INDIANAPOLIS — There must be something about Lucas Oil Stadium that makes teams want to pass. Home of the Indianapolis Colts, Lucas Oil Stadium hosted four high school games Saturday as part of the Horseshoe Classic, including Tippecanoe Valley against Class 2A No. 5 Bremen. After each team enjoyed passing the ball around in the opening half, Valley went to a ground attack in the second half, coming back from a 7-6 hole to win 21-7. In the first half, Valley ran 20 plays, nine of which were passes – Bremen intercepted three of them. The Lions went to the air on 14 of its 30 first-half plays, getting picked off three times themselves. The aerial assault created an odd feeling as the two teams have been predicated on the run in the past. But in the second half, Valley ran the ball 22 times to its seven passes, controlling the clock. In fact, Bremen ran just four plays in the fourth quarter. The Lions had a chance to run more plays, but a roughing the kicker penalty late in the game, gave Valley a first down and seven more plays to run before letting the clock expire. "Too many mistakes," Bremen coach Bob Holmes said. "We didn't execute when we needed to and Tippy Valley did. They were very opportunistic." And there were plenty of opportunistic plays for the Vikings. After Bremen took the 7-0 lead on a pass from junior quarterback Kai Slough to junior Ryan Zellmer in the second quarter, Valley sophomore Jarred Littlejohn intercepted a Slough pass three minutes later and returned it 37 yards for a score. The extra point failed, leading to the 7-6 Bremen lead at the half. After intercepting Valley junior quarterback Ben Shriver for the fourth time on the Vikings' first possession of the second half, the Lions appeared to be primed to gain total control, getting a first down at the Valley 14-yard line. But then Valley got opportunistic. On first down, Slough's handoff fell to the ground and Valley senior Adam Furry hopped on it. With possession at their own 17, Valley moved the ball to the 27 and then decided to get a little tricky. Taking the snap, Shriver threw a lateral pass to junior Tanner Andrews, who then launched it downfield to junior Nolan Sponseller for a 73-yard touchdown strike. "Thursday night, we threw that double-pass play three times at practice and didn't complete one," Valley coach Jeff Shriver said. "We completed it on a day when we needed to." Following a successful two-point conversion run by junior Chris Thorpy, Valley recovered a mishandled kickoff, setting the Vikings up at the Bremen 38-yard line with 6:57 left in the third quarter. After five plays, Ben Shriver ran a five-yard quarterback keeper off the left side, extending his team's lead to 21-7 after the made extra point by senior Jacob Ritchey. Down by 14, Bremen came back with a 10-play 62-yard drive that ended at the 1-yard line when the Valley defense stopped the Lions on fourth-and-one with 30 seconds remaining in the quarter. "It's been a long time since we had a goal-line stand like that," Shriver said. "It's been a long time since we had a pick for six. So, we got some good things happening." One play before the fourth-down stand, Bremen junior Eric Knepper had his knee go down just before crossing the goal line. So just inches from the end zone, Holmes had no hesitation to go for it with a quarterback sneak. "If you have the ball at the 1-yard line and you can't put it in, you don't deserve to win," Holmes said. "That's my philosophy. We have to have enough intestinal fortitude to get the job done." The stop all but did lose the game for Bremen. And if it didn't, the roughing the kicker penalty later in the fourth quarter did. The game featured 10 turnovers, but Valley was able to overcome its four by limiting Bremen to 143 total yards. "That was the Wrecking Crew defense, which we talk about at Tippecanoe Valley," Shriver said. "I haven't looked at the stats, but they couldn't have had much rushing." Valley limited Bremen to 46 rushing yards, and had to as the coach's son struggled, completing 13 of 22 passes for 107 yards and four interceptions. "Last week (against Culver Military Academy), Ben ended up with some separated cartilage in his ribs, so he was a little gun shy," Shriver said about his son/quarterback. "He's going to be fine. Next week, we expect him to be healed up, but even pitching the ball was a problem for us today. He played real tough with some rib issues." Along with the quarterback getting injured against CMA a week earlier, Shriver's offensive line was also abused, but bounced back in Indianapolis. "We were a lot more physical football team this week," he said. "That's what we needed to do to be the team we wanted to be. It was a very difficult week of practice for an offensive lineman and a defensive lineman. I have to give them a lot of credit, because they really played an outstanding football game. A week ago, they were really much maligned by myself and other people for their lack of physicality and intensity." Looking to avoid an 0-2 start, the Valley coaches didn't just have to worry about a quality Bremen team, but they also had to contend with the distraction of playing at Lucas Oil Stadium. "When we got off the bus, I was a little concerned," Shriver said. "We've been down here several times to see games, but holy cow, we were walking backwards with our cell phones in the air taking pictures. If I said, 'Hey, in a minute we're going to go down to the locker room,' they were all sprinting to the locker room. I just said, 'Just relax here a little bit.' We had to take a deep breath, but then we came out and played football." And the Vikings weren't only able to enjoy the experience, but also got a win out of it too. "We got a great win today at Lucas Oil," Shriver said. "A memory the kids are going to have for a while." Valley opens its Three Rivers Conference schedule Friday at home against Manchester.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 21, BREMEN 7 TV 0 6 15 0 — 21 B 0 7 0 0 — 17
TV B 1st downs 13 7 Rushing yds 104 46 Passing yds 180 97 Comp-Att-Int 14-23-4 5-18-3 Total yds 284 143 Fumbles/lost 0/0 2/2 Penalties/yds 2/9 3/30 Punts/avg 3/34 3/47
Second Quarter B — Kai Slough 8 pass to Ryan Zellmer (Reid Zellmer kick) 9:28, 7-0 TV — Jarred Littlejohn 37 interception return (kick failed) 6:41, 7-6 Third Quarter TV — Tanner Andrews 73 pass to Nolan Sponseller (Chris Thorpy run) 6:58, 14-7 TV — Ben Shriver 5 run (Jacob Ritchey kick) 4:43, 21-7
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing — Valley, Justin Gunter 13-57, Thorpy 7-36, Ritchey 1-8, Dan Miller 1-5, Shriver 1-2, Sponseller 4-(-4); Bremen, Kevin Heckaman 11-33, Eric Knepper 10-25, Reid Zellmer 2-14, Kai Slough 6-(-26). Passing — Valley, Shriver 13-22, 107 yds, 4 INTs, Andrews 1-1, 73 yds, TD; Bremen, Slough 4-17, 72 yds, TD, 3 INTs, Ryan Zellmer 1-1, 25 yds. Receiving — Sponseller 2-86, Andrews 4-34, Dayton Cohagan 2-28, Gunter 3-13, Thorpy 1-7, Ritchey 1-6, Mason Teel 1-6; Bremen, Ryan Zellmer 3-37, Bobby Cornett 1-35, Heckaman 1-25.
