NORTH MANCHESTER — To celebrate Manchester's first-ever football game at the high school, there were fireworks before and after Friday night's game. Sophomore Tannder Andrews and the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings provided plenty in-between. To commence the Three Rivers Conference opener for both teams, Andrews caught touchdown passes of 69 and 21 yards, while also recording a 34-yard interception return for a touchdown to put Valley in front 20-0 late in the second quarter as the Vikings went on to win 42-14. "Tanner Andrews is one of those young men who's a very, very special kind of athlete," Valley coach Jeff Shriver said. "He's a young man, at times early in the season, that we really wanted to see more consistency from. He's been thrown into a big two-way starting position for us this year. " In all, Andrews caught six of sophomore quarterback Ben Shriver's seven completions for 168 yards. Shriver completed 7 of 10 attempts for 187 yards and two touchdowns. Along with their performances, sophomore Nolan Sponseller ran the ball six times for 100 yards, highlighted by a 51-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter that extended the Vikings' lead to 28-7. "Nolan's done a really, really, really good job for us and been consistent for us in the secondary," Shriver said. "We're pretty happy with his play." The sophomore trio of Andrews, Shriver and Sponseller may have the stats, but they're not the only underclassmen stepping up for the Vikings. "Tonight, we had a starting sophomore guard with Cameron Castle, a starting sophomore tackle in Nick Gamble, a starting sophomore quarterback (Ben Shriver), a starting sophomore wing (Nolan Sponseller) and a starting sophomore split end (Tanner Andrews)," Shriver said. "So, in a lot of years, we'd be a pretty good JV team, but we're playing varsity football right now." While Shriver had plenty of options in the game, Manchester's only productive option was senior running back Preston Penrod. After leading the TRC in rushing a year ago, Penrod entered Friday's game with 325 rushing yards and added 132 more in the loss, including an 80-yard touchdown run less than a minute into the second half, which was then trumped by Sponseller's dash two minutes later. Making Penrod's performance even more impressive was the defensive front he was facing, as senior quarterback Logan Brunn went 4 of 18 for 28 yards and two interceptions, although he did rush for 43 yards. Along with Brunn's passing, Penrod also threw an incompletion on a halfback pass and sophomore quarterback Cody Hann threw an incompletion as well. "Catch the ball," Manchester coach Brandon Baker said. "I don't know what it is. We catch them in practice. We ran the routes right. The ball was there, and we couldn't bring it in. We are going to have to be able to do that, because teams are going to put eight guys in the box, just like Valley did, and stop the run. If we can throw it, why wouldn't you? If I was scouting us, that's exactly what I'd do, because we haven't proven we can throw the ball." Outside of Penrod's touchdown run, the Squires picked up just eight first downs and 115 total yards. The Squires' other touchdown was scored on a fumble return by senior Jon Woodward late in the third quarter. "We couldn't sustain drives," Baker said. The Vikings finished the game with 449 total yards, including 262 on the ground. To accumulate that rushing total, nine runners contributed, with Sponseller's 100 yards leading the way. Junior Justin Gunter added 71 yards, while sophomore Chris Thorpy added 38 and senior James Gregory finished with 28. "We've got some depth at running back," Shriver said. "Maybe not as much as we thought we would have, but a situation where we were able to rotate some guys in." Utilizing the balanced offensive attack, which also saw Gregory score a 3-yard rushing touchdown and Thorpy score from a yard out, the Vikings won for the first time in their last seven games. "It's been a long time since we've gotten that win," Shriver said. Valley and Manchester will be off next Friday, instead traveling to Muncie Saturday to take part in TRC Day at Ball State University's Scheumann Stadium. Manchester will face Whitko at 2:45 p.m., while Valley will battle Southwood at 7:15 p.m.
