Valley View Rolls Over Eaton
Eaton, OH (October 15, 2004) The Spartans are back and appear to be red hot! The Spartans went up against the Eaton Eagles, on a chilly homecoming evening at Park Avenue Field, and shredded the hometown team, 38-13. But, there was a difference and any Spartan fan that witnessed the game, in fact any Eaton fan, could tell you that.
The bye week, while it might have implications for the Spartans in the playoff point system, it definitely helped them on the field.
"We had an extra week to prepare and we used it to make some offensive changes on the line" Coach Jay Niswonger stated.
"We had extra time to practice and then were able to go see them (Eaton) play against Bellbrook last week," Niswonger continued.
The first quarter was scoreless, flying by largely in part to rushing game from both sides of the field. Senior LB John Rupp rewarded Eaton QB Jeremy Fudge with some killer sacks in the first quarter that set the Eagles back, and gave the Spartan offense some time to warm up.
Warming up is pretty much an understatement. Newsock opened the second quarter with a 45 yard fireball to Spartan workhorse, Curtis Moore, for the first touchdown of the game.
What wasn't apparent in that toss was that Newsock would continue to mince the Eaton secondary for 342 yards in the air, pushing him to third all-time behind Dustin Strayer (350) and David Riley (405).
But it wasn't just the passing game that helped the Spartans to the convincing victory. When the possession switched to Eaton, the Spartans defense jumped into action forcing an Eagle fumble and recovered by LB Chase Collins.
Valley View moved the ball to the Eagles 28 on a Newsock to Stephen Henry pass Back-to-back runs by Robby Cottingim and Newsock gave the Spartans a first down at the Eagle 16-yard line before Newsock, once again, threw a rocket to Michael Clark who ran it into the end zone. Eliot Boyd's kick was good making the score 14-0 with just 6:12 remaining in the half.
"Newsock's is executing a lot better. He also had a little bit more time, that helps, and the receivers are meeting their marks," Niswonger said.
The Eagles took the ball at their own 35 and moved 22 yards down the field on the strength of Chad Norton and then captured six points on a 35-yard Fudge to Manfred Schreyer pass. The extra point went left leaving the Spartans up by eight points, 14-6.
The Spartans were concentrating on Norton and Schreyer the entire night but this time Eaton managed to pull through the tough Valley View defense.
"Chad Morton and Manford Schreyer are their two top guys and we did a good job with them. We thought we wouldn't be able to hold them, but we did," Niswonger said.
Valley View punted the ball back over to the Eagles on their next series but five plays later,Collins stepped up again and intercepted a Fudge pass, with just over a minute left before the half. And that's all the momentum the Spartan needed.
On the next play, Newsock pitched the ball to Cottingim who turned and threw to Lucas Kramer putting the ball at Eaton's 18 yard line. With just 5.1 seconds remaining, the Niswonger opted for the field goal. Boyd shot a 29 yard ace through the poles and made the score 17-6 at the end of the first half.
The Spartans opened the second half of play with strong rushing on the part of Kramer, Moore and Cottingim. But then with three straight bad snaps Newsock found his team facing a third and 22 situation. To make matters worse, a motion penalty forced the Spartans back another 5 yards stretching the first down distance to 27. Newsock calmly pulled back and fired to Cottingim for a 63 yard touchdown It was reminiscent of former Spartan great plays. The score became 24-6 with almost two full quarters ahead of them.
The Eagles couldn't move on their next possession after big defensive hits by Rupp, Collins, Boyd and Brian Parker. The Spartans next scoring attempt ended on the Eaton 25 yard-line when Boyd's 42-yard field goal attempt just missed to the right fo the uprights.
The fourth quarter moved along very quickly With neither team able to find the endzone until the 4:48 mark. It became a scoring frenzy for both teams up until the very end of the game.
The Spartans started first, moving the ball to their own 45. Newsock then tossed to the wide open Stephen Henry who raced 55 yards downfield; touchdown Spartans. Henry's TD was only made possible when at the 10-yard marker, Lucas Kramer raced out of nowhere to crush the Eaton defender allowing Henry the extra distance to the endzone.
The kick was good. 31-6, Spartans. It wasn't over just yet.
Just one minute and 22 seconds later, Boyd jumped up and snagged the Spartans' second interception of the night, setting up freshman QB Chris Cason's first varsity touchdown. Boyd put the icing on his interception, knocking the kick through the uprights, 38-6.
It still wasn't over.
On the Eagles first play of their next possession, with just 1:06 left on the clock, Schreyer got the best of Valley View, as he dodged 79-yards to the end zone, ending the night with a score of 38-13.
Newsock ended the game completing 17-of-23 for 342 yards and passing for four touchdowns.
