GERMANTOWN — In its final game of the 2016 season, the visiting Eaton Eagles football team lost 41-22 to the Valley View Spartans on Friday, Oct. 28, in a Southwestern Buckeye League contest.
Valley View amassed 488 yards of total offense against Eaton, with 355 of those yards on the ground.
Valley View was the first team to hit paydirt, on a 1-yard run from quarterback Collin Wood to give the Spartans a 7-0 lead midway into the first quarter.
The Spartans scored again two minutes later, when running back Collin Gensilinger ran 80 yards into the end zone.
The second quarter had a bit more success on offense for both teams, particularly for the Eagles. The Spartans scored a rushing touchdown for a 21-0 lead. But Eaton scored twice against the opposition as Eagle quarterback Lew Bowser threw two touchdown passes to Ghye Wilson and Alex Almeyda-Roe to make the score 21-14.
Both touchdowns by Eaton were the results of fourth down conversions.
Valley View managed to take advantage of a blown defensive coverage later in the half on a third-and-long play which led to a passing touchdown and a 28-14 lead which held up to the halftime break.
“Overall, our defense did a poor job with our run fits, which allowed Valley View to make some big plays,” said Eaton coach Brad Davis. “With their offensive scheme and personnel, we had to be extremely disciplined on defense and we weren’t, which hurt us. They have some good players that don’t need much of a seam or crease to exploit the defense and they found them. Going into halftime, we still felt confident that we could clean some of those run fits up and really stress discipline, which we had all week in practice.
“The offense was moving the ball in the first half,” Davis said. “We liked what we were doing offensively, we just needed to clean up some blocking issues up front.”
To open the second half, Eaton threw an interception which Valley View took advantage and marched down the gridiron for their fifth touchdown.
“I feel like this was a big blow to our team mentally,” said Davis. “We punted on our next possession and they have another long touchdown run which put the game at 41-14. Most of the 4th quarter we traded punts. We did recover a fumbled punt but were unable to score on that possession.”
Later in the fourth quarter, the Eagles were able to score a third touchdown, on a run by Caleb Puckett after a takeaway. The following onside kick was unsuccessful and Valley View ran out the clock to seal the win.
Bowser had 13 completions of 22 passes for 181 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception. Puckett ran 26 times for 133 yards and a touchdown. Wilson was the leading receiver, having six catches for 105 yards and a score. Almeyda-Roe made four grabs for 64 yards and a score. Zac Schmidt contributed with three catches for 12 yards. Defensively, Jordan Lewis and Kevin Melling each recovered a fumble, Donnie Nicodemus had one sack, and Bowser picked off one pass.
“I thought we played hard, as we did all year,” said Davis. “We fought until the end, and I was proud of our guys for that. We had some good plays on offense and defense, just too many negatives to overcome. I thought Caleb ran the ball extremely hard, as he’s done the last several games for us. That’s nice to see, moving forward into next season.”
The Eagles finished the season with a 2-8 overall record, while placing last in the Southwestern Division of the SWBL, at 1-5.
