Valley Driving The Ship Again
AKRON – There is only one year of reference points to use. The road map Tippecanoe Valley’s Unified Flag Football team is using, however, is chock full of marked destinations.
Valley, playing in just the second year of Unified Flag Football, claimed its second title in as many years Saturday after beating a trio of teams in the Tippecanoe Valley Unified Flag Football Sectional. The Vikings were able to thump Warsaw, 46-14, and Goshen, 42-0, then hold off a very skilled Central Noble outfit, 28-20, in the sectional championship game.
The Vikings, defending the northern flag footballers at last year’s IHSAA State Finals, began their march back to the 317 with a high-powered offense and some very timely defensive stops.
After hanging nearly 90 points in its first two games Saturday, a Central Noble team awaited in the finals, the Cougars coming off a 33-25 win over East Noble and 42-32 slugfest against Wawasee in the semis. Led by Connor Essegian and Koalten Summers, Central Noble posed a different style of opponent than what Valley saw in the first two games. Essegian, a 6-foot sophomore who can fly, and the arm of Summers immediately posed problems as the two hooked up for a touchdown pass on the championship game’s first possession.
Valley would answer with a touchdown pass from Drew Thompson to Trystan Woodcox. The missed conversion left the score 7-6 Cougars.
After Essegian found Summers for a touchdown pass and two-pointer, Valley responded when Bryce Fisher broke off a full field run, with Thompson passing to Fisher for the tying conversion.
Central Noble would convert on a pair of fourth downs, then have Essegian find Summers again for a touchdown pass as a 20-14 lead.
Thompson wouldn’t be outdone, however, and made a nice scramble in the pocket to find Cade Brouyette open for a long pass play. Moments later, Fisher scored his second rushing touchdown of the game, followed by a Thompson to Brouyette connection for two. Just like that, Valley was up 22-20.
“I just went in and played as hard as I could play,” said the veteran Thompson, who was one of the key members of the 2018 state runner-up team. “I didn’t make some of the plays I normally make in practice, and I need to get that figured out before next week. But I was able to make some plays when it mattered the most.”
A nice pass breakup on fourth down by Damion Kohler kept Central out of the endzone, and that gave Fisher another chance to break off a huge touchdown run, putting Valley up 28-20 with just under six minutes left in the game.
“I think it was a run up the middle and I was just trying to read what was around me,” stated Fisher of his final touchdown run. “I just had a back cut that got me open to the other side of the field and had some daylight. It ended up being a nice run.”
Continued Fisher, “Really, everybody at school knows about us and we do get a lot of support. The school does a good job advertising it and the students do a good job getting behind it. It’s pretty cool to be a part of this.”
Central’s final drive saw Michael Wright make the biggest play of his career, intercepting a pass with 1:52 to go to give Valley the ball back, to which they ran out the clock to hoist a second sectional trophy.
The game featured five interceptions, Kohler with two to lead the Vikings and Essegian picking off a pair of Thompson passes. As edge rusher, Thompson had a trio of sacks, twice taking Central Noble out of an easy conversion distance.
“This year, really more than last year, this was a team defense and a team offense,” said Tippecanoe Valley head coach Jeff Shriver. “You saw that in the second half against Central Noble, we had a lot of different kids step up and make plays. Michael’s interception was the icing on the cake for us.”
Valley’s sectional title win moves the team into the Unified Flag Football regional round, where the team will take on Valparaiso, a 54-15 winner over East Chicago in their sectional final. The times and locations will be announced by the IHSAA later this week.