Bell, Yes: Vikings Rally Past Rochester
ROCHESTER — Tippecanoe Valley played an awfully good second half Friday night — a Bell of a second half, in fact.
After recording just 11 total offensive yards over the first half and falling behind 14-0 at halftime, the Vikings flipped the script in the second half, shutting down the host Zebras and piling on five scores en route to a 34-14 Bell Game victory in Rochester.
“We kind of just had a heart-to-heart with the offensive line, and they came out and played. We had made some switches at the beginning to fix what was happening last week, so we went back to our starting offensive line, and they just started blocking. They had fire in their eyes, and they weren’t giving it up,” said Valley coach Stephen Moriarty of his team’s dominant second half showing.
Defense kept the Vikings in the game over a mistake-laden first half that saw the visitors cough up a trio of turnovers — two fumbles and an interception — and register 31 penalty yards.
Rochester capitalized on Valley’s first turnover — a pick by defensive back B.J. Barnes at the Vikings’ 16 — with a quick, six-play scoring drive capped off by Isaiah Jackson’s 2-yard run at the 4:43 mark of the first quarter. The Vikings actually went backwards on their next offensive series, and the Zebras capitalized on another short field with a seven-play, 37-yard drive into the Valley end zone culminating in Landon Kelly’s 8-yard run up the middle, which put the home team up 14-0 with Wade Shafer’s second successful point-after kick with 13.9 seconds remaining in the opening stanza.
The Vikings would turn over two more times in the second quarter with a pair of lost fumbles, but their defense stood tall both times, refusing to bite on a fake punt and run on fourth down to turn Rochester over on downs midway through the second period, and then — after Valley coughed up another fumble on the very first play of its next possession — holding Rochester to a field goal attempt from the Valley 12, a field goal attempt that sailed well low with 1:11 remaining in the half.
“Defense, we shut them down. They had less than 100 yards in the first half, so defensively we didn’t have a whole lot to change,” said Moriarty.
“I knew that we were close. It’s just that we didn’t play well, and we’re still only down 14.”
The Vikings wasted little time marching downfield in the second half, scoring on a 10-play, 66-yard drive, which Jacob Eherenman finished off with a 6-yard run up the middle to half Valley’s deficit at the 8:28 stop of the clock. Rochester promptly went three and out against the Vikings’ stout defense, and Valley marched the ball back 67 yards in six plays, Dakota Gaff’s 5-yard run up the gut tying the game up with 3:52 left in the frame. A fumble on the Valley 1-yard line prevented Rochester from taking the lead once more, the visitors marched it back 99 yards, and Gaff struck again, this time from 8 yards out, for the go-ahead with 5:15 left to play. Playing to win and facing deficits late, the Zebras gambled on fourth down conversions deep in their own territory on their next two possessions, gambles that resulted in short Valley fields and two more scores by the visitors — a 1-yard keeper by Tanner Trippiedi and a 29-yard run by Jaydin Conley that brought the score to its final margin with 45 seconds on the game clock.
All told, Valley tallied 282 offensive yards over the second half, Conley rushing for 114 yards in 16 carries, Gaff finishing with 88 yards in eight carries, and Eherenman putting up 52 yards in seven carries, as well as giving the Vikings a big push out of the backfield.
“Gaff and Conley, they finished every run they had. And that’s the thing — they’re going 90 miles an hour. Jacob Eherenman had one heck of a game blocking, taking on (Bryce) Abbott in the middle. Abbott is a fantastic middle linebacker and active too, and once we stopped him, we had some holes open,” Moriarty said.
“It feels good. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s just crazy,” Eherenman said of his team’s comeback. “We were down. We all thought we were going to lose. We came out, we got our heads up, we got the lead and then started going from there.”
Rochester finished with 179 offensive yards led by quarterback Nick Allen’s 61 rushing yards in 11 carries and Abbott’s 42 yards in 14 rushes. Allen also completed 5-0f-13 passes for 48 yards in the loss as Valley retained possession of the traveling Bell Trophy following a 13-7 win over the Zebras at home in Akron last season.
“It’s just such a great atmosphere, and it’s good for both sides, for Valley and Rochester, the community to get together,” explained Moriarty of the Bell Game rivalry. “Even the guys holding the flags over there, they’re like ‘Hi, Coach Mo.’ They knew me; one was my neighbor. It’s just weird to see that. There’s something in the air. It’s just like a season within a season.”
Rochester dips to 3-2 and 3-1 in the Three Rivers Conference. Valley improves to 4-1 overall and 4-0 in the TRC. The Vikings return home to host Whitko next Friday.