By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

BIDWELL — Todd Knipp isn’t an English teacher. Maybe that’s why he likes a run-on sentence.

The sentence that he likes is “Let’s run the ball” and the Rock Hill Redmen followed those instructions as they ran past the River Valley Raiders 55-34 Friday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

The Redmen (2-7, 2-2) amassed 356 yards on the ground and quarterback Will McCollister threw for another 100 yards to generate 456 total yards.

“We’ve been able to get our running game going since we’ve been in the conference. It’s made all the difference in the world,” said Knipp.

“Our plan is always to mix the run and pass. We’re starting to click and hopefully we can carry this over next week and into next season.”

McCollister led the Redmen with 91 yards rushing on 11 carries including an 84-yard jaunt for a touchdown. Jesse Lane added 69 yards on three carries and Coty Davis had 64 yards on four attempts as 11 different players carried the ball.

River Valley (1-8, 0-4) was led by quarterback Jacob Hefner who was 27 of 40 passing for 231 yards and ran 21 times for 112 yards.

Davis had a 2-yard scoring run and McCollister added a 1-yard TD run as Rock Hill took a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

Austin Smith’s 1-yard touchdown run cut the deficit to 14-6 just before the end of the quarter.

McCollister scored one minute into the second quarter on a 2-yard plunge and the lead was 20-6.

River Valley drew within 20-18 as Hefner threw a 5-yard scoring strike to Trey Noble and a 14-yard touchdown toss to Jacob Brown with 11 seconds left in the half.

But Rock Hill blew the game open by outscoring the Raiders 28-0 in the third quarter to lead 48-18.

“We stiffened up a little bit defensively the second half. We had some assignment breakdowns that we cleared up. Offensively, we were in rhythm the first half. We had one touchdown called back. We kept moving but we were stopping ourselves,” said Knipp.

Nothing stopped the Redmen in the third quarter starting with a 28-yard scoring run by Davis one minute into the stanza. Cody Massie added the conversion kick and it was 27-18.

McCollister then broke his long TD run and it was 34-18 with 4:50 on the clock.

Less than a minute and half later, the Redmen scored again on a 58-yard run by Lane and it was 40-18.

Jared Bruce had a 4-yard scoring run and Lane threw to Jon Schwab for the conversion and it was 48-18 with 2:12 left in the third quarter.

River Valley scored on the first play of the fourth quarter when Hefner threw 8 yards to Austin Smith, but the Redmen sealed the win on a 35-yard interception return for a touchdown by Trey Wilds with 7:30 to go and Rock Hill led 55-26.

Rock Hill 14 6 28 7 = 55

River Valley 6 12 0 16 = 34

First Quarter

RH — Coty Davis 2 run (Cody Massie kick) 9:55

RH — Will McCollister 1 run (Cody Massie kick) 5:35

RV — Austin Smith 1 run (kick failed) 1:19

Second Quarter

RH — Will McCollister 2 run (kick failed) 11:00

RV — Trey Noble 5 pass from Jacob Hefner (pass failed) 4:50

RV — Jacob Brown 14 pass from Jacob Hefner (pass failed) 0:11

Third Quarter

RH — Coty Davis 28 run (Cody Massie kick) 11:00

RH — Will McCollister 84 run (Cody Massie kick) 4:50

RH — Jesse Lane 58 run (kick blocked) 3:13

RH — Jared Bruce 4 run (Jon Schwab pass from Jesse Lane) 2:12

Fourth Quarter

RV — Austin Smith 8 pass from Hefner (Kyle Brown run) 11:54

RH — Trey Wilds 35 interception return (Cody Massie kick) 7:30

RV — Jacob Hefner 6 run (Patrick Williams pass from Jacob Hefner) 0:07

RH RV

First downs 15 22

Rushes-yards 39-356 34-139

Passing yards 100 231

Total yards 456 370

Cmp-Att-Int 7-9-0 27-40-1

Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-1

Penalties-yards 11-95 3-25

Individual Leaders

RUSHING-Rock Hill: Will McCollister 11-91, Jesse Lane 3-69, Coty Davis 4-64, Steve Lewis 6-46, Jared Bruce 2-28, Trey Wilds 3-18, Brian Cooper 1-17, Shane Harper 5-14, Jacob Malone 1-5, Ryan Depriest 2-3, Chris Stevens 1-1; River Valley: Jacob Hefner 21-112, Trey Noble 4-11, Austin Smith 5-10, Patrick Williams 3-3, Austin Whobrey 1-3.

PASSING-Rock Hill: Will McCollister 7-9-0 100; River Valley: Jacob Hefner 27-40-1 231.

RECEIVING-Rock Hill: Coty Davis 1-35, Trey Wilds 3-30, Jesse Lane 2-23, Cody Massie 1-12; River Valley: Trey Noble 12-108, Jacob Brown 9-71, Patrick Williams 4-42, Austin Smith 1-8, Kyle Brown 1-2.