ANSONIA – At the mid-point of the regular season and five games complete, there are three teams undefeated in the WOAC. Preble Shawnee and Tri-Village at 5-0 overall, 4-0 in the league and Mississinawa Valley 4-1 overall, 4-0 in conference, all getting big wins Friday night while Arcanum fell to 4-1 overall, 3-1 and Ansonia 3-2 and 2-2 in WOAC.
Tri-Village traveled to Ansonia in what has quickly become a must-see football game between the two Darke County Schools. In the 5th year of the WOAC the teams were tied at 2-2, TV won in 2021, 22 and Ansonia in 2023, 24.
The Patriots came out on top in this one, 55-22, snapping the Tigers 25 25-game home win streak, going back to 2021, a 21-17 loss to Tri-Village, who now leads the WOAC series 3-2.
Ansonia received game’s opening kickoff and didn’t waste much time, just four run plays, with Jacob Schmitmeyer breaking away from 48-yards for the games first score. Lander Shives ran the two-point conversion and at 9:22 in the first quarter it was 8-0, Tigers.
Tri-Village responded on just three plays on a nice run, a long pass from Trey Sagester to junior receiver Kingston Shaffer and a 17-yard pass completion to Noah Finkbine for the TD. Owen Ridout extra point was good, and the Patriots trailed 8-7.
Ansonia punted on their second possession with TV taking over at the 20-yard line.
Patriots senior quarterback Trey Sagester completed a couple of passes and sophomore running back Staley Colston finished it off with a 9-yard run as TV moved ahead 14-8 with 3:16 to go in 1st quarter.
Ansonia on the ensuing kickoff worked the ball to their 44-yard line … but faced 4th down, 4-yards decided to go for it, and successfully picked it up by inches.
No guts, no glory would set-up the Tigers next score as Lander Shives bulled his way through the line breaking a couple tackles, then a desperate grab to the jersey from the last defender failed to stop the game tying TD.
Ansonia’s two-point conversion failed, and the game remained tied 14 each with 10:14 left in the 2nd quarter.
TV duplicated their own critical 4th down conversion near midfield on its next drive. The very next play sophomore running back Colt Camacho broke a tackle, turned up the sideline and 56 yards later had the go-ahead touchdown. The Tigers blocked the extra point and TV led 20-14 at 9:14 of the second quarter.
The momentum was about to shift though after a line drive squib kick bounced off the shoulder pads of Ansonia and was recovered at the 50 by the PATS. They then capitalized with Camacho getting his second rushing TD from 9-yards out to lead 27-14.
With Tri-Village scoring on all four first half possessions pressure mounted for Ansonia to respond and stay in striking distance, especially since the Patriots would receive the ball to start 2nd half.
The Tigers mounted a nice drive hoping to score with no time left on the clock in the first half.
They worked their way into the red zone … but the clock was working against them now as well. Two pass attempts failed with the Patriots holding them out as time expired and the score remained 27-14 at the break.
Quarterback Trey Sagester got things rolling to start the third quarter with a 40-yard completion to Griffin Richards. Two plays later Sagester connected with Finkbine for a 35-yard TD pass to go up 34-14 at 10:57.
Tri-Village football coach Matthew Hopkins felt the end of the first half and the start in second half was huge for his team.
“You know that was big a stop right before the half with them going in the red zone. We bent but didn’t break right there. We had the ball coming out, and if we could get a score, we knew we would have things rolling,” Hopkins stated.
Ansonia’s next possession took them to midfield where they again faced a 4th down and feeling the urgency of not falling further behind they went for it only to come up short.
Sagester and Richards hooked up again for a 40-yard reception and then a 10-yarder from Sagester to Camacho for the TD moved the Patriots ahead 41-14 at 5:27.
Ansonia is not a team to rollover or quit and they would continue to pound the front line of the Patriots until senior running back Cainan Robinson burst through the line, broke a tackle and was heading to the end zone. His 42-yard run was cut short of the goal line by nine-yards as he was chased down by senior Lathen Wehr.
But the Tigers would still hit paydirt with Jacob Schmittmeyer bringing it home for the TD and a two-point run by Cade Shellhaas closed the gap to 41-22 with 2:32 left in third quarter. It would be their last score in the game. The Tigers rushed for 325 yards in the game with no passing yardage.
After couple of nice passes from Sagester to Richards, Camacho ran another one in from 3-yards out to start the 4th quarter, the PATS now up 48-22.
Camacho added one more TD on a 36-yard run to end all scoring and a 55-22 win for Tri-Village.
After the game coach Hopkins praised his team for the preparation coming and for receiving hard coaching and executing the game plan.
