Austin Hannah, Contributor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LUCASVILLE — Maybe it was the halftime speech. Maybe it was pride. Maybe it was the feeling of its playoff hopes hanging in the balance.
Whatever it was, it resonated with West.
Despite trailing at halftime, the Senators kicked things into high gear and outscored Valley 32-6 in the second half on Friday to secure a 44-20 victory over the Indians.
“We talked about our early season schedule and how we weren’t necessarily where we wanted to be after four weeks,” West coach Todd Gilliand said. “But the main thing was that all of our goals were still in front of us when it came to winning a league title, getting into the playoffs and making a run. It’s a one week at a time process, and it’s great to get this win.”
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
It didn’t take long for sparks to fly, not even 15 seconds actually, as Braden Adkins took the opening kickoff to the house, finding a seam before sprinting 99 yards for the touchdown, quickly putting West (4-3, 3-0 SOC III) in front at 6-0.
Valley (5-2, 2-2 SOC III), however, didn’t hesitate to get points of its own.
Needing just two plays on the team’s first drive, Anthony Aaron took a handoff and gashed the defense for a 61-yard touchdown run, putting the Indians ahead 7-6.
When the Senators’ offense took the field for the first time, they took a slower approach and engineered a grueling 12-play drive that ended in a nine-yard touchdown run from Anthony Bishop to make it 12-7 after the first quarter.
Defense took center stage in the second.
Both teams managed stops in big situations, but the Indians forced a turnover on downs and they took advantage of a short field when Braxten Conaway found the end zone on a five-yard run, putting his team ahead 14-12 at halftime.
“Momentum was definitely up and down for us, and we made a lot of mistakes in the first half,” West’s Brody Hall said. “We went into halftime and talked about the issues we had and made the adjustments needed to correct those things.”
It was a different story for both teams in the second half.
After forcing Valley to punt, West leaned on Bishop on its opening drive before Bo Wroten finally capped it off with a one-yard rush, making it 18-14.
The Senators never trailed again.
Valley was held to a quick three-and-out and West went right back to work. Brody Hall loaded up and fired a deep pass to Adkins, a 52-yard touchdown strike, to stretch the Senators’ lead to 24-14 heading into the final quarter.
“We’re a much more explosive offense now compared to in years past where its been more of a ground-and-pound type of team,” Hall said. “This year, we’ve gotten the passing game working a lot more, and that’s opened things up the whole offense. It also helps that we have Anthony [Bishop] in the backfield making huge plays as well.”
After forcing another turnover on downs, Bishop moved the sticks on an important 4th & 1 play call by going 38 yards on the ground for his second rushing touchdown, extending the lead to 31-14.
Valley provided an answer when Conaway found pay dirt on an eight-yard rush, cutting the deficit to 31-20, but the night belonged to the Senators.
On the first play of the next drive, Hall once again aired it out to Adkins for the pair’s second touchdown connection, this one from 64 yards away, before Bishop delivered the final dagger on the next drive — a 16-yard rush to put the victory on ice.
“Our coaches stress to us that we can’t be too high on our highs and not to be too low on the lows,” Adkins said. “This was a good win, but we have to move on from it. We’ll learn from this game, get back to practice and aim to go 1-0 next week.”
West returns to action on Friday at Northwest, while Valley aims to rebound at home that same evening against Oak Hill.
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