David Meets Goliath?
Clark's 84-yard Return Topples Giant, 14-3
Troy, OH (August 29, 2003) Valley View's defense and special teams combined to paralyze the Troy offense and the barely Div. III Spartans downed the Div. I Trojans, 14-3.
With a playoff atmosphere in the air, the visiting Spartans moved the ball 47 yards on 9 plays to score on their first possession and christen the recently renovated Troy Memorial Stadium.
From there on out it was a battle of defenses coupled with fumbles and interceptions. With the loss of Luke Casto (knee injury) during the initial series, Valley View's offensive line would find itself outmatched for the remainder of the game. The loss of the big man up front created a couple of scenarios.
With few holes to choose from, the Troy defense was able to contain star performer, Brock Bolen (115 yards, 23 carries), shutting down the Spartans potent runner and scoring machine. This forced QB Teddy Buehner to the air only to find a stubborn Troy pass defense covering the Spartan secondary to perfection.
The only Spartan option was to give the ball to Buehner and to that end, Valley View did enable some degree of offensive threat. Turnovers, incomplete passes, failed third down conversions and missed field goals kept Valley View out of the end zone offensively for the remainder of the game.
It wasn't until late in the third quarter when Ryan Clark took a Trojan punt from the 16-yard line, ran right cutting back across the grain, picking up superb blocking along the way, that sent the converted OL 84 yards into the endzone for Valley View's only other TD of the evening.
On defense converted WR Brad Abner showed the wisdom of Coach Niswonger's move with a near interception to stop a Troy drive into the endzone and then an interception in the fourth quarter that delivered the fatal blow and turned the ball back over to the Spartans who ran down the clock to finish the game.
The Spartans record goes to 2-0 in their quest for a 12th straight playoff bid.
Valley View takes on Waynesville (0-2) in Week 3. The Spartans of Waynesville, who have only won four games in the last three seasons (4-26) are coming off a 35-14 loss to Clinton-Massie. Rich Elams scored both TDs for the Spartans on runs of 13 and 6 yards. They nearly eaked out a win over East Clinton in Week 1, only to lose 19 - 15.
Notable standouts on the Waynesville squad include, Senior LB-OL Josh Hardyman (5-6, 180), who shattered the school's single-season tackling record (143 tackles) and Steve Bowman who earned all-league as an OG in 2002.
QB Carter Shaver's improvement from last season gives the Spartans more ability to mix up the pass and run, but neither should be a threat to Valley View's defense.
Our prognosticator was so off in last week's prediction against Troy (42-7) that it was embarassing. This week he assured us the Spartans would win. Given the home field advantage, Valley View's high-scoring offense will re-emerge from last week's hibernation after a steady week of practice. We like the boys in blue, 48-0.
