NEW MADISON – There are a few games circled on the calendar for the 2024 WOAC Football season and the Preble Shawnee at Tri-Village game was one of them. There were many electrifying plays by both teams but in the end it was the more experienced Arrows hitting their mark more to earn the 42-25 win.
Tri-Village on its first possession went three and out and a short punt left Shawnee at midfield to start their opening possession.
Junior quarterback Brody Morton didn’t take long to hit his first target slinging an arrow 40 yards to senior wideout Reece Smith who made a great catch on the boundary at the 10-yard line.
A few plays later Morton takes it in on a QB sneak up the middle to give Preble Shawnee a quick 7-0 lead at 8:29 of the 1st period.
TV was unable to move the ball again on offense and Shawnee took over at their 40. Morton on a QB keeper broke a few tackles and sprinted 60 yards for what appeared to be a TD, was called back due to a holding penalty.
The Patriots generated a few positive plays on their 3rd possession but once again forced to punt.
It was like watching a re-run with Morton pulling the ball on the fake handoff then running up the left sideline 90-yards to the endzone only have it called back too on a holding penalty.
But the Patriots gave one back to the Arrows on pass interference negating an interception and Shawnee cashed in with a 13-yard screen pass to Smith to go up 14-0 at 7:19 of the 2nd quarter.
After struggling to move the ball much of the first half the Patriots finally got the offense moving with a big play coming on a scramble by junior quarterback Trey Sagester thn heaving a 30-yard pass to Lane Bierly who got behind the defense.
The Patriots eventually scored on the drive on a 1-yard Sagester run to end the first half trailing 14-7 giving the home team some momentum.
“Yeah, I was really disappointed in how we started. Really, really disappointed … because that’s a really good team over there,” said Tri-Village coach Matt Hopkins on their start in the football game.
Hopkins could breathe a bit better at the half full well knowing his team could have been trailing by much more than they were.
“We just can’t dig a hole, you know they’re (Shawnee) a senior laden team, and they’re athletic and we put ourselves in a hole … but we were able to battle and get that score right before the end of the half,” Hopkins added.
“It’s early in the season but we know coming in, Tri Village kids play very hard. We made some mistakes that took away a few of our big plays and then they scored right before the half,” Preble Shawnee coach Dave Maddox stated.
Tri-Village was fortunate to be in the position they were and was looking to use the momentum to start the 2nd half but squandered a scoring opportunity after driving to the 10-yard line. A bad snap and a negative yardage play left them facing a 4th down and goal from 40 yards away and they would turn the ball over on downs.
The Arrows Morton made them pay with his feet going 51-yards for a TD and this time no holding penalty to move in front 21-7 at 5:25 of the 3rd quarter.
Tri-Village quickly answered the score on a 22-yard pass from Sagester to sophomore Griffin Richards … but a failed extra point left the Patriots trailing 21-13 at 4:46.
The Patriots added another score on a 33-yard strike to a surprisingly wide-open sophomore Teddy Miller, who practically walked into the endzone. The two-point conversion failed, as TV trailed 21-19 with a minute to go in 3rd quarte
The Patriots squib kick left the Arrows in great field position on their 50 yard-line and two pass plays one to Sr. Isaac Blankenship for a big 1st down, followed by a 20-yard pass to Sr. Lane Lovely had them in the red zone. Again, it was Morton on the ground for the score pushing Preble’s was up 28-19 at 10:11 of the 4thquarter.
Tri-Village found success again moving the ball through the air on 40-yard pass play to sophomore Hayden Hunt, a catch by Lane Bierly and a 12-yard pass from Sagester to Richards to answer the bell for a TD. But failed conversions all night left the Patriots trailing by a field goal 28-25 with 7:58 to go in the game.
The Arrows after a good kick-off return into Patriot territory was able to get a couple of good runs, 25 yards from Morton and 10 from Lovely and then a short two-yard run around the end by Isaac Blankenship for the TD, kept the Arrows up 35-25 with six minutes to go.
Tri-Village ability to counter fell short on the next drive at the 5-yard line on an Arrows interception and they would take full advantage going 95 yards eating up clock as Lovely ran it in from 5-yards out extending the lead to 42-25 with 46 seconds to play sealing the game for Preble Shawnee.
When the game got tough in the second half the Arrows were able to lean on their experienced senior laden players to pull away in a game that could have went either way down the stretch.
“In big moments you want your players that have the experience and have been there before to step up and make big plays. I feel like they did; Morton played an absolutely great game, along with Isaac Blankenship and Lane Lovely ran the ball well late,” Maddox exclaimed.
Coach Hopkins acknowledged.
“You know, all the credit goes to Coach Maddox and those guys, they were the better team tonight and took it to us,” Hopkins said.
“But I’m really proud of my guys for how we fought back, we finished strong and played really well after getting down early, we’re a young team with a lot of new guys in new places, whether they’re seniors or not, it’s to be expected. We haven’t learned to compete at that level yet, and those are the growing pains,” Hopkins explained.
“I just told these guys, there’s two roads we can go down. We can just go in a tank, and that’s the easy way to do it, right? Or we can refocus and get back after it on Monday,” Hopkins concluded.
While Preble Shawnee coach Dave Maddoxx is pleased to get the win he knows they have things to work on as well.
“They need to learn. I think after a big win last week and this week we need to learn to stay humble to keep fighting and keep battling, and that nothing is going to come easy. It was a hard week to prepare because we’re practicing in 90-degree weather, and so it’s just, you know a battle to get through that all week. Going forward, we made a lot of mistakes today, made a lot of mistakes. And so, we’ve got to stay focused and get those corrected, and just move on and take it week to week, and get better every single day, that is what we try to do in this program,” Maddox concluded.
The Arrows had 385 yards of total offense, 261 rushing and 124 passing to the Patriots 381 yards, 315 yards passing and 66 yards rushing.
The Arrows get to put one of the big games in the win column but there are 8 games left and one really big one circled on the calendar still in week 9 on October 18th at Ansonia.
Preble Shawnee goes to 2-0, 1-0 and they will host 1-1, 1-0 National Trail this Friday who was a 26-12 Thursday night winner over Tri-County North.
Tri-Village falls to 1-1, 0-1 and they will host 0-2, 0-1 Twin Valley South on Friday.
