2026 Football Preview: Symmes Valley Vikings

WILLOW WOOD — It was the famous Roman poet Horace who said, “Carpe diem.” Translated: Seize the day.

The total quote was “Seize the day, trusting as little in the future.”

The Symmes Valley Vikings are taking that approach this season as they look to improve on last season’s 9-3 record and a berth in the Division 7 Region 27 semifinals before losing 48-7 to eventual state runner-up Hillsdale.

Armed with a veteran team and plenty of depth, Vikings fifth-year head coach Ben Ferguson said his team is taking a more serious and mature approach this season.

“I think the important thing for them to understand is they have a very great opportunity in front of them to be really good. But we’ve never been the hunted. Right now, all of a sudden, we’ve got a target on our back because of last year,” said Ferguson.

“I think they understand and really embraced that we have a really good opportunity in front of us, we have all the ability in the world that we need to make a deep playoff run, but if we don’t handle our business and realized we’re going to get everybody’s best game week in and week out, then we’re going to slip up and we might have a sad face before it’s time to have a sad face.”

A major reason for the Vikings optimism is junior Bronx Carpenter (6-2, 165) who is back at quarterback for a third year. Carpenter is the straw that stirs the Vikings’ point-a-minute spread offense. After missing part of his freshman year with a shoulder injury, Carpenter is now in his second full season.

“Having him back is a tremendous help. He’s got a lot of arm talent. He’s smart. He’s a great kid. He has great leadership abilities. He can make just about every throw on the field,” said Ferguson.

On the other end of Carpenter’s passes are a plethora of receivers led by junior Jackson Fields (5-11, 180).

Also in the group is senior Gradee Holland (6-0, 185), junior Levi Russell (6-1, 145), sophomore Beckham Roth (5-10, 180), junior Andrew Isaacs (6-3, 165), junior Enoch Patterson (5-10, 195), senior Dennis Scarberry (6-1, 150), and junior J.R. Turner (5-10,145). The Vikings also had junior Asher Maynard (6-0, 230) coming out of the backfield.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who are really, really, really fine-tuned and older that can hurt you,” said Ferguson. “It should be pretty deep as far as the weapons go offensively.”

The Vikings return four starters on the offensive line. They used a six-man rotation last season that created more experience for all the linemen.

Seniors Caleb Mount (6-1, 190) and Zayne Wilson (6-5, 215) return as the tackles, sophomore Zayden Sandman (6-5, 350) will be the center, and vying for play at the guard position are senior Trey Campbell (5-6, 255), junior Cooper Baumgardner (5-10, 305), sophomore Wyatt Hedrick (6-0, 295) and senior Jaxson Gates (5-8, 155).

“Both Mount and Wilson both started last year and are coming with a lot of experience. Zayden Sandman took a lot of snaps at guard and he’s sliding over to take Tucker Ross job at center, and at guard you have a combo of four guys. You’ve got Trey Campbell, Wyatt Gates is a sophomore who’s very capable, and Jaxon Gates who’s a senior whose played there,” said Ferguson.

Also in the mix on the offensive line is sophomore Brayden Sandman (6-5, 345) and the twin brother of Zayden. 

“Brayden didn’t play last year as a freshman, but if he can get up to speed, he’ll be in the mix as well,” said Ferguson. “There’s really seven to eight guys up front who can rotate through and we don’t feel like we lose anything.”

Junior Asher Maynard (6-2, 230) returns for his third year as the main running back in the offense. Maynard was all-district last season. But Ferguson sees sophomore Connor Moore (6-0, 170) getting some reps along with Roth and Patterson.

“He’ll probably take the majority of the snap, but you also got Roth back there is he’s not in the slot. You’ve got Patterson who can be back there some if he’s not in the slot. You’ve also got Conner Moore who’s new and rotating between the slot and backfield, too,” said Ferguson.

While teams strive for balance in their offense, Ferguson said the Vikings want balanced but go about it in a different way than other teams.

“Balance to us means if we’re effective whether it be running or passing, if it ends up 85 percent passing in a game, it’s because they’re loading the box, that’s balance to me.If they’re running a 3-4 and we’ve got the numbers in the box and we can just get up there and shove them, fine, we’ll do that, too,” said Ferguson.

“It’s not we want to be 50-50 no matter what, it’s more of we want to take what they’ll give us and we want to make sure we’re effective on both sides of it.”

The Vikings will go with a 4-4 front and Ferguson wants to stiffen their play to avoid shootouts.

“The big thing is that a lot of the defensive stuff last year was we just needed guys to get more experience. We had more first-time people on defense last year than we did on offense,” said Ferguson. “This year, we’ve got a lot of depth and we’ve got a lot of returning guys.”

The secondary has senior Dennis Scarberry (5-11, 150) and Holland at the cornerback spots who are both experienced players. The safety will be Isaacs who adds some speed and experience.

“They think in the secondary like they’re on offense,” said Ferguson.

Maynard and senior Ayden Freeman (5-7, 205) both return inside at linebacker. Ferguson said “this is the first time in five years I’ve had the same two inside linebackers for more than one year. That makes a huge difference.”

Fields and Moore look to be the outside linebackers along with Roth.

Across the defensive line, Mount and Wilson are both returning at the ends. Inside are Zander Sandman and Campbell who are both returning starters.

“I think the biggest focus to mentality-wise is we always want to have the fullest effort. We want to get to the ball and fly around. If we make a mistake we want to do it at 100 percent,” said Ferguson. “We looked at the film last year and if we screwed something up and sometimes we just stop where we could have made the play if we kept going.”

The kicking game returns Miguel Ferreira (6-0, 165) and Ferguson said the sophomore attended some kicking camps during the summer.

“I’m really excited to see him full speed. He’s added a ton of distance,” Ferguson said.

Patterson is expected to handle the punting duties. Carpenter will be the backup.

The experience and depth the Vikings have going into the season has helped speed up the process.

“It’s definitely different than the past couple of years just because you go in and it’s the start of practice, but a lot of those guys have had so much time it’s much more advanced. First day stuff, you’re still working on it with freshmen, but all those others guys have those basics down already, so you’re moving to more advanced stuff,” said Ferguson.

“You can install more things defensively. Maybe another coverage. Offensively, maybe another wrinkle. But it’s been nice because so many guys have had so many reps and they’re good kids and they’re good with the young ones. It’s like having coaches on the field.”

In the Southern Ohio Conference, Ferguson said everyone is still chasing Beaver Eastern which has won four straight titles and has a 32-game regular season winning streak.

“Obviously, Eastern is still the standard. I think they’ve done a great job. They’re the guys we look at and go that’s the gold standard of the conference right now that if we want to have a chance we have to knock them off,” said Ferguson.

“But I still think that top to bottom, it’s very competitive as well. I know some of them have lost some seniors, but they have some young guys who are coming along. You can’t take a week off.”

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