“We haven’t been able to play a whole game all year, so we wanted to be prepared to go the distance. When you’re playing a half or three quarters. You’re not sure coming into week five, if you’re ready. And we talked all week long, about making sure of our conditioning and hydration, because it’s a hot night,” Hopkins said.
We know playing Ansonia it’s going to be a physical game and every snap they are going to bring it. I’ve got all respect in the world for Ansonia and what they do, because you can’t stop them the whole game, it’s hard to stop and you’re going to give up two or three scores.
“Our guys rose to the occasion, and our offensive line is the best that we’ve had since I’ve been here. They are very physical across the board. They move the line of scrimmage. They all have put in a lot of time this past spring and summer and we are seeing the fruits of their labor. We go as they go,” Hopkins explained.
The Patriots on offense were able to score on every possession thanks to the line and to having a lot of talented skill position athletes making plays. The Patriots would rack up 509 total yards 266 passing and 243 rushing in the game.
“Guys made plays today. Everybody contributes, right? Like, that’s the dangerous thing about this team, I think, is you just can’t double team Griff, because we got other guys we can throw the ball who can catch and hurt you like Kingston Shaffer and Noah Finkbine. (Finkbine had 4 receptions for 72 yards and 2 TD grabs) Our running backs with Colt Camacho, Finkbine and Staley Colston were good as well. Camacho had a monster night, he’s just a really special kid as a sophomore,” Hopkins concluded.
Camacho had 5 TD’s, 4 rushing with 180 yards and one reception for a score.
The Patriots have talent and the one who orchestrates and distributes the ball is senior quarterback Trey Sagester. He has delivered big thus far as the conductor and his team is hitting all the notes.
Sagester was 12-for-16 for 266 yards and 3 TD’s in the game. On the year has completed 64 of 84 passes for 1,179 yards and 16 TD’s.
But in order to win a conference championship though they will have to perfect their symphony with a large audience come week nine against 5-0 Preble Shawnee who is also playing well and they got a big 49-13 win over Arcanum Friday.
Preble Shawnee QB Brody Morton accounted for 4 TD’s two passing and two rushing to lead the Arrows over Arcanum to remain undefeated this year. (Dale Barger photo)
Preble Shawnee got two TD’s throws from Brody Morton who was 9/10 for 118 yards both scores were to Caleb Blankenship who had 7 catches for 125 yards.
The Arrows also got two rushing TD’s from Morton as well for another 4 TD game for the senior signal caller. Ethan Mauller rushed for 122 yards and a TD, Caleb Blankenship rushed for a score along with Ian Francis.
Arcanum showed balance on offense with 141 yards passing and 137 yards rushing but they couldn’t keep pace in the scoring column. Freshman Raysean Miles had 3 catches for a 91 yards and score and MJ Macy rushed for 79 yards and had a TD as well.
Preble Shawnee now 5-0 will play at Bradford next Friday while Arcanum 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the WOAC will host National Trail.
Mississinawa Valley continues their impressive run in the WOAC with a dramatic come from behind to win in the final minute of the game 15-12 over Twin Valley South.
The Panthers trailed 7-6 with 5 minutes left in the game and stripped Mississinawa at the 20-yard line. Three plays later they scored on junior fullback Owen Mckee’s 2nd TD run in the game to give Twin Valley South the lead 12-7 as the Blackhawks stopped their two-point conversion attempt.
South stopped Mississinawa on downs but went 3 and out punting the ball back to Mississinawa with 44 seconds left in the game.
The Hawks started their drive with no timeouts and quarterback Caleb Spradling completed a 20-yard pass to Cole McLaughlin to start and he was able to get out of bounds to stop the clock.
Spradling hit Cooper Nieport on the next play where he then pitched it back to Kyle Wehrkamp on the old “Hook and Ladder” with Kyle going up the sideline for 25 yards before stepping out with 30 seconds to go.
Spradling had to scramble on his next pass good enough to take ball to the five. He then scored from 5-yards out on the keeper to regain the lead for Mississinawa 13-12 with 15 seconds to play. Spradling connected with Wehrkamp on the two-point conversion to up the score to 15-12.
South had one more shot but wasn’t able to get a pass off as senior Jake Norris sacked the quarterback to preserve the Hawks exciting finish and remain undefeated at 4-0 in the WOAC.
It was a great finish for Mississinawa’s homecoming night that saw senior running back Michael Bell crowned Homecoming King and senior Brooklynn Seubert was crowned Queen.
Mississinawa will now face the meat of their league schedule and travel to New Madison in week 6 to take on 5-0 Tri-Village. In week 7 they go to Preble Shawnee and in week 8 they will host Arcanum.
