Tippecanoe Valley’s Jamasyn Virgil is met with a hard hit from Southwood’s Elijah Sutton during the 32-8 Knights win Friday night. InkFreeNews photo by Mike Deak

By Mike Deak
InkFreeNews

WABASH – Southwood made a statement right out of the gate. It’s been a familiar story in recent vintage for Valley.

A 57-yard touchdown pass from Alex Farr to Carson Rich on the Knights’ first play from scrimmage was a warning shot, and the guns just kept blazing in a Southwood 32-8 win over the visiting Vikings. The win is the third year in a row Southwood has knocked out Tippecanoe Valley in the final week of the regular season with the Three Rivers Championship hanging in the balance.

Farr had an outstanding night passing, going 11-15 for 227 yards and three touchdowns. His second strike to Rich was a thing of beauty, dropped in perfectly for a 24-yard scoring pass. Farr also found Cole Winer for a 56-yard touchdown pass in the third.

Isaiah Sutton and Dawson Flip added touchdown runs for the Knights, which piled up 328 yards on a usually stout Valley defense.

A shorthanded roster coming in, Valley just got shorter as the night went on. Missing several key players including Hunter Eherenman to a broken leg and Alex Craft for academic reasons, Valley lost another pair in Wade Jones to a possible concussion and Johnny Gonsalez to a leg injury during the Southwood contest. Valley was playing short four tailbacks in the game.

“We’re just going to have to overcome a lot of injuries,” said Tippecanoe Valley head coach Steve Moriarty during the postgame. “We have a lot of injuries, and that’s OK. That gives time for a lot of the younger kids. I told them in the endzone, it doesn’t change. I’m proud of them, I love them. I know we are putting them in positions they normally wouldn’t play, and they are getting better.”

Valley’s glaring holes in the offense were paramount in how it scored its only points of the night. Lineman Dalton Albers got a carry in the fourth, making the most of it and rumbling 49 yards for the first touchdown of his career with 2:39 to go in the game, and got his number 59 called for the two-pointer, to which he converted.

Of minor consolation with the Albers score, it kept the streak alive of Southwood having never shut out Valley in the 47-year history of the rivalry.

Valley would be held to 162 yards rushing, Joel Cisneros leading the team with 63 yards. The Knights also held Valley to just 39 yards passing, knocking away a fourth-down pass in the endzone as part of its lockdown.

Southwood (9-0, 7-0 TRC) wins its third straight undefeated TRC title, running its record streak to 26 consecutive wins in the conference in the process. The Class 1-A No. 3 Knights also cap its third straight overall undefeated regular season. The Knights will take on bitter rival Northfield next week in the sectional.

Valley (6-3, 6-2 TRC) will look to heal up ahead of hosting South Bend Washington next Friday in the Class 3-A sectional. Valley knocked off Washington, 19-14, a year ago in its first-ever tournament win in South Bend.