Arcanum Runs Over South

A winless Trojan football team manhandled the Twin Valley South Panthers who entered the game at 2-2. The Trojans opened the season with 4 tough teams on their schedule. They were competitive in most of these game, but just came up short. But they mauled the Panthers with a smothering defense and a running attack that seemed to get stronger as the game went on. Daniel Coats and Brandon Kinney had big nights for the Trojans, but coach Stephan let it be know that the running game starts with the line and they had a big night too. The backs can't get to the 2^nd level of the defense unless the line clears the 1^st level. It was a close game in the first quarter with Arcanum up just 7-0. But they would end up running away with the game 33-3.

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South Loses Close Game to Newton

The  South girls Soccer team played a really tough match tonight but came up short 2-0. Newton was extremely fast. The girls fought hard and played well. Lacey Emrick had 28 saves. Her approximate number of saves this year is 186.

Tigers Lose Momentum in Second Half and Lose to South

Games have an ebb and flow to them at times. Momentum shifts back and forth and when momentum is on your side you have to grasp it and keep it. Something that can be hard for a young team like Ansonia to do. They fell behind by 2 scores early in the game, but were able dominate the 2^nd quarter and enter the locker room with momentum – only down by 3 points. But Ansonia squandered their opportunity and an experienced South team took advantage in the 3^rd quarter, opening a lead that they would not relinquish.  

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South Girls Soccer Over Middletown Christian

TVS 4 Middletown Christian 0. Abby Creech had 2 goals, Abby Robertson 1 goal, and Lacey Emrick 1 goal. Abby Robertson had 1 assist. South's record is 3-4-1.

Trojans Fend Off Late Surge by North

The Arcanum JV won their match against North in straight sets. And at first this momentum seemed to carry forward to the Varsity match as Arcanum simply shredded North 25-9 in the first set. But from there North seemed to get stronger and Arcanum had to reach deep to get the next 2 wins. They won the match in 3 sets but it was not easy.   

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OSU Over Confident Against Tulsa?

After winning handily against Bowling Green, the Buckeyes might have been a tad overconfident in their game against Tulsa.  The offense definitely looked out of sorts.  No push from the line and although there was a stiff wind in their face in the 1st quarter, the passing game was out of sorts as well.  Tulsa held their own in the first quarter. It was 3-3 at that point.  But things took a turn for the worse in the second quarter.

The Buckeye defense came to life and scored off of interceptions.  And actually that first field goal was set up by an interception.  So it was almost like the Buckeyes didn't need their offense anyway - the defense was doing it all.  But as the teams entered the second half a storm caused a delay with the game. Some of us had poncho's but almost everyone went under the stands to escape the monsoon like deluge.

During this delay the Buckeyes made whatever adjustments and butt chewings that needed to be done.  Whatever the cause, the offense came to life when play resumed.  The passing game was on again, and the running backs made yardage.  It was a relief to see the team back in sync despite the rainy conditions in the second half.  The final was 48-3.

The Buckeyes can't afford to get off to a slow start like this next week against Oklahoma.  They need to be focused from the opening whistle.   So maybe it was good to have this game as a wake up call to remind the Buckeyes that they can't afford to relax.

South Soccer Over North 5-1

TVS defeated their rival North 5-1.  TVS keeper Zach Guehring had 21 saves on the night.  Freshman Aaron Clark scored the first goal off an assist from Bryant Marker.  Bryant Marker then scored the next goal off an assist from Daniel Page.  Bryant then scored 2 more goals to complete a hat trick. Both goals were assisted by Travis Lovely. The final goal was scored by Jacob Wells off an assist from Aaron Clark.  TVS will next travel to Stivers tomorrow. 

Coach Young, "We started off a little slow early in the first half.  I wanted us to keep attacking to try to tire out their team since they only had 1 sub.  I thought our whole team had a good performance.  The thing I like about our team is that we are unselfish and have many players who can put the ball in the back of the net.  I thought we had a couple breakdowns defensively and need to limit the amount of shots for the opposition.  Overall it was a good league win and three points towards league.  So we will continue to try to get better and make improvements where we need to do so." 

Arrows Shoot Down Patriots

Preble Shawnee has been a juggernaut to start the season. The Arrowheads steam rolled in their first two games 50-0 and 34-0, and next up was Tri-Village, who had won its first game decisively but had stumbled in the next game, losing 18-6...

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Franklin Monroe Volleyball Over North

Franklin Monroe volleyball defeats North in 3 straight sets.

South Soccer Over Dixie

South Boys 3-2 win over Dixie.  Hunter Bennett and Ian Kurtz scored.  Aaron Clark scored the final goal for the panthers of an assist from Jacob Wells. The panthers improved their record to 2-2-2 on the season. 

TVS girls soccer wins 4-2. Abby Robertson 3 goals Sydney Vorhis 1 goal.

