COAL GROVE – The streak may have hit its peak.

Thursday, August 24, 2000

COAL GROVE – The streak may have hit its peak.

The Hornets host the Lucasville Valley Indians Friday in the season opener, and the Indians are riding a 41-game regular season winning streak.

But that streak is in jeopardy after senior tailback Matt Keeney suffered a broken collarbone in Valley’s scrimmage and is lost for the season. Keeney rushed for 1,238 yards last season.

"I’m not glad he got hurt, but that’s the way the game goes. We’ve lost kids down through the years, too. You just have to prepare and go from there and I’m sure that’s what they’ll do," Coal Grove coach Nick Miller said.

"It’s a long season. They’re not going to roll over and quit. They’ll come in here ready to play."

Keeney’s loss will be felt on defense as well. The Indians will try to replace him at linebacker in the 5-3 alignment with junior Ryan Spriggs (5-11, 175). The other linebackers are Williams and McCoy.

"They’ve still got some good players. If they were in our league they would one of the best teams," Miller said.

Another key loss for Valley was the graduation of Nick Bukiewicz who had transferred from Portsmouth Notre Dame. Bukiewicz passes for 1,167 yards and ran for another 797.

Replacing Bukiewicz is junior Nick Harris (6-1, 175). The rest of the backfield will consists of senior Jake Williams (6-1, 205), who transferred from Piketon, and junior Michael Spencer (5-8, 200) at fullback with sophomore Zach McCoy (5-10, 165) and sophomore Drew Mader (5-9, 165).

Valley has won six Southern Ohio Conference Division I titles in the past eight seasons. Lucasville and Oak Hill are Division V-size schools according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association computer breakdown. The remainder of the league – Green, Symmes Valley, Portsmouth Notre Dame, and Portsmouth East – are all Division VI schools.

Coal Grove is a Division V school which makes the matchup with Valley important toward the postseason playoffs.

"We were 1-9 last year, so we’re not even thinking about playoffs. We’re just going to take it one week at a time and try to win as many games as we can," Miller said.

The Coal Grove-Lucasville Valley game will offer fans an added feature. The officials for the game will have an on-field microphone.

"It’ll be just like a pro game where they flip on the mike and call holding or whatever the call is," Miller said.

Coal Grove renovated its sound system this year and added the microphone for the officials.