Storm nets 100th school win
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| Bureau Valley’s Alex Franklin breaks loose for a run against River Valley. (BCR photo/Kevin Marsh) |
MANLIUS — The River Valley football program cruised into Manlius Friday night on a hope and a prayer. Hoping for a win and praying that the pain of losing their last 31 games would subside under the lights of the Bureau Valley Storm stadium.
However by the time the bus was warmed up and fans buckled in their cars for another long ride home, they again would have to pin their hopes on another day after the Storm rained on their potential parade, cruising themselves to a 53-12 win on 434 yards of total offense, scoring all its points in the first half and giving the school its 100th football win.
For a brief moment, it looked as if the Falcons taking the opening kickoff of the contest may have gotten the attention of a higher power when senior running back Cody Crew took a handoff from quarter back Jeff Miller and split the Bureau Valley defense for an 80-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage that only shortened the game clock by 45 seconds.
However Bureau Valley coach Jeff Ohlson had his kids prepared, and was some what unfazed by the Falcons' good fortune. “We did somethings defensively that we hadn’t done before, and I think that it hurt us a bit, when they had the ball first,” Ohlson said. “They caught us in something that were working on, but wern’t quit there yet. We were in a spread, and they caught us , but give credit to them.”
While the margin of victory was large, Ohlson was happy with his team's performance over its' game one win last week and saw some needed improvements. “We talked to the kids about doing somethings this week that we didn’t do last week. We thought last week we didin’t finish some things, and we want to get better every week. I told the kids that great teams get better every week. I saw us do somethings tonight that I was happy with. We run some plays that we executed last week, and that’s what we look at. We treat every opponent the same,” he said.
The Storm lit up their side of the scoreboard on their first possession. After Alex Franklin’s 30-yard touchdown run was called back on a holding call, senior Michael Weidner hit paydirt for a 10-yard score
On the Storm's next possession, quarterback John King hit Franklin on a 61-yard pass with 4:40 remaining in the first quarter to give Bureau Valley a 14-6 lead after the 2-point attempt was successful.
River Valley, having no success with their running game, turned to the air, but after Miller’s seventh pass of their next possession, Bureau Valley’s Ryan Hix decided that Miller had went to the air one too may times and stepped in for an interception that set up the next score when Hix himself took the honors on a four-yard run off tackle.
The Storm went on to score 28 points to finish the first quarter, however while the offense was sparkling it was the defense, especially the defensive backs that had Ohlson all giddy. "My DBs (defensive backs) do a great job. They are aggressive. They will come up and hit, we tell them first that they have to come up and play the run,” he said. "If they can’t stop the run then we can’t win.”
More of the same was in store for River Valley to start the second quarter. After turning the ball over on downs. Weidner again found the end zone this time from 51 yards out, giving the Storm a 34-6 lead with 10:34 left before break. The final dagger in the quarter came from junior defensive back Tanner Schoff rumbled 81 yards into the Falcons' end zone after intercepting Miller’s errant pass. to close out the quarter.
Bureau Valley’s first punt of the contest came in the second quarter with 6:09 left when Weidner struck again, this time unleashing a 60-yard punt.
River Valley's final score came with mere second before the final buzzer during a shortened fourth quarter mercy rule clock.
Ohlson summed up his win by saying, “They scored the first and the last points, but we scored the 53 in the middle.”
