Eagles catch fire early, knock Vikings from list of unbeatens

BEAVER — When asked about his teams' loss, legendary Houston Oilers head coach Bum Phillips once said, "The harder we played, the behinder we got."

Those words certainly summed up the night for the Symmes Valley Vikings.

No matter how hard they tried or what they did, the Vikings seemed to get further behind the Beaver Eastern Eagles and fell 40-6 in a Southern Ohio Conference first-place showdown on Friday night.

"I think when we look back at the film, our kids will see that the effort was there and that we were doing good things, but give credit to Eastern. They have some really good athletes and just executed better than us," said Symmes Valley coach Ben Ferguson.

The Eagles got a huge performance from their senior quarterback Eric Manley Jr., who completed 11 of 20 passes for 272 yards and tossed 3 touchdowns. His top target was Trey Kelly with 5 catches for 85 yards and a score.

Running back Jack Montgomery led the Eagles with 56 yards rushing on 11 carries and a touchdown. Montgomery also had a receiving touchdown.

The Viking offense struggled to find their footing right from the beginning as a penalty and a sack backed them up in the shadow of their own end zone before having to punt.

Eastern took advantage of the short field and scored in 5 plays for the game's first points.

Montgomery scored on an 8-yard run from the I-formation. Grant Havens followed with the extra point to make it 7-0.

Symmes Valley (6-1, 1-1 SOC) was able to manufacture 2 first downs on their next drive, only to turn the ball over on downs at the Eastern 38.

Manley and the Eagles (7-0, 2-0) went right back to work picking up big chunks. One of those big chunk plays came on the third play of the drive, when Manley let loose a pass down the far hash to a streaking Trey Kelly for 38 yards and set Eastern up at the Vikings’ 11.

Two plays later, offensive lineman Brewer Tomlison lined up from the fullback position, took a handoff from Manley and plunged into the end zone to put the Eagles ahead 14-0.

Ferguson felt the early momentum shift in Eastern's favor proved to be the difference maker.

"I think they got a lot of momentum there in the beginning and they hung on to that. We fought hard, but schematically I'll take the blame and we'll just have to get better,” said Ferguson.

The Eagles scored three more times in the second quarter.

Manley scored on the first play of the frame on a 7-yard run. Then the senior quarterback connected on two touchdown passes. On the first score, Manley was under heavy pressure from Andy Strow, but Manley lofted a pass into the back of the end zone to Trey Kelly. Then on the second, Benjamin Bower got behind the secondary and Manley found him to make it 34-0 with 32 seconds before halftime.

The Vikings put together their best drive of the game during the second, but came up just a yard short.

During the drive, Carpenter and the offense went to their short game, completing high-percentage passes to move into Eagles territory and Asher Maynard contributed with some tough runs to move the chains. Carpenter connected with Jackson Fields for a 16-yard gain to the Eastern 1 and it appeared the Vikings were poised to cut into the deficit.

But 3 straight plays of negative yardage pushed the Vikings back to the 5. On fourth-and-goal, Carpenter tried to hit Levi Russell on a slant, but the pass was knocked away.

The Eagles managed just one score in the second half when Manley connected with Montgomery for a 21-yard touchdown toss to extend the lead to 40-0 with 9:40 remaining in the game.

However, the Vikings did not quit and mounted a late drive to get on the scoreboard.

With time ticking down, Carpenter scrambled to the far sideline and found room along the sideline. Carpenter made a cutback and knifed his way into the end zone as time expired to round out the score.

The Vikings return home next Friday to face the East Tartans.

Sy. Valley 0 0 0 6 = 6

Eastern Pike 14 20 0 6 = 40

First Quarter

EP — Jack Montgomery 8 run (Grant Havens kick), 8:49.

EP — Brewer Tomlinson 1 run (Grant Havens kick), 2:58.

Second Quarter

EP — Eric Manley Jr. 7 run (Grant Havens kick), 11:53.

EP — Trey Kelly 20 pass from Eric Manley Jr. (Grant Havens kick), 7:27.

EP — Benjamin Bower 30 pass from Eric Manley Jr. (pass failed), 0:32.

Fourth Quarter

EP — Jack Montgomery 21 pass from Eric Manley Jr. (pass failed), 9:40.

SV — Bronx Carpenter 24 run, 0:00.

———

SV EP

First downs 10 16

Rushes-yards 20-70 18-85

Passing yards 59 272

Total yards 129 357

Cmp-Att-Int 15-32-0 11-21-0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0

Penalties-yards 7-60 7-70

Punts-average 5-29.0 1-29.0

———

Individual Leaders

RUSHING – Symmes Valley: Bronx Carpenter 5-50 TD, Asher Maynard 15-20; Eastern Pike: Jack Montgomery 11-56 TD, Eric Manley Jr. 3-20 TD, Benjamin Bower 1-0, Trey Kelly 1-7, Justin Fowler 1-1, Brewer Tomlinson 1-1 TD.

PASSING – Symmes Valley: Bronx Carpenter 15-32-0 59; Eastern Pike: Eric Manley Jr. 11-20-0 272 3-TD, Trey Kelly 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING – Symmes Valley: Levi Russell 2-3, Beckem Roth 5-17, Jackson Fields 5-25, Asher Maynard 3-14; Eastern Pike: Jack Montgomery 1-21 TD, Boston Webb 3-82, Carson Peters 1-53, Benjamin Bower 1-30 TD, Trey Kelly 5-86 TD.

MISSED FIELD GOALS – None.