Monster football clash set when Highland goes to River Valley

CALEDONIA — It's like Superman versus Batman or maybe Godzilla against Mothra.

The Mid Ohio Athletic Conference's top rushing attack will square off against its most prolific aerial assault when Highland goes to River Valley Friday night in a huge league football game.

If that sounds like the plot to a comic book or monster movie, that's kind of what the Scots versus the Vikings ― or by proxy Dane Nauman versus Cayden Shidone — promises to be.

"You may as well say he’s a heck of an athlete," Highland football coach Ty Stover said of Shidone, RV's free-wheeling quarterback. "That’s what he is. With that being said, we know he’s wonderful. They had 62 offensive snaps last week (at Shelby), and he either ran or threw on 55 of them. We know it revolves around him. Talking about it is one thing and handling it is another."

That's exactly what RV boss Doug Green said when asked about Highland's running game and specifically the league's top rusher and scorer in Nauman.

"Knowing what you need to do to stop a good running back and being able to do it are two different things.," Green said, echoing Stover. "For us, fundamentals are going to come into play, but we want to gang tackle when we’re on defense, and we’ve got to execute when we’re on offense."

And that's the same way Highland's approaching its dilemma.

"It all comes down to being us and doing what we do best and that’s playing solid defense and running the football and see what happens," Stover said.

River Valley averages 44.4 points per game in the MOAC, which is tops. So is Shidone's 2,583 passing yards on a 61 percent completion percentage and 28 touchdowns through the air. The senior QB has also rushed for 879 yards and 14 more TDs.

"We will do our best," Stover said of handling Shidone's playmaking. "We’ll put some packages together to try to give our guys a little opportunity to at least manage him. I didn’t say stop him because that’s not going to be the situation. We’ll try to make some plays and create a turnover if we can at some point. That is the goal."

The Scots have been stout on defense, especially in league play, allowing just 15 points per game, which is the best in the conference. Highland is No. 1 in rushing yards allowed with 1,049, but also tops in the MOAC in two key passing defense categories: 41 percent completions against and 14 interceptions, which are five more than the next team.

But Highland has another wrinkle it wants to use to ground RV high-flying offense. If the Scots can grind out some long series, that keeps Shidone's pyrotechnics on the sideline.

"I told Dane this week that we love you breaking them for 50 and 60 and 70 (yards), but if you wouldn’t mind chunking them up at about 7 of 8 (yards per play), let’s try that for a little while," Stover said with a laugh. "We handled Shelby the same way. We will try to reduce the time of the game and make plays offensively in the box and try to manage Shidone. Those guys (at receiver for RV) aren’t little guys, so we’ll try our best to contain their edge guys for them. We’ll play within us and do what we do best and see how it comes out."

River Valley ranks in the middle of the pack in points allowed in MOAC games at 26.6, but the Vikes are last in rushing defense, giving up 1,509 yards. Nauman leads the conference with 1,858 yards (232 yards per game and more than 8 yards per carry) and 22 rushing touchdowns.

"I think it’s a situation where if we can get as many bodies on him as possible, I think that’s the key. We have to make sure we gang tackle him," Green said of the game plan against the junior running back.

Last year, River Valley faced Highland in a nonleague game and beat the Scots 35-21. Shidone did what he does and completed 24 of 40 passes for 314 yards in leading the offense to 465 yards and 24 first downs. The key was not allowing Nauman to go crazy. He still had a good night with 168 yards on 20 carries and a TD, but he didn't run all over them for 48 minutes.

Green showed his squad the tape to remind them of how they played it a year ago.

"Especially with a team that returns a lot of players, we definitely want them to look and see that you guys have played them before and you have tackled him before," he said. "We want them to get a look at that and realize we’re not going to get that game over again, but if we watch the film and we see that again this year, then we're going to do this instead of doing that. We always want to learn from those previous games."

More important than the offense versus offense matchup is the fact that both teams are vying for potential playoff seeding, while the Scots (6-2, 5-0) are still tied atop the MOAC standings with Clear Fork with two weeks to go and a looming Week 10 matchup with the Colts. Stover hopes his team is ready for the challenge.

"The formula for football is never going to change," Stover said. "As long as you’re physical, as long as you’re running down hill and you have great energy, you have a high probability of getting the job done. That’s what we try to do."

As for River Valley (5-3, 3-2), it saw its MOAC title hopes dashed last week at Shelby 37-20, so Green wants to see his team bounce back from the disappointment and refocus on the task at hand.

"The biggest thing for us that we always try to get across to them is every week you have to come back to work," he said. "Some weeks you have more to work on and some you have less, but we have to come back to work. Anytime you’re looking at a situation where your coming off a loss, we’re going to dig back into our fundamentals a little bit and be better there. Ultimately that’s what it has to come down to."

rmccurdy@gannett.com

419-610-0998

Twitter @McMotorsport

Instagram @rob_mccurdy_star

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Monster football clash set when Highland goes to River Valley