Patriots roll to 8-0 with win over Tiger Cubs
It was a night of mixed emotions for the Owen Valley players, their families and their fans on Patriot Field Friday evening. A night of tears and reflection, joy and pain, sadness and exhilaration as Owen Valley celebrated senior night, their last guaranteed home game, with a 48-7 win over the Greencastle Tiger Cubs.
"Hopefully that's not our last game on the field for our seniors.," Owen Valley head coach Rob Gibson said after the game. "I would hope that we're going to win a couple of games in the sectional and have the opportunity to play here at home for those guys because they deserve to play here as many times as they can. Just look around on the field tonight and look at how many seniors made plays tonight."
And make plays they did. From running back Christian McDonald running the ball for big yardage to quarterback Brody Lester making completion after completion and running the ball well himself. Receiver Chris Zeilstra, tight end Eli Hinshaw... they all made big plays.
Senior linemen Bryce Pardue-Mills, Logan McGraw and Kyler Walker did their thing, clearing paths and protecting their backfield on offense and chasing down the Greencastle offense while on defense.
On defense, seniors Seth Brewster, Dillon Risk, Payton Barger, Devon Lee, Damon Kay, and Jon Wetzel all got in on the action and made big stops.
It was one of those nights where, even though things didn't go exactly perfect, there was no stopping Owen Valley's quest for a senior night victory.
Early on, the Patriots marched downfield with Lester punching the ball in for six. A Connor Wardlaw extra point made it 7-0. OV then made it 14-0 on a Christian McDonald rush. The Tiger Cubs were able to find the endzone one time, getting within one score, 14-7, but it was off to the races after that.
Lester scored again to go up 20-7. A huge catch and run by Eli Hinshaw up the far sideline set up another score with McDonald running the ball in and making the two-point conversion to go up 28-7 before halftime. After the half, the Patriot offense continued to roll, even after suffering several injuries to some key components. OV was able to put up an additional 20 points to finish off the Tiger Cubs, 48-7.
"I know it's been a laundry list of things going on with penalties and injuries and things like that, but we got out relatively healthy and got the win," Coach Gibson noted after the game. "Always satisfied when we come out on top, but never satisfied with the total outcome. So we have to come out, 24 hours to celebrate, as always, but then we have Cloverdale next week. We have to finish off the season and get ready for the sectional."
Owen Valley (8-0, 4-0 WIC Gold) will travel to Cloverdale Friday night to take on the Clovers (1-7, 1-4 WIC Green). The Clovers lone win this season came in week three against Brown County, 29-27.
This article originally appeared on Evening World: Patriots roll to 8-0 with win over Tiger Cubs
