TVS vs Ansonia part Duo

TVS vs Ansonia part Duo

Ansonia did a good of keeping the South defense off balance with a combination of the run and pass.  They ran a 2 back offense and even the T formation.  Their screen pass was effective as I recall they had a 33 yard touchdown and a 72 yard touchdown on that play.  They also drew South off sides in critical 4th and short situations. South for the most part had a big play offense.  They definitely could generate big chunks of yardage.  The referee's definitely earned their money as the scrambled up and down the field trying to keep up with both teams.

I think the rain delay was an advantage for Ansonia.  Almost the entire first quarter was played on Friday night.  So Saturday they played for a quarter and got a halftime to rest before finishing out the game. South had a numbers advantage - despite losing some players to injury this season,  and were able to rest players.  Ansonia had to play iron man football.  I am guessing that their numbers are in the low 20's.

At halftime South had a 30 to 22 lead, having allowed Ansonia to score just before the break.  In the second half South received.  And several times during the game, South was a team that could not stand prosperity.  And a great example was that kick off return.  It was a great return into Ansonia territory - but a hold put the ball back on the South 16. But Michael Burke, who was playing ill, took a flare pass all the way to Ansonia 8 where Wes Cole scored.

Ansonia scored on a fore mentioned 72 yard screen pass.  And on that kick off Jesse Wysong was able to return the ball all the way to the Tiger 23 yard line. It looked like South was going to extend their lead.  But on the first play from scrimmage, a hold put South back into long yardage.  A swing pass was intercepted and ran back to the 6 where Ansonia scored.  Now instead of a comfortable lead, South only had a 4 point lead - 38-34.

But on South's next drive senior Michael Burke had a 54 yard TD carry to put South back up by two scores 46-34.  Now the game entered the 4th quarter.  Ansonia drove the length of the field and on an incredible 4th down play they scored.  It was 4th and 6 on the 6 yard line.  The quarterback dropped back to pass and  South brought the heat.  As a defender began to drag him down the quarterback threw a fluttering pass.  The receiver came back to the ball and made the catch, dodged a tackle and took it in for the TD.  Again it was a one score game as Ansonia closed the gap to make it 46 to 40.

There was about 7 minutes left in the game when South got the ball.  They were able to chew some time off the clock before giving up the ball on downs - not able to get a first down on a 4th and 9 pass. Ansonia was able to get the ball to midfield before giving up the ball on a 4th and 10 at the 40 with 1:12 on the clock. South took the victory formation and took a knee to run out the clock for their first victory of the season.

Tvs 46 ansonia 40 final

tvs 46. Ans 34 third

When  i left the score was 16 - 8 in favor of South.  Ansonia scored first.  Running wise they seemed to get most of their yards on the edges, no so much in the middle. But passing was where they did the damage, one passing getting them a first down in TVS territory.  And a screen pass would go 33 yards for the first score of the night.

South did not take long to respond.  Dustin McKey returned the ensuing kickoff to the Ansonia 22.  A couple of plays later and Wes Cole knifed thru the Tiger defense to even up the score.  Weather became a factor as Ansona fumbled in the rain and Ashley recovered.  Jesse Wysong set up the next score with a carry deep into Ansonia territory.  Wes Cole scored again and again the conversion was good.  With about 40 seconds left in the quarter the game was put on hold because of lightning.  I bugged out because it seemed pretty steady.  Updates to come once I learn more.

TVS Stumbles

The Twin Valley South volleyball team has had a strong start this season.  Winning their first 3 games of the season.  They did have to go to 4 sets in their match against Carlisle. But were able to win in three sets against Stivers and Bradford.  South has traditionally been strong in volleyball, but last season the bar has set higher with Miami East winning state in Division 3. So this year expect the competition to get tougher as they go deeper into the CCC schedule.

And this year’s team is a younger team than last season with the core of the team being juniors.  There are two sophomores on the roster and a senior.   The team will have to mature in a hurry.  And they have done so for the most part in the early going. Putting up some good numbers in their early victories.  Against Stivers  the team hammered them 25-12,25-8,25-9.  Gentry Gates had a good night with 8 Aces, 4 kills, and 12 assists.  Kaylee Johnson had 7 aces and was 10 of 10 on serve receive.  Paris Gruber had 5 kills. Finally Danielle Kreitzer had 4 aces and 4 digs.

Against Bradford (25-21, 25-11, 25-13), it was another player stepping up for the victory.  Skylar Lain had 7 digs and 10 kills. Paris Gruber had 3 aces, 6 digs, and 6 kills.  Gentry Gates had 11 digs and 11 assists. Taylor Kirkpatrick had 4 digs and 5 assists.  After the game Coach Roberts commented that she was impressed with the way that both Gentry Gates and Taylor Kirkpatrick distributed the ball in this game.

Next up for the Panthers was their second league foe of the season – Arcanum.  And the team stumbled for the first time this season.  The first set was a lackluster 25-14 loss where South never really got on track.  In the second set the team performed better.  But was constantly playing catch up.  Arcanum would go up by 2-3 points, South would tie. Arcanum would go up again, and South would catch up but could never pass Arcanum.  They never could get that big momentum swing to go ahead. Arcanum seemed to be able to get good set ups to spike the ball.  Meanwhile, South was weak on their returns. This set was closer though 25-23 in favor of Arcanum.

