Indians stopRedDevils, wrapupMVLtitle
Ca’Ron Coleman ran for three touchdowns as Piqua clinched the Miami Division championship in the Miami Valley League with its fifth straight victory in the series against Tippecanoe.
Piqua (5-0, 4-0) led from start to finish, winning 28-3 in Tipp City inWeek 5 of the high school football season. The Piqua defense has not allowed a touchdown in its last three games, and the team has outscored opponents 173-31.
“It was a great performance all theway around,” Piqua coach Bill Nees said. “They’re an outstanding defense, and theywere putting a decentamount of people in the box and we were slugging it out, but also our passing game was helping loosen things up.”
Field position played a big part in Piqua’s dominance.
“Every time we scored, our guy was kicking it out to the street,” Nees said.
“They started every drive at the 20-yard line. They were not getting good field position. Another time we got a punt back in there. They started six drives inside the 20. That’s gold for your defense.”
Tippecanoe fell behind early but had a chance to get back into the game in the second quarter.
Coleman started the scoring with a 13-yard touchdownrun in the first quarter. Piqua’s Tanner Kemp then scored on a 5-yard run in the second quarter to extend the lead to 14-0.
After a Piqua fumble, Owen Hadden got Tippecanoe on the board with a 30-yard field goal with 7:30 left in the half. The RedDevils had a chance to cut into the lead later in the second quarter, but Piqua’s Aidan Meyer picked off a pass in the end zone.
In the third quarter, Colemanscored on runs of 8 and 44 yards to give Piqua a 28-3 lead. He doubled his season rushing touchdown total to six. He finishedwith 112 yards on 14 carries.
Piqua’s Brady Ouhl completed 13 of 21 passes for 111 yards. Tippecanoe’s Troy Taylor completed 18 of 37 passes for 142 yards.
Tippecanoe, which had a game against Fairborn in Week 3 canceled, fell to 3-1 overall and 3-1 in the Miami Valley League. It closes the regular season at Xenia next week, while Piqua plays at Sidney.
One game remains in the six- game regular season.
Coaches will vote on seeding for the playoffs early next week, and the brackets will be announced Thursday.
“It will be interesting,” TippecanoecoachMatt Burgbacher said. It’s the first time for all us football coaches becausewe’re so used to the points system. It’s going to be exciting. We’re already in the playoffs. You don’t have thatpressureonyouof, ‘Hey, we’ve got to qualify.’”