Dixie 16 brookville 14 halftime

Panther Volleyball Drops 3 matches

The Twin Valley South losing skid carried on this week as the team uncharacteristically dropped 3 games in a row this past week.  The team lost to straight sets to North.   South hung tough in their first set against their rivals to the North – at one point it was 18 all. But after that first set South just couldn’t get any momentum losing  25-20, 25-8, 25-12.

 

Coach Roberts:

“When you can’t control the ball it causes insurmountable problems, I really wish we could have been able to stay with them a little longer in the match, but it just wasn’t in the cards. I knew they  were going to be tough coming in to the match as they have two of the best seniors in Kelly Schriever & Megan Johnson and when they are healthy and in sync their very effective on the volleyball court. I was really impressed with the dynamic duo tonight. If Kelly wasn't setting up Megan then she was making a superb play herself. Megan is becoming one of the most versatile high school players in her division who I have seen in the past decade. Not sure what the future holds for Megan but with the way she varied her shot selection tonight she should enjoy playing at the next level whatever division she prefers, as she is a force to be reckoned with.”

Next match was against National Trail and although South did better and won the second set, Trail then went on to win 26-24, 17-25, 25-19, 25-18.  Commented Coach Roberts, “Although we (TVS) were able to hold our own with NT and be more competitive with them the final result was the same as Tuesday night.Tonight it was our lack of execution when it counted that really hurt us. We had too many hitting errors and that was our demise.”

She went on, “Tiffany Jordan did a nice job for NT tonight from the outside and her teammate Kate Deaton ate us alive at the net defensively. As she probably had a handful of solo blocks out of the middle, Deaton IS A TREMENDOUS BLOCKING PRESENCE [emphasis by Coach Roberts]. Trail controlled the ball much better than in years past and that was the key to their success.”

Life did not get any easier as South next played Brookville.  Again they played close and won a set, but again the team went down to defeat:  25-17, 25-27, 25-13, 25-21. Coach Roberts commented afterwards, “Brookville coach Jim Smith always does a nice job with his teams and this year is no different. Brookville has a dominate outside in Sydney Scherer, she probably had twenty plus kills in our four set match.”

There is no let up in the schedule either, next week South plays Bellbrook, defending league and state champs Miami East and also an always tough Covington team. 

Panthers Pummel Trojans

More pics here

On Friday night’s game South excelled against Arcanum in every area – except time of possession.  South scored so quickly – particularly in the first half, that their offense was not on the field very long.  It was another high scoring, big play night for South as they bested the Trojans 44 – 19.  Although the scoring was distributed amongst several players, Michael Burke had a great night with 4 touchdowns.

 Last week the South defense was porous – giving up 40 points against Ansonia.  This week the defense was on their game and requited themselves.  As the game entered the 4^th quarter TVS had a 44-6 lead.  Arcanum was able to score twice more as the game wound down and South did some spot substituting.  And big plays were made on the defensive side of the ball too. There were 3 turnovers in the first half and all 3 set up South scores.  Blake Ashley recovered a fumble on Arcanum’s very first play from scrimmage.  Keegan Holthouse fell upon another Arcanum miscue in the first quarter.  And when Arcanum threatened to score in the second quarter, Jared Rivers intercepted a pass that ended the drive.   There were several sacks in the second half- MJ Randolf, James Cottingim, Jared Kirkpatrick, Chad Eiler(2) all tackled Arcanum quarterback Dallas Johnson for big losses.   Arcanum was trying to pass their way back into the game and South was bringing the heat.

South scoring in the first half was as follows: Wes Cole scored first on a 37 yard run. Then Cole connected with Michael Burke on a 32 yard touchdown pass.  Cole hit paydirt with Burke again this time on a 62 yard pass.  The next score was set up by the Rivers interception – this gave the ball to South on the 3 yard line.  On the first play from scrimmage Burke burst thru the line and didn’t stop until he had gone 97 yards for another score.  The final score of the first half was set up by a Burke reception to the Arcanum 8, a few plays later Cole plunged in from the one to give South a 32-6 lead. 

In the second half, Dustin Mckee got his motor running.  He had several carries for about 10 yards a pop on his scoring drive and then bulled the ball in from the 11.  South’s last score happened at the end of the third quarter with a 49 yard TD pass to Burke.   South came within about 8 yards of another score late in the game when  Joe Webb had a great carry from about midfield to inside the Arcanum 10 only to have the ball punched out as he was tackled and the result was an Arcanum fumble recovery.  

One area where Arcanum did do well was in special teams.  Their kick return team was generally able to return to midfield. And they did execute both the onsides kick and a punt fake effectively against the Panthers. 

Stats for the Panthers: Michael Burke rushed 6 times for  122 yards. Wes Cole 12 rushes for 63 yards.   Dustin Mckee 8 rushes for 80 yards.  Wes Cole was 7 of 8 for 217 yards and 3 TD’s.  Burke had 6 receptions for 215 yards & 3 TD’s.  Seth Baker had one reception for an extra point.  James Cottingim lead the defense with 7 and a half tackles.

Coach Engleka was asked for comment after the game, “This is the first time that South has won back to back games in 6 years.   They rushed over 40 times but only got about 130 yards.  So we did a good job of containing their run.   We rushed 31 times for 306 yards.  That is our third game in a row with over 300 yards rushing.  Anytime you gain over 300 yards you are dominating the line of scrimmage. “

He continued, “We just tell the kids we want them to be 1 and 0 every week.   Enjoy it this week and enjoy this weekend.  We want to prepare and come back Friday night and be 1 and 0 again.”

Next week South will host a 0-4 Mississinnewa team.  There are several good games this next Friday North plays Covington in a battle that might decide who is the early front runner in the league title and our game of the week will be Dixie vs. Brookville, a battle of rivals.