Valley rallies by Chesy on FG

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 3, 2007

CHESAPEAKE — Is there an erase button for the first half?

After falling behind 28-12 at the half, the Chesapeake Panthers stormed back to take a lead.

But the Lucasville Valley Indians were able to get close enough for Travis Jones to kick a game-winning field goal with 11 seconds to play and beat the Panthers in a thriller Friday, 37-36.

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“They just got a good start and they made some plays and we missed some tackles,” Panthers coach Phil Davis said the Valley’s fast start.

“We stepped it up in the second half. We made a couple of changes in the second quarter to stop them from making some long runs.”

Davis made a change defensively after Valley went up 21-6 by inserting Heath Hazlett and Thomas Lewis as the defensive tackles.

“They did a fantastic job,” Davis said. “We just took a couple of kids who are tough kids. They aren’t real big, but the have a lot of heart. We just wanted to use some quicker people in there.”

The Indians went up 14-0 on a 53-yard run by Ryan Turner and a 27-yard scamper by Jones.

Chesapeake (1-3) came back to score with 1:31 left in the quarter to make it 14-6 when Aaron Donohoe ran 6 yards for a touchdown.

But Turner got free on a 54-yard scoring run and it was 21-6.

Donohoe scored on a 4-yard run but Jones returned the kickoff 81 yards for a touchdown and the lead was 28-12.

“Travis Jones did a really good job for them. I was impressed with him,” Davis said.

Still, Chesapeake wouldn’t quit.

Terry Brown had a 1-yard TD run and he threw to Aaron Ross for the conversion to get the Panthers within 28-20.

“We went down and scored and got some momentum and played better after that,” Davis said.

Donohoe threw 30 yards to Ross early in the fourth quarter and Donohoe ran for the conversion to tie the game with 10:59 left.

Jones put Valley back on top with a 16-yard jaunt but the Indians failed to convert their extra point and it was 34-28.

Chesapeake took its first lead on a 36-yard burst by Kersten Harris and Mike Stapleton’s conversion run put the Panthers up 36-34.

But the Indians got the ball at the 40-yard line and drove to the 5-yard line where Jones booted a 22-yard field goal to decide the outcome.

Harris had 101 yards on 16 carries as Chesapeake outgained the Indians in total yards and first downs.

Turner had 142 yards on 11 carries and Jones 131 on 17 tries as Valley got 328 yards rushing but only 8 passing.