Vikings take SOC lead

Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 14, 2004

LUCASVILLE - The way the Symmes Valley Vikings were playing, the Lucasville Valley Indians knew they couldn't make a mistakes.

But they did.

Clinging to a 6-0 lead with just under three minutes to play, Derrek Cremeans and Craig Neal caused the Indians to fumble at midfield and Neal recovered for the Vikings.

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Neal hit Derek Carpenter with a 33-yard pass on the first play from scrimmage, and two plays later Cory Burcham ran 12 yards into the end zone for the tying touchdown.

Burcham then kicked the decisive extra point with 1:42 to play and the Vikings held on to beat the Indians 7-6 in a showdown for first place in the Southern Ohio Conference.

"I was so proud of our kids," Vikings coach Rusty Webb said. "I thought our defense played tremendous. Our offensive line again controlled the line of scrimmage again. We just have to quit making mental mistakes inside the 5-yard line. We never hung our heads. I have to give Valley credit. They played well."

Lucasville had one final chance (4-3, 2-1) but a 24-yard field goal attempt was short and went wide left.

"We got a good rush," Webb said.

The Vikings, 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the SOC, outgained Lucasville 246 to 170 in total yards. The Indians had 11 first downs, five coming on their final drive of the game.

Justin Holland ran 14 times for 60 yards, Carpenter had 58 on 15 tries, and Burcham ran 10 times for 57 yards.

"Derek Carpenter ran the ball by far his best game. I can not say enough about the way Justin Holland blocks. He did a great job of running and blocking tonight Burcham was not going to be denied on his (touchdown) run. He carried people into the end zone on his run," Webb said.

Although the final score was close, Symmes Valley had the ball for 32:15 of the 48 minutes.

"We dominated the whole game, we just didn't get in t in the end zone," Webb said. "We had a couple of breakdowns on defense on the one drive they had. Other than that, we dominated. The score in not indicative of how well we played."

The game was scoreless the first half, but Brock Williams intercepted a Vikings pass at the 45 and set up the Indians scoring drive.

Lucasville had a first and goal at the 4-yard line and finally scored on a fourth and inches on a quarterback sneak by Chuck Williams. The conversion kick was wide left and it was 6-0 with 5:27 on the clock.

Symmes Valley came right back and had a first and goal at the 10 but failed to score.

Sym. Valley0007-7

Lucasville0060-6

Third Quarter

LV - Chuck Gregory 1 run (kick failed) 5:27

Fourth Quarter

SV - Cory Burcham 12 run (Cory Burcham kick) 1:42

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SVLV

First downs1211

Rushes-yards46-20638-120

Passing yards4050

Total yards246170

Cmp-Att-Int4-11-27-13-0

Fumbles-lost0-01-1

Punts-average3-29.05-42.6

Penalties-yards8-834-20

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING – Sym. Valley: Derek Carpenter 15-58, Cory Burcham 10-57, Justin Holland 14-60, Craig Neal 6-18, Seth Saunders 1-13; Lucasville: Jordan Swavel 14-58, Corey Gulley 9-35, Chuck Gregory 6-21, David Myers 5-14, Ryan Turner 2-4, Brock Williams 1-(-2).

PASSING – Sym. Valley: Craig Neal 4-10-2

40, Michael White 0-1-0; Lucasville: Chuck Gregory 7-13-0 45.

RECEIVING – Sym. Valley: Derek Carpenter 2-33, Cory Burcham 1-7, Justin Holland 1-0; Lucasville: David Myers 4-23, Corey Gulley 3-27.

MISSED FIELD GOALS: Jered Hettinger, Lucasville Valley, 24.