The Coal Grove Junior Hornets had a stingy defense this season. They decided to get stingy with some other things, too.

After sharing the Ohio Valley Conference Middle School football championship, the past two seasons, the Junior Hornets took it all for themselves after beating the Rock Hill Junior Redmen 34-12 last Thursday.

The Junior Hornets not only won the title outright, but also finished unbeaten at 7-0. It was their first unbeaten season since 2005.

Coal Grove shared the league title with Chesapeake and Fairland in 2006 and with Chesapeake and Rock Hill last year. It was the 18th time the Hornets have won or shared the league title including four straight.

The stingy defense allowed just five touchdowns all season and only two by the first unit. Conversely, the offense broke two school records this season as they set new standards for points in a game (59) and points in a season averaging 37 per game.

Alex Bare got the scoring started with a 13-yard scoring run. Tanner Dutey passed to Bryan Steele for the two-point conversion to give the Hornets an 8-0 lead.

Bare ran back a punt 62 yards for a touchdown and his conversion run made it 16-0.

In the second quarter, Bare hit Cody Pennington with a 25-yard TD pass and it was 22-0.

Rock Hill got on the board just before time ran out on a 70-yard halfback pass from Shane Harper to Jordan Brown and it was 22-6.

Coal Grove’s defense came up with a big play to start the second half as Brandon Hogsten picked off a screen pass and ran it back 50 yards for the score and it was 28-6.

It was the defense making another big play as Bare got his second interception and ran it back to the 17. Hogsten scored on a burst up the middle on the first play of the fourth quarter and it was 34-6.

Harper’s 2-yard touchdown run for Rock Hill capped the scoring.

The Hornets ran for 207 yards and threw for 41. Bare had a big all-around game with a rushing touchdown, another passing, a punt return for a TD, a conversion run, and two interceptions.

Kyle Estep ran for 64 yards and Hogsten 57. Steele had 43 yards on six carries.

Estep led the “Black Attack” defense with nine tackles. Brandon Newcomb, Dutey and Hogsten had five each while Trevor Barrett had four stops and batted down or deflected three passes.

Rock Hill rushed for 112 yards and threw for 100. The Redmen were 5-of-12 passing with three interceptions.

Coal Grove is coached by Rick Barrett, Jarrod Keaton, Bryan Kidd and Layne Wireman.

Coal Grove 16 6 6 6 = 34

Rock Hill 0 6 0 6 = 12