In the third match it looked like Arcanum was going to run away with it. But coach Roberts took a time out when South was behind 9-3 to stem the tide.  South battled their way back into game, but couldn’t get any closer than 3 points to Arcanum, finally losing the set and the match. It’s the first setback for the team this season, so now the team will see who the leaders are to get the team back in the win column.

Coach Roberts was asked for comment after the Arcanum game, “We didn’t have any ball control. Our issues piled up early on and just got more dismal. We never did get into sync with what we wanted to do. We had lack of execution and a multitude of errors. We couldn’t get the ball to the outside, which is where you want to get the ball. We have one senior, 2 sophomores, and the core is juniors. So we are not as young as one might think, but we are inexperienced at the varsity level of play.  We need to work on general volleyball skills. Their work effort needs to be there day in and day out at practice.”  

Odds n Ends

This week will be a little hectic.  I plan to cover volleyball on Tuesday as the paper has an early deadline for next week.  I still intend to cover football, probably the TVS - Ansonia game for this Sports Blog on Friday.

Great time to be a sports fan in SW Ohio.  Reds are in first and look to be headed to the division title. Pro football starts next Sunday (will my fantasy team be ready?).  Ohio State has its first win in the Urban Meyer era.

Dixie Dominates Valley View

The Dixie Greyhounds hadn’t defeated the Valley View Spartans in 27 years, but in a single night the drought was ended.   The Spartans had prepared well defensively and were able to rein in Ryan Jordan who had gained over 300 yards the week before.  He was held to a little over 80 yards and a single TD on the night.  But they did not find a way to stop quarterback Luke Bowling who contributed to all but one of the Dixie scores.  And on the defensive side of the ball he had 3 interceptions.  Not bad for a nights work.

He had 4 touchdown passes – 2 to Logan Watts, 1 to Matt Isaacs, 1 to Justin Funkhouser.  Ran for a touchdown on a 20 yard run.  Then had a pick 6, where he sprinted 21 yards for the score.  He would end up with over 80 yards of interception return yardage.  Ryan Jordan scored on a one yard plunge to complete the Dixie scoring. 

The game began with Dixie taking the ball and getting the ball to midfield where the ball was fumbled.  Not a good way to start the night. Valley View scored first, but Dixie promptly answered with a 66 yard TD pass to Watts to even up the score.  On Valley Views next possession, a Matt Isaacs sack put Valley View into long yardage and a Travis Wright interception ended the drive.  So after one quarter, the game was even.

The second quarter was where the game was won by Dixie. They erupted for 25 points.   And the defense smothered every effort by Valley View at a comeback.  Matt Isaacs scored on a nice 7 yard TD pass from play action. Next was a 21 yard TD pass to Logan Watts.  The next TD was set up by a Matt Isaacs carry to the Valley View 20.  Then Bowling dropped back to pass and had to scramble.  He then dodged and weaved 20 yards for the score.  Finally, late in the quarter Bowling intercepted a pass and returned it over 60 yards where he was tackled on the one yard line.  Ryan Jordan finished the job with a 1 yard TD plunge.   Dixie was up 32 to 13 at the half.

In the third quarter, Valley View went back to the running game where they had some success.  But their ground chewing drives were eating precious clock.  As the game entered the last quarter the score was 38-20 in favor of Dixie.  Last season Dixie played with Valley View for the first half, but seemed to run out of gas in the second half.  Partly because a lot of Dixie starters go both ways while Valley View was able to platoon.  This season with a deep bench, Dixie was able to spot substitute for their starters and help keep them fresh.    This paid off in the last quarter as Dixie held Valley View to a single TD and had one more touchdown drive to end the night. 

They used the victory formation and took a knee to end the game and Greyhound fans swarmed onto the field to celebrate the win.  The only blemish’s that I could see on an otherwise great game by the Hounds was the Dixie special teams and Dixie turnovers.  The kickoff team allowed Valley View to get several good returns deep into Dixie territory.  The kicks were generally long by high school standards – there was even one touchback.  But the coverage needs to better so that the other team isn’t getting a short field to work with. 

 Coach Watson was asked for comment after the game, “It was a huge game for us, shutting down their very potent offense.   The defense was stellar - they all tackled well.  Matt Isaacs and Dustin Hutchins, the leaders of the defense did a good job of handling their triple option.  Hunter Overholtz and Saloman Shepard are leaders of the offensive line they protected Luke very well and are by far our best defensive linemen – they did a good job of pressuring the quarterback.”

On next week’s game against NorthEastern, “They are very good at what they do, they have a solid team.  They run the wishbone wing-T with a triple option.  They had a running back gain 260 yards.  So we have to make certain that we are disciplined defensively.  On offense we need to make sure we are doing what we do best.  Our offense needs to be explosive.  That is Ryan Jordan running the ball and Luke Bowling getting the ball to the receivers.   If we can do that, then we will be OK.”

The Dixie season is off to a great start.  But with an emotional victory over the Spartans, combined with their first road game - could there be a let up against NorthEastern?  Dixie was fired up at a fever pitch before the Valley View game.  Will they have enough gas in their tanks for next Friday?