Vikings dominate Tomcats to advance to regional semifinals

WILLOW WOOD — Nothing seemed to slow down the Symmes Valley Vikings. Not even rain or a bye week.

Coming off a first round bye, the Vikings put on another high-scoring showcase in their home finale by routing the Trimble Tomcats 41-12 on Friday night in the Ohio Division 7 regional quarterfinals at a rain-soaked Viking Stadium.

Symmes Valley now moves onto the regional semifinals where they will head north to Jeromesville to face the No. 1 seed and defending state-runner up Hillsdale Falcons next Friday night.

Symmes Valley coach Ben Ferguson was pleased at how his players handled the bye week preparation and showed little signs of rust.

"Our kids had to deal with something new with the playoff format and it was something none of us coaches had done before either. So, we just wanted to make sure they stayed sharp regardless of who we played."

The Vikings (9-2) scored all their points in the first half.

In fact, they didn't find the end zone until the 4:40 mark of the first quarter when Bronx Carpenter rolled out to his left with a defender in pursuit. But Carpenter made a pump fake to evade the first man, then made another fake on. another and skirted up the sideline for a 12-yard score. Miguel Ferreira added the extra point to make it 7-0.

The score proved to be just a sampling of what was yet to come.

Having difficulties moving the ball on the ground, Trimble opted to test the Vikings secondary and paid dearly when a Paul Sharp pass was picked off by Fields in front of the Trimble bench.

"We challenged the defense the last two weeks. I think we did the best we could at South Gallia, but there was plenty of things we needed to work on," said Ferguson. "But we really tightened down the past couple weeks and gave the kids different looks but it was all the same goal."

On the ensuing play, Carpenter went to the air and hit Jackson Fields streaking across the middle of the field, and Fields shook off the defender and was able to reach pay dirt to extend the lead.

"We came out hot. Like coach Ferguson says to us every week, we have to be 1-0," said Carpenter. "We work on scramble drill every Tuesday, but we've played together a while and work as a team."

Symmes Valley's defense continued to shut down the Tomcats and forced another punt. But before the kick could be made, Maynard was there to stick his hands out and block the punt and Caleb Mount slid across the turf to recover the ball.

The Vikings wasted little time getting into the end zone again, needing just 2 big plays in the passing game to score.

The first play of the drive turned out to be the play of the night when Carpenter stepped back from his own 43 and lofted a pass towards Fields, and Fields was able to go up and make an adjustment in mid-air to grab the ball over top of his defender for a 20 yards reception.

"(Bronx) is great, he puts it right in the pocket every time and give me a chance to make a play," said Fields. "But it feels amazing to get a win. Especially for our seniors."

On the ensuing play, Carpenter hit Asher Maynard streaking down the middle of the field for the touchdown strike. Ferreira added the point after to make the score 21-0 after one quarter.

In the second, the points continued to come for the Vikings.

The highlight play of the second came when Carpenter threw his final touchdown pass on a jailbreak screen to Beckem Roth, and the freshman cut through the defense and even shook off a tackle around the 10 for a 64-yard scoring strike.

Maynard bookended the quarter with two rushing touchdowns that both came from 2 yards out.

And while Maynard made some big contributions offensively, he along with the rest of the defense thought their preparation helped shut down the Tomcats vaunted rushing attack.

"I think we really prepared well at practice this week. We just worked on keying their guards and learning to cross key really helped us. But their running backs are studs, but we were able to shut them down,"

The work paid off, as the Vikings held the Tomcats ground game in check with just 92 yards on 25 carries.

In the second half, the Tomcats (7-5) were able to find the end zone twice with what would be their two biggest offensive plays of the night.

Trimble avoided the shutout when running back Trevor Gowan broke free with a 66-yard touchdown run at the 8:53 mark of the third.

The final score of the game came in the fourth on a play action pass by Sharp to Cade Burba along the far sideline and Burba managed to stay in bounds as he went 77 yards to finalize the score.

Trimble 0 0 6 6 = 12

Sy. Valley 20 21 0 0 = 41

First Quarter

SV — Bronx Carpenter 12 run (Miguel Ferreira kick), 4:40.

SV — Jackson Fields 46 pass from Bronx Carpenter (Miguel Ferreira kick), 2:52.

SV — Asher Maynard 20 pass from Bronx Carpenter (kick failed), 0:38.

Second Quarter

SV — Asher Maynard 2 run (Carpenter pass to Fields), 9:48.

SV — Beckem Roth 64 pass from Bronx Carpenter (Miguel Ferreira kick), 7:05.

SV — Asher Maynard 2 run (kick no good), 3:17.

Third Quarter

Trm — Trevor Gowen 66 run (run failed), 8:53.

Fourth Quarter

Trm — Cade Burba 77 pass from Paul Sharp (pass failed) 5:47.

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Trm SV

First downs 9 16

Rushes-yards 25-92 17-62

Passing yards 124 289

Total yards 216 351

Cmp-Att-Int 5-15-3 19-29-0

Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-yards 15-120 7-54

Punts-average 2-24.5 0-0.0

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING – Trimble: Paul Sharp 4-minus 2, Trevor Gowan 9-69 TD, Luke Orsborne 11-13, Aiden Dixon 1-2; Symmes Valley: Bronx Carpenter 4-20 TD, Michael Weaver 4-6, Mason Adams 1-2, Asher Maynard 8-34 2-TD.

PASSING – Trimble: Paul Sharp 5-15-3 124 TD; Symmes Valley: Bronx Carpenter 19-29-0 289 3-TD.

RECEIVING – Cade Burba 2-96 TD, Luke Orsborne 1-0, Aiden Dixon 2-28; Symmes Valley: Andy Strow 2-19, Levi Russell 3-33 TD, Gradee Holland 2-14, Beckem Roth 3-75 TD, Jackson Fields 4-82 TD, Asher Maynard 5-66 TD.

MISSED FIELD GOALS – None.