AKRON - The Culver Military Academy Eagles came into Death Valley looking to upset the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings Friday, which they did by using a third quarter surge to take a 24-14 victory.
Valley came into the season as an hornorable mention in the Indiana 3A preseason polls, but that didn't help them against CMA.Despite a 6-3 halftime lead, Valley let the game slip away early with three second-half fumbles, two in the third quarter.
CMA took the second-half kickoff and drove 69 yards to take the lead.
Capping the scoring drive, Josh Wright threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Carl Rivera. The Tom O'Neil kicked the extra point for a 10-6 lead.
"You have to give Culver some credit they had some big runs against us. They started running the option and midstream and we didn't respond well at times. We just had some blown assignments that allowed big plays," Valley coach Jeff Shriver said.
Valley took the ensuing kickoff and started a a drive that appeared as though they would run down the field. But just when things were going good, Derek Leckrone was stripped of the ball and recovered by the Eagles.
Four plays later, including a 29-yard run by Wright to start the drive, Derry drove through the Valley line to capp the drive with a three yard dive. The O'Neil kick ran the score to 17-6 to end the third.
"I am proud of our guys, no matter what happened the continued to fight on. I take full responsibility for this loss. We just were not as pepared to stop the option," Shriver said.
CMA ran the score to 24-6 with 9:16 left in the game when Wright scampered through the middle and outran the Valley defense for 27 yards for their final score.
The fourth quarter brought some bright points to the Valley night.
Despite not being able to get any pass completed throught the first three quarters Ross Miller threw a 43-yard touchdown pass. He hit Devin Vogel down the righ side sidelines and Vogel sprinted to the end zone.
Miller ran in the two-point conversion and brought the score to 24-14 with 3:21 left in the game. Miller finished the night with 4-of-11 passing, 118 yards and one touchdown.
"I wouldn't trade this team for their team anyday. We did a good job trying to make a game of it at the end. We got the passing game going. We will be a better team next week. We will not be the same team we were tonight," Shriver said.
Shriver continued, "We will have to play better defense against the option next week. We have Bremen coming in and they ran the option well last year. We will just have to improve on our five option defenses."
Despite Valley outpassing CMA, 118-59, the Eagles outgained Valley 345 to 273 yards.
CMA was led by Zach Deery with 113 yards on seven carries. Wright also added 108 on 12 carries and 59 yards in the air on 6-of-11 passing.
