AKRON - Tippecanoe Valley football coach Jeff Shriver carried a Three Rivers Conference championship patch from 2006 in his pocket during Friday night's clash with North Miami. With a 55-13 thrashing of the visiting Warriors, this year's Vikings will have a patch of their own. What began as a battle of teams with perfect records in the TRC turned into an old-fashioned whoopin', as Valley scored the first 48 points of the game and earned at least a share of the conference crown. The Vikings can win the TRC outright with a victory at Whitko Friday. "We came out and met the challenge of physicality," said Shriver, whose team improved to 6-2 overall and 6-0 in the TRC with its sixth-straight win. "We came out from beginning to end and dominated this game," he added. "I'm very proud of our young men." North Miami fell to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in the TRC. Rochester, which defeated Whitko Friday night, is 5-1 in conference play and travels to North Miami in the regular season finale. Whitko, last year's conference champion, fell to 4-2 and will host the Vikings this Friday. "We've got a share of the conference," said Shriver. "We want to be greedy. We need to go to Whitko and take care of business." The Vikings certainly took care of business against North Miami, as they scored in all three phases of the game. Valley's offense racked up 364 yards and three touchdowns on the ground and 76 yards and three touchdowns through the air, while David Green scooped up a fumble and returned it 45 yards for a score and James Gregory returned a kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown. "I can't say enough about the senior leadership and the commitment those kids have made to Tippecanoe Valley football," said Shriver. "We've got great senior leadership, and we've got some young kids that are doing some great things. This is a great team win." Not only was Friday's game for first-place in the conference, but also Valley's homecoming and senior night. Treston Fisher, Valley's starting center, was named homecoming king. And because of the holes he and his offensive line mates opened, the Vikings are conference royalty. Senior James Gregory carried the ball 13 times for 101 yards and a touchdown, while Nolan Sponseller added six carries for 95 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown. Junior Dan Miller added 49 yards on six carries, sophomore Chris Torpy chipped in with 48 yards on eight carries and junior Justin Gunter finished with 14 carries for 33 yards and a touchdown. Through the air, sophomore quarterback Ben Shriver completed 6 of 9 passes and threw touchdowns to sophomore Tanner Andrews and juniors Mason Teel and Dayton Cohagen. "We experienced some adversity with different issues earlier in the season, but this is a great night and a great win for our program," said Shriver. "This is long overdue, and I couldn't be prouder of our young men." The Vikings led 6-0 after the first quarter, 28-0 at halftime and 41-0 at the end of the third quarter. The Warriors scored their first touchdown when senior Austin See rushed in from eight yards out with 3:19 remaining in the game. See, playing quarterback at the time after he stared the game at receiver, added a 20-yard touchdown run with 44 seconds to play. "We played some young kids at the end of the game, and they scored a couple times," said Shriver. "Most of the kids got to play, and that's when they scored a couple times. Our defense shut them down the majority of the game." See led North Miami's rushing attack with 12 carries for 85 yards, the majority of which came in the second half when the Vikings had the game well in hand. Junior Brady Briggs, who entered the game as the conference's second-leading rusher with over 800 yards, was held to 60 yards on 20 attempts.
