Valley Tops Whitko For Win No. 1 In Moriarty EraSOUTH WHITLEY – Even in a matchup of winless football teams, the game can turn out one-sided. Tippecanoe Valley made sure that was the case Friday night, scoring touchdowns the first six times it had the ball and rolling to a 43-7 Three Rivers Conference victory at Whitko’s Ryan Huff Memorial Field.
For Valley coach Steve Moriarty it was career win No. 1, and it was nice to get it out of the way in the fifth game of his rookie season.
“It felt like a monkey on my back there for a while. Hopefully now that we got rid of it, we can start putting some wins together,” he said.
The Vikings were dominant from the start, forcing a pair of three-and-outs, then taking full advantage of excellent field position. Valley’s first two drives went for 43 and 47 yards, with Tanner Trippiedi hitting Noah Miller for a 17-yard touchdown pass, then Trippiedi running it in from six yards out for a 14-0 lead.
The backbreaker came on the next Valley possession. Whitko moved the ball across midfield before punting, pinning the Vikings at their own 2-yard line.
Aided by a pair of big Wildcat penalties, including an encroachment penalty on 4th-and-1, Wes Melanson polished off the 98-yard drive with a 25-yard gallop through the Whitko defense.
That kind of drive seemed unthinkable through the first four games for Valley, and to be able to control both sides of the ball for the entire time the first teamers were in the game was a huge boost for Moriarty and the Vikings.
“It’s been hard, with the first four games we’ve played, against good teams, that we had a hard time stopping,” he said. “To finally come in and get our offense working and defense working, it felt rewarding for the kids.”
The Viking coach said there was a particular emphasis on the basics in practice, and it paid off Friday night.
“Our main thing is we’ll continue to get better at is fundamentals,” said Moriarty. “The thing is, this week we worked a lot on fundamentals in practice. In fact, Wednesday we didn’t scrimmage, we just worked on tackling, shedding and those old-school things. And we’ll probably continue that way for a while.”
It was an ugly contest in terms of yellow flags. The squads combined for 18 accepted penalties for 202 yards, mostly on the defensive side of the ball. Valley, for the most part, was able to overcome its miscues.
“Sometimes you have those things. We need to clean up our holding, and get rid of those penalties that stall drives,” Moriarty said. “But I was proud of the kids for bouncing back after the adversity of the penalties.”
The Wildcats showed some life after the long Valley touchdown drive, and picked up a couple of first downs, but a lost fumble led to the shortest Valley scoring drive of the night and a 29-0 halftime hole.
“It comes down to the little details again,” Whitko coach Jeff Sprunger said. “This team is extremely close (to playing well). We were moving the ball well when it was 21-0 in the second quarter, then we cough it up and allow them to go down and make it 29-0 going in to half.
“We’re close, but yet we’re miles away; that’s just how it feels right now. There’s shining spots, but we need to be more consistent as we play the game.”
With just six seniors on the team, Sprunger said he’s playing a lot of underclassmen, especially on the offensive and defensive lines. Once the lessons sink in, Sprunger is optimistic things will, eventually, turn around.
“I’m not discounting this season, but we are building for the future,” he said. “We are looking to get better each and every week, and that’s all we can do.
“It’d be really easy for my kids to not show up for practice. I have 44 guys on the roster, and every single night I have 44 guys accounted for. They let me know where they’re going, or they’re at practice. I’ve been a part of teams where that wasn’t always the case. We’re 0-5, but I guarantee come Monday, I know I’m going to have 44 guys at practice, ready to get better, and you can’t ask for anything more than that.”
Valley (1-4, 1-1 TRC) will have some momentum heading into Friday’s homecoming game with conference rival Manchester. Whitko (0-2 TRC) travels to 1A No. 12 Southwood for a TRC game Friday.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 43, WHITKO 7
TV 14 15 14 0 – 43
W 0 0 0 7 – 7
TV W
1st downs 18 9
Rushing yds 192 110
Passing yds 146 30
Comp-Att-Int 7-13-0 4-6-0
Total yds 338 140
Fumbles/lost 2-0 6-2
Penalties/yds 8-80 10-112
Punts/avg. 2-34.5 4-31.5
First Quarter
TV – Noah Miller 17 pass from Tanner Trippiedi (Domingo Santiago kick), 6:52, 7-0
TV – Trippiedi 6 run (Santiago kick), 2:31, 14-0
Second Quarter
TV – Wes Melanson 25 run (Santiago kick), 5:23, 21-0
TV – Cameron Parker 3 run (Parker pass from Trippiedi), :12, 29-0
Third Quarter
TV – Alex Morrison 5 run (Santiago kick), 5:55, 36-0
TV – Trippiedi 1 run (Santiago kick), 2:38, 43-0
Fourth Quarter
W – Alex Dial 63 run (Collin Bross kick), 3:18, 43.7
