Webb, Managing Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
McDERMOTT — When Piketon coach Tyler Gullion walked into halftime on Thursday night, he did so with a three-point lead.
But he knew something needed to change in order for his Redstreaks to keep — or add to — that advantage.
So he turned to his senior quarterback. Luke Gullion took it from there.
Out of the break, Gullion quickly found an open Treven Shanks on an out-route. Shanks broke a tackle, beat a defender and found the end zone from 80 yards out, sparking a scoring avalanche.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
Piketon was off to the races and, despite Northwest’s best effort to keep it close late, rode the momentum to a resounding 42-19 win to open its season.
“It’s what you expect,” Tyler Gullion said. “When it’s crunch time and you need a play, you have to lean on your seniors. That little hitch that [Treven] Shanks took, that was huge. It swung all momentum. But I have to give [Northwest] some credit. They have some skill and their quarterback [Jake Brown] is a really good athlete. But we were able to wear them down and that was the plan. They were tired. They play a lot of guys both ways.”
Early in the first quarter, the Redstreaks (1-0) found the scoreboard first.
A nine-play, 67-yard scoring drive ended with a 23-yard touchdown pass from Gullion to Shanks — a sign of things to come — to make it a 6-0 ballgame.
Northwest (0-1) would answer at the 9:28 mark in the second when Brown found Orion Ellis for a six-yard touchdown toss, putting the Mohawks on top, 7-6.
That edge was short-lived, though, and the next lead change came in an unconventional way.
The Redstreaks’ next drive started on NW’s 42-yard line, where Gullion immediately found Imond Leslie for a 33-yard strike. After an eight-yard completion to Shanks put Piketon near the goal line, Northwest stepped in front of a pass for the game’s first turnover.
However, erroneously, the Mohawks ran into their own end zone and took a knee, resulting in a safety and giving the ‘Streaks an 8-7 advantage.
Northwest quickly made up for the mistake, getting a defensive stop before embarking on a six-play, 56-yard scoring drive that ended with an eight-yard touchdown run via Carson Christian — putting NW back on top at 13-8.
“We gave them the ball a couple of times in great field position,” Gullion said. “But we have to tackle better. We didn’t tackle tonight like we have in the past. It’s a new year and Week 1 is always rugged. It’s always kind of sloppy. But our tackling wasn’t up to par.”
But with less than four minutes to go in the first half, the Redstreaks’ big-play offense struck again.
PHOTOS: Images from Piketon’s win over Northwest
It took just five plays for Gullion and company to go 63 yards, ending with a 48-yard touchdown pass to Gavin Blanton and eventually sending the game into halftime with Piketon leading 16-13.
Out of the break, Gullion found Shanks and the three-point lead had, all of the sudden, ballooned to 10 at 23-13.
“[Northwest] was running some five-man fronts and we hadn’t worked on that. So once we got into halftime and set the kids down, we made adjustments,” Gullion said. “That’s what you can do with older kids. You can sit them down and say, ‘When they give us this look, we can run it this way.’ So once we settled down, we got on the board. Our linemen did a good job and Luke did a good job of running where we needed to. It’s hard to do that during the game.”
With 11:56 to go in the fourth quarter, Northwest found the end zone to cut the deficit to four at 23-19 — a six-yard touchdown run from Brown. But 30 seconds later, Gullion booked a trip to the house from 26 yards away, pushing the lead back to 10 at 29-19.
After Piketon got a defensive stop, Jared Copas delivered the knockout punch with a 64-yard touchdown run to make it 35-19 at the 9:11 mark. The game’s final score came with 2:54 to go when Gullion scored from a couple of yards out, placing the cap on a runaway win.
“We got a little more rhythm in the second half,” Gullion said. “We were grasping at straws in the first half and that’s on me. I didn’t call a very good game in the first two quarters. The kids executed in that second half what we drew up at halftime. I’m proud of them.”
Gullion paced Piketon’s efforts, finishing 12-of-20 through the air for 247 yards and three touchdowns alongside two picks. He also ran for 89 yards on 13 carries and scored twice more.
Shanks caught four passes for 121 yards and two touchdowns while Blanton brought in four receptions for 61 yards and a score.
As for Northwest, Brown was 9-of-18 passing for 84 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed 12 times for 106 yards and a score. Ferguson chipped in as well, totaling 14 rushes for 56 yards.
While the Mohawks attempt to bounce back next Friday with a home date against McClain, the Redstreaks host Wellston — a 26-14 winner over Oak Hill in Week 1.
“You can’t get too high or too low and you can’t, just because you won, think you did everything right,” Gullion said. “You’ve got to look at the film and you have to improve. My dad [Morris] has said for years that the biggest improvement is from Week 1 to Week 2. We have to do that. We have some improvements to make. But it was a great night for football. We just have to keep going.”
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