By Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

LOUDONVILLE — Maybe the Rock Hill Redmen need a visit to the K-Hill Indoor Shooting Range.

The Redmen were off-target and it caused a couple of turnovers that opened the door for Loudonville to blow the game open as the Redbirds posted a 40-7 win on Friday in the first round of the Division 6 playoffs.

The Redmen trailed 21-7 at the half but had the ball at the Redbirds’ 43 to start the second half. A botched handoff turned the ball over to the Redbirds who drove quickly for a touchdown.

An interception gave the ball back to Loudonville later in the quarter which led to the the Redbirds’ final score.

“We shot ourselves in the foot too many times while they made plays when they had to,” said Rock Hill coach Mark Lutz.

“They were a solid team and they’d some good things. They have a power running back (Peyton Regan), a quarterback (Matt Sprang) who moves the ball around nicely both running and through the air, and a great skilled player in (Zach) Frankford.”

Sprang was 8-of-13 passing for 156 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He also ran 14 ties for 129 yards and a TD. Regan carried 18 times for 102 yards and three touchdowns.

Rock Hill had 180 yards of offense with 143 coming on the ground. Chase Delong led the ground game with 16 carries for 76 yards and a touchdown. Kordell French had 34 yards on 12 carries and caught 4 passes for 37 yards while Anthony Stamper ran 6 times for 30 yards.

Loudonville wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard by taking the opening kickoff and marching 65 yards in 6 plays capped by Zach Frankford’s 9-yard run. Aiden Neibert kicked the first of 5 conversions.

Rock Hill drove to midfield only to have a fourth-and-one play come up just inches short.

The Redmen defense forced a three-and-out and drove to the 42 before having to punt.

Loudonville went 70 yards is 6 plays with Sprang going 41 and 11 yards — the latter for a touchdown with 9:50 left in the half and it was 14-0.

Rock Hill stopped the Redbirds on a fourth-and-one at the Loudonville 44.

Brayden Adams hit French on a 34-yard pass play to the 10-yard line and Delong ran 3 and 7 yards for the TD and Hazley Matthews conversion kick cut the deficit to 14-7 with 4:32 to go in the half.

But the Redbirds started their drive at the 49 and Sprang hit Baylor Weiser on a 28-yard scoring pass on fourth down and the lead was 21-7 at the 2:41 mark of the second quarter.

The lost fumble to start the second half enabled Loudonville to get a quick score as Regan went 9 yards for the TD and a 28-7 lead with 9:46 on the clock.

Rock Hill had a fourth-and-5 play at the Loudonville 48 and once again came up inches short of the first down marker.

Weiser caught passes of 27 and 12 yards to get the bll to the 20-yard line where Regan bulled his way through the Redmen defense and it was 34-0.

A bad snap on the conversion led to an incomplete pass.

An interception on a flea-flicker pay gave the ball to the Redbirds at their own 45. It took 11 plays before Regan scored on fourth down from one-yard out and it was 40-7 with 8:47 to play.

Loudonville (7-4) will now make a long trip as it travels to Nelsonville-York in the second round. Rock Hill drove more than 4 hours to get to Loudonville.

“It’s not an excuse. I don’t think it bothered us. We had several kids pretty banged up before the game even started, but a lot of teams deal with that at this stage of the season,” said Lutz.

“But you can’t take anything away from Loudonville. They have a nice football team and from the games we’ve seen you can see they are improving and their confidence looks to be building.”

Rock Hill ends the season 5-6.

“It was disappointing. I didn’t want the season to end this way, but I can’t say enough about this group of kids and especially the senior leadership we got,” said Lutz. “These kids played hard all season and never quit regardless of the score. They made this a fun season. I’m proud of everyone of them and the effort they gave.”

Rock Hill       0     7     0     0     =     7

Loudonville    7     14    13    6     =     40

First Quarter

Ldn — Zach Frankford 9 run (Aiden Neibert kick) 10:16

Second Quarter

Ldn — Matthew Sprang 11 run (Aiden Neibert kick) 9:50

RH — Chase Delong 7 run (Hazley Matthews ick) 4:32

Ldn — Baylor Weiser 28 pass from Matthew Sprang (Aiden Neibert kick) 2:41

Third Quarter

Ldn — Peyton Regan 44 run (Aiden Neibert kick) 9:46

And — Peyton Regan  20 run (pass failed) 3:49

Fourth Quarter

Ldn — Peyton Regan 1 run (Aiden Neibert kick) 8:47

———

RH  LDN

First downs     11    22

Rushes-yards  37-143    41-239

Passing yards  37    156

Total yards     180  395

Cmp-Att-Int    4-10-1     8-13-1

Fumbles-lost   1-1  0-0

Penalties-yards       3-25 5-60

Punts-average 3-26.7     1-38.0

Time of possession 25:17      22:43

———

Individual Leaders

RUSHING–Rock Hill: Chase Delong 16-76 TD, Kordell French 12-34, Anthony Stamper 6-30, Skyler Kidd 1-5, Grant Bevins 1-minus 1, Levi Jiles 1-minus 1; Loudonville: Matthew Sprang 14-129 TD, Peyton Regan 18-102 3TD, Dakota Berry 1-13, Zach Frankford 3-8 TD, Camdyn Beachy 1-3, team 3-minus 16.

PASSING–Rock Hill: Brayden Adams 4-8-0 37, Kordell French 0-2-1; Loudonville: Matt Sprang 8-13-1 156 TD.

RECEIVING–Rock Hill: Kordell French 4-37; Loudonville: Baylor Weiser 3-67 TD, Zach Frankford 3-57, Micah Simpson 1-19, James Henley 1-13.

MISSED FIELD GOALS–None.