Valley opens TRC play with 51-14 win over Manchester
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Anthony Gadson-agadson@timesuniononline.com
AKRON – Scoring two touchdowns on its first three offensive plays, the Tippecanoe Valley football team put Manchester away early Friday at Death Valley, winning 51-14. On the second play of the Three Rivers Conference game, Valley junior quarterback Ben Shriver hooked up with classmate Tanner Andrews for a 69-yard touchdown, and with the extra point Valley led 7-0. After forcing a three-and-out, Andrews returned a punt 50 yards to the Manchester 13. One play later, junior Chris Torpy rushed into the end zone. Even though the extra point was missed, the tone was set as the home team held a 13-0 lead with 9:13 still remaining in the opening quarter. “It’s bad defense,” Manchester coach Brandon Baker said. “It’s just poor defense. That’s what it boiled down to. I don’t think we played as hard as we had in the past two games. Obviously, they’re the best team we’ve played so far and probably the best team we’ll play all year. Our intensity wasn’t there. The execution was still not where it needs to be and against a good team like that, you know you’re going to be in a fight for 48 minutes. We spotted them too early and that’s a tough hole to climb out of.” Manchester (0-3, 0-1 TRC) did get put together a nine-play, 60-yard drive on its ensuing possession, punctuated with a one-yard touchdown by Jim Sainsbury, but Valley (2-1, 1-0 TRC) just had too much. Valley’s eight touchdowns were scored by seven different players. Only senior Justin Gunter scored twice, with his second being a 75-yard kickoff return with 2:48 remaining in the game. Outside of the Shriver-to-Andrews touchdown, all the other offensive scores were on the ground, including the one by Torpy, as well as TDs by Gunter, senior Dan Miller, junior Nolan Sponseller, senior Jacob Ritchey and sophomore Brandon Murphy. “We’ve got some people on our team, that when they touch the ball, they can do some good things,” Valley coach Jeff Shriver said. “That’s what we want. We don’t want to be predictable. I want to spread the ball around.” And his son, Ben Shriver, did that from the quarterback position. A week after throwing four picks against Bremen at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, he went 11 of 17 for 246 yards and the score, connecting with five different receivers. “This week, people were concerned about confidence and things, but it wasn’t a concern in our locker room,” Shriver said about his son. And even though he does spread the ball around, Ben Shriver’s favorite target is Andrews, who had two catches for 82 yards. His opportunities may have been limited because of a slight injury that kept him sidelined for the majority of the first half. “Tanner’s fine,” Shriver said. “His (quadriceps) or (hamstring) was a little tight, so we thought, ‘Hey, at this point we don’t want to take a chance.’ We were up three touchdowns and we wanted to sit him and rest him a little bit and really give some other guys an opportunity.” Another player fighting through pain was Manchester senior quarterback Jim Sainsbury. With his team down 25-6 midway through the third quarter, Sainsbury began to cramp up. After rushing for 36 yards and a score in the opening half, as well as throwing for another 36 yards, Sainsbury was slowed with the cramp, coming up lame each time he ran the ball from there on out. “That was disappointing, because he has pushed himself hard to be in shape,” Baker said. “I don’t know what it was, but tonight should have been when he flourished and he did when he was in there.” Whether or not Sainsbury was at 100 percent, Valley’s offense was just too much, racking up 461 total yards, 246 in the air and 215 on the ground. “We got after it and were able to make plays that we hadn’t been able to make,” the Valley coach said. “We did have some things we need to improve on. We had some opportunities when we were moving the ball up the field, but then we kind of stammered a little bit and got hit in the backfield.” Valley will face another winless team this Friday, as the Vikings travel to Southwood where they’ll probably get another opportunity to iron out any imperfections. “We just want to continue to get better and that’s all we can do,” Shriver said. “Teams don’t stay the same, they get better or worse. I’m excited about our potential.” Manchester will look to get into the win column Friday when it hosts Whitko.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 51, MANCHESTER 14 M 6 0 0 8 — 14 V 13 12 6 20 — 51
M TV 1st downs 15 16 Rushing yds 183 215 Passing yds 100 246 Comp-Att-Int 6-13-2 11-17-0 Total offense 283 461 Fumbles/lost 2/0 3/0 Punts/avg 5/33 1/31 Penalties/yds 3/30 4/30
First Quarter TV — Ben Shriver 69 pass to Tanner Andrews (Jacob Ritchey kick) 11:02, 7-0 TV — Chris Torpy 13 run (kick failed) 9:13, 13-0 M — Jim Sainsbury 1 run (conversion failed) 4:42, 13-6 Second Quarter TV — Justin Gunter 12 run (kick blocked) 11:55, 19-6 TV — Dan Miller 7 run (conversion failed) 1:32, 25-6 Third Quarter TV — Nolan Sponseller 27 run (kick failed) 5:57, 31-6 Fourth Quarter TV — Ritchey 15 run (Ritchey kick) 8:13, 38-6 TV — Brandon Murphy 8 run (Ritchey kick) 4:45, 45-6 M — Gunner Ream 7 run (Evan Olinger run) 3:00, 45-14 TV — Gunter 75 kickoff return (kick failed) 2:48, 51-14