South Soccer - 3-3 Tie Against Miami East

Twin Valley South tied Miami East 3-3.  TVS struck first with a great free kick from Hunter Bennett. East then scored to make the game 1-1 heading into the end of the half. East struck first in the second half to take the lead. Then Travis Lovely ripped a shot from about 35 yards out to tie it back at two. East then took the lead back in the last ten minutes of the game.  TVS kept pushing and got a goal within the last 3 minutes of the game to end the game 3-3. Daniel page took the ball down the right side and got a cross to Jesse Woods who put the ball in the back of the net. Zach Guehring had 19 saves for the panthers.

Coach Young commented, "I was very proud of the boys.  I know we really wanted to get the win, but considering they beat us 6-0 last year we can be happy with 1 point in the league.  I really thought we were the better team tonight we just couldn't catch a break. One of our better players had to sit out most of the first half with a pulled muscle, and then one of our kids shoes broke, so we just couldn't catch a break.  Hunter Bennett stepped up and moved to defense, a position which he has never played before.  He came up big for us and showed great leadership.  Overall I was happy with the effort we showed tonight, and I think we took a huge step in the right direction." 

South Ready for Football

Twin Valley South scrimmaged Middletown Madison this past weekend in their final scrimmage before starting the regular season next Friday at Dixie.  This season the team is under new head coach Clint Bartlett who takes over the helm from coach Tyler Cates.   Cates left South to take over the head coaching job at Covington after a 6-4 season.

Under Bartlett the team is running a different style of offense - a pro set offense with two backs in the back field and wide receivers.  Madison ran a wing T offense at first and later in the scrimmage ran some plays with a single wing.  In the early going the South offense had a tough time sustaining drives.   They had some decent runs at times but were thrown for loss or had penalties that put them in long yardage situations.

The Panthers had a tough time passing.  They threw sparingly but couldn't make critical catches when they were needed.  Madison mostly ran the ball as well, but they were a little more effective with their passing attack.  In the first half, Madison was able to score 4 times and in the second part of the scrimmage they were able to kick a decent field goal.  The kick was at least 35 yards, so not bad for a high school kicker.

South did have a respectable drive after the break.  First the defense stood up Madison, holding them to 3 plays and forcing them to give up the ball.  The offense seemed to feed off of that energy and put together their best drive of night going the distance and punching the ball in for their score.  The drive had to finish with the back up quarterback as the starting quarterback appeared to be having some sort of problem with his leg.  Still it was nice to see the team have the spirit and the ability to come back after being down.  After this the two teams began to substitute in the second half of the scrimmage - giving the reserves some field time.

South graduated some talent and are learning a new system under a new coach.  So there is a lot for new players to absorb in a short period of time. So inexperience at varsity play and with the new scheme will be factors for South to overcome. Their first game is a against Dixie, a team hungry for wins, coming off of a 1 win season last year.   The Hounds are down a little on numbers this season, while South has a deeper roster so fatigue could be a factor in this first game. The weather will be warm and players that have to go both ways will wear down fast. Since this game is against a SWBL school the start time will be 7pm.

Baseballs Dilemma

Recently FC Cincinnati drew over 35,000 fans to an exhibition soccer game against a British Team Crystal Palace.   Even though this was a unique event, the soccer club has been drawing well this season - over 16,000 a game.   Moreover these are young fans - the average attendee is in their mid-thirties.   Also something to note - this is not even major league soccer.   FC Cincinnati is probably the equivalent of an AA baseball team in their sport.   You have to wonder what the numbers would be if this was a major league soccer team.

My generation has always looked down their noses at soccer.   I can recall Pele being signed by the professional soccer league mainly as a PR stunt to get fans interested in their league.   It was partially successful as he did help the Cosmos win a championship, but soccer never really took off in the 1970's.   But soccer did gain inroads as youth leagues were set up and youngsters began to play soccer. So now that these players are adults, they understand the game and can follow it as my generation cannot.

Baseball was the nations pastime for the longest time.   It was the countries only professional sport for decades until football and basketball gained traction.   They have caught up with and pretty much passed up baseball.   There is more action in these two sports compared with the slow pace of baseball. You have to admit that there is a lot of standing around in this sport.   And I think that with our shorter attention spans we gravitate to events with more action.

This is proven out as baseball has the oldest fans of any of the major sports.   The average baseball fan is in their 50's.   The oldest fan demographic in professional sports.   Basketball and Soccer have the youngest fans interest while football is somewhere in between.   So baseball has to be worried.   They are not attracting so many in the youth leagues as they once did.   Once this generation of fans fades away, who will replace them?

The Reds are averaging over 24,000 paid attendance in a lackluster season.   But they have to be looking over their shoulder at this young upstart team that already is drawing about 2/3 of the fans that they are as a 1st year club in a mid tier league.   There are only so many sports dollars to go around and it looks like the younger generation is spending their money on soccer.   Once this current generation of baseball fans is gone there is a problem where fewer people will be around to spend money on baseball if they don't do something to get more young people interested in the game. 

The game needs to be sped up and have more action to appeal to a younger fan base.  There needs to be a limit on the number of foul balls and time outs are two quick changes that would speed things up a little.  I am sure that there are other means of speeding up games too. Traditionalists would not like toying with the sport, but it needs tinkering or risk gradually going into oblivion.