AKRON – For two teams coming into Friday night’s football contest with something to prove, Whitko spent more time proving its point in a 34-16 win at Tippecanoe Valley.

Both teams came into the night’s contest limping after lopsided losses last week in statement games. Valley started off red hot but cooled quickly while Whitko used a lot of redemption in answering Valley challenges.

Valley opened the game on fire, marching right down the field and inside the Wildcat 15. From there, Nick Feldman rumbled 15 yards for the touchdown, part of a 47-yard rushing night. Jarred Littlejohn scored the two-point conversion, and it was 8-0 Valley right out of the gate. It looked like Valley would add to its lead, moving inside the Whitko 30 after converting a fourth and one, but fumbled on the next play and Whitko recovered.

It never seemed to go quite right for Valley after that fumble.

Whitko would drive 68 yards, aided by a personal foul penalty, and finished with a 25-yard Garrett Elder run. The two-pointer was no good, leaving the score at 8-6.

Valley looked like it might have turned a corner, opening the second quarter with a nice drive. On fourth and three, Alec Craig rolled out and found Jonah Mikel for an apparent score, but the Vikings were whistled for a personal foul; touchdown negated. Whitko would sack Craig on the next play, ending the threat.

The Wildcats (6-3 overall) would respond later when Garrett Smiley ran one in from seven yards, and the Tanner Hughes conversion put the Wildcats up 14-8.

After a pair of turnovers, Whitko would add the dagger just before half. Hughes moved the ball into Valley territory, setting up a 47-yard pitch and catch from Elder to Trace Killian with just 24.9 seconds on the clock. Whitko held a 20-8 lead at the break, but the momentum had completely shifted.

“We hit that pass to Trace right before the half that was executed perfectly,” said Whitko head coach Josh Mohr. “Just like we do in practice but you never see in the game. It was just one of those things that happened just right and it worked out.”

Hughes would add touchdown runs of 25 and 47 yards in the second half, capping off a big night. The running back rushed 22 times for 169 yards while Elder added 88 yards on 11 carries to bolster Whitko’s 267 yards rushing on the night. Elder also completed 7-10 pass attempts for 125 yards.

Zach Baughman was also a beast on the defensive side of the ball for the Wildcats, registering 12 tackles, a sack, forced a fumble and recovered it.

Craig paced Valley with 123 yards passing and added 10 rushes for 18 yards. Littlejohn had three catches for 46 yards.

After falling victim to Rochester last week in what became a battle for the Three Rivers Conference title, won by TRC champion Rochester convincingly 56-14, Mohr was impressed with his team’s mettle with next week’s 3-A sectional game at Bellmont next on the list. Bellmont beat East Noble 24-21 Friday to move to 5-4 this season.

“We have to go down to Bellmont, but this is good for us which kind of boosts our confidence a little bit after a big loss last week,” Mohr said. “We kinda needed something to get us going again. I think this win helps our kids, our mentality going into Bellmont. We played them at our place last year and for our kids, it’s a little bit of a redemption. It’s nice to have a second chance at them.”

Valley, on the other hand, faded down the stretch. After pulling within 26-16 after Aaron Hoffman ran one in from eight yards, the Vikings allowed the 47-yarder to Hughes and failed to convert on its next two fourth-down plays. An unsportsmanlike penalty called late on the Vikings was the final straw for Tippecanoe Valley head coach Scott Bibler, who spent a few extra minutes speaking with his team afterwards.

“We come out and play tough, but we don’t finish tough,” Bibler said. “Even though the scoreboard does show it being close, at least the kids went out and competed hard. That was good to see.”

Valley falls to 1-8 overall and has to face Culver Academy (3-6) at Culver to open 3-A sectional play. The Eagles beat the Vikings 36-13 in week one but lost, 27-0, at home Friday night to Guerin Catholic.