AKRON – After all the offensive highlights Tippecanoe Valley produced in the second quarter Friday night, it was a key defensive play right before halftime that helped the Vikings hang on for a 28-26 win over Three Rivers Conference rival Northfield. With Valley leading 20-12, the Norsemen were driving down the field late in the second stanza when junior Tanner Andrews picked off an Austin Curless pass at the 5-yard line and returned it 90 yards to the opposite 5-yard line. Andrews’ big play set up a two-play drive that was capped off by a 2-yard touchdown pass from junior Ben Shriver to senior Jacob Ritchey. Shriver ran the ball for a two-point conversion, and the Vikings led 28-12 at halftime. “Tanner Andrews is a great kid and a great athlete,” said Valley head coach Jeff Shriver. “Tanner is a play-maker, and he made a big play right before halftime. He’s the focus of our opponents’ defense, and maybe he had an off-night as a receiver, but he made a big defensive play that helped us win a football game.” Andrews, the 2011 Times-Union Offensive Player of the Year, finished the game with five catches for 89 yards. The 6-foot-3, 185-pound standout slipped a few times though and didn’t haul in some passes that maybe he normally would. The pass he picked off from Curless, however, certainly made up for it in the grand scheme of things, as the Vikings improved to 4-1 overall and 3-0 in TRC play. With its 16th-straight loss to Valley, Northfield fell to 1-4 overall this season and 0-3 in conference action. It wasn’t the dominating performance against Northfield Valley’s fans have been accustomed to, but it was a win nonetheless, and the Vikings are still in a three-way tie atop the league standings with North Miami and Rochester. “Northfield is much-improved,” said the seventh-year Valley skipper. “Coach (Tony) Uggen is doing a good job there. Most of their kids were on their baseball state championship team in the summer, and they know how to win. You can’t fault Northfield’s effort. They’re getting better. They lost a close game to Rochester last week. Northfield is definitely a much better team than they’ve been.” Valley took a 6-0 lead late in the first quarter when senior Justin Gunter ran in from 24 yards out. The extra-point kick failed. With a 31-yard touchdown run by junior Chris Torpy and a conversion from Ritchey, the Vikings were up 14-0 with 10:22 remaining in the first half. Five minutes later, however, with a 13-yard Curless-to-Jared Kirtlan touchdown pass and a 61-yard Curless scoring scamper, Northfield cut the deficit to 14-12. Their extra-point conversions failed on both scores. The Vikings responded with a 2-yard touchdown run from Torpy with 4:18 left in the half, and then Andrews’ big defensive play, which set up the Ritchey touchdown catch. In all, Valley scored 22 points in the second quarter. The key play in the game, however, was the stand by the Wrecking Crew defense when the Norsemen could have tied the game going into the intermission. After scoring 45 points in the first half in last week’s rain-shortened game at Southwood, and then putting 28 points on the board in the first 24 minutes Friday, the Vikings were held scoreless in the third and fourth quarters. Northfield scored twice in the second half – in the third quarter on a 70-yard fumble return by sophomore Josh Bickel and on a 3-yard run by junior Alec Wells in the fourth quarter. Following Wells’ score with 1:16 remaining in the game, senior Andy Roser barrelled his way in for a two-point conversion that cut Valley’s advantage to 28-26. Valley safely fielded the ensuing kickoff and was able to escape with the win. While Shriver was happy his team won, he’s well aware there’s work to be done. “Our biggest concern right now is consistency on offensive,” said Shriver, whose team has won nine of its last 10 conference games. “I’m not making excuses, because we don’t do that around here, but we haven’t been able to solidify the offensive line yet. We’ve had injuries and illness, things every team in the state go through, but we’re trying to solidify our line. Another thing that hurt us tonight was losing Mason Teel, our tight end. We hope it was nothing more than a tweak to his knee and we get him back. He’s a big part of our running game. He’s a great blocking tight end, and he’s made some catches for us. We missed him in the second half.” Teel went down with a knee injury in the first half, limped off the field and didn’t return to the game. Gunter led Valley’s ground game with 95 yards on 11 carries, while Torpy added 52 yards on eight attempts. Ben Shriver completed 9 of 18 passes for 103 yards, the majority of the yardage going to Andrews. For Northfield, Curless racked up 115 yards on 15 carries, while Roser added 22 carries for 97 yards. Curless completed 9 of 16 passes for 67 yards. Tanner Wilcox caught three passes for 28 yards, while Kirtlan caught three balls for 25 yards. The Vikings are in action again Friday when they travel to Wabash, while Northfield hosts Whitko.
T. VALLEY 28, NORTHFIELD 26 NF 0 12 6 8 — 26 TV 6 22 0 0 — 28
