Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

WILLOW WOOD — The Symmes Valley Vikings did it all.

The Vikings combined a good offense with a good defense and solid kicking game to rout the Racine Southern Tornadoes 62-18 on Friday.

Symmes Valley (4-1) amassed 632 yards of rushing with another 29 passing for 661 total yards. Southern was held to 234 total yards with 132 on the ground and 92 through the air.

“We played better overall,” said Vikings’ coach Rusty Webb.

“Our special teams did real well, our defense played well, and when your offense goes over 600 yards rushing it obviously played well. We executed better and we’re starting to get healthy.”

D.J. Miller ran eight times for 192 yards and Alec Herrell seven times for 146 yards to lead the Vikings’ ground game. Quinton Bare had 146 yards on four carries with the second unit.

After Southern downed a punt at the 2-yard line on the first series of the game, the Vikings then went the length of the field in 10 plays with Herrell scoring from 6 yards out. Tyler Ferguson kicked the first of eight conversions.

The Tornadoes were forced to punt and Miller returned the kick 88 yards for a touchdown and it was 14-0.

The Vikings recovered a fumble at their own 48 and five plays later Tyler Rowe hit Austin Baldwin with an 8-yard scoring pass and a 21-0 lead.

Miller got the next score as he raced 77 yards with 9:29 left in the half.

After another Southern punt, Herrell went 82 yards on the first play and it was 35-0.

Symmes Valley then went 40 yards in four plays with Herrell going the final 23 yards to make it 42-0 at the half.

“Our backs ran well, but you have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line. That’s two weeks in a row we’ve ran for over 500 yards,” said Webb.

Following the second half kick-off, the Vikings went 70 yards in four plays with Miller breaking eight tackles en route to a 41-yard scoring run and a 49-0 lead.

Bare ran 53 yards early in the fourth quarter as the Vikings went up 56-0.

Southern finally got going as Josh Justis ran 3 yards for a score and Paul Ramthun went 4 yards for a score and it was 62-12.

The Tornadoes final score came on a 3-yard run by Johnson.

The Vikings visit Green next Friday to begin Southern Ohio Conference play.

Racine Southern 0 0 0 18 = 18

Symmes Valley 21 21 7 13 = 62

First Quarter

SV — Alec Herrell 6 run (Tyler Ferguson kick) 7:33

SV — D.J. Miller 88 punt return (Tyler Ferguson kick) 5:23

SV — Austin Baldwin 8 pass from Tyler Rowe (Tyler Ferguson kick) 1:45

Second Quarter

SV — D.J. Miller 77 run (Tyler Ferguson kick) 9:29

SV — Alec Herrell 82 run (Tyler Ferguson kick) 7:42

SV — Alec Herrell 23 run (Tyler Ferguson kick) 5:42

Third Quarter

SV — D.J. Miller 41 run (Tyler Ferguson kick) 9:43

Fourth Quarter

SV — Quinton Bare 53 run (Tyler Ferguson kick) 10:22

RS — Josh Justis 3 run (kick failed) 9:13

RS — Paul Ramthun 4 run (kick failed) 3:30

SV — Quinton Bare 75 run (kick failed) 2:54

RS — Theron Johnson 3 run (kick failed) 0:09

Team Statistics

RS SV

First downs 10 20

Rushes-yards 39-132 41-632

Passing yards 92 29

Total yards 234 661

Cmp-Att-Int 8-19-1 3-3-0

Fumbles-lost 1-1 2-0

Penalties-yards 2-15 7-54

Punts-average 5-36.8 2-26.0

Individual Leaders

RUSHING—Southern: Josh Justis 6-60, Theron Johnson 3-24; Symmes Valley: Alec Herrell 7-146, D.J. Miller 8-192, Tyler Rowe 4-30, Quinton Bare 4-146, Tanner Mays 5-53, Austin Owens 3-27, Trent Thompson 1-3, Brandon Ceraft 1-1, Derek Smith 3-1, Cameron Meadows 2-4, Dustin Holbrook 3-31.

PASSING—Southern: Tristan Wolfe 8-19-1 92; Symmes Valley: Tyler Rowe 2-2-0 22, Derek Smith 1-1-0 7.

RECEIVING—Southern: Jack Lemley 2-40, Paul Ramthun 2-28; Symmes Valley: Austin Baldwin 1-8, Alec Herrell 1-14.