CALEDONIA — Maybe it wasn’t the greatest second half in River Valley history, but it was more than good enough Friday night.
Tied at 14 with Highland, the Vikings rolled in the last two quarters, finishing the Week 8 Mid Ohio Athletic Conference home football game with a 38-14 victory.
“I don’t know if it’s the best second half we’ve ever played, but the way we played in the second half is the expectation of us playing that way for four quarters,” River Valley head coach Matt Waddle said. “We’ve shown glimpses of it at times and glimpses not so good. We’re getting late into the season and we’re trying to be more consistent with our play.”
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How did RV do it in the second half?
There weren’t wholesale changes at halftime by the Vikings.
“We challenged them at halftime,” Waddle said. “We made some mistakes that are not typical of us. We just had to take a step back and collect ourselves a little bit and understand what they were giving us and take what they gave us.
“I thought we forced a few things in the first half, and we didn’t execute at the end of the half trying to set up a field goal. We work on things like that throughout practice for those situations, and for whatever reason, we had a mental lapse.”
River Valley (5-3, 3-2) scored on its first four possessions of the second half to pull away, while the defense shut the Scots out over the final two quarters. Add in a field goal, three extra points and kickoffs into the end zone by Hudson Pollock, and there were no letdowns from any phase for RV.
“The difference in the second half was we got locked in,” RV senior receiver and defensive back Luke Axline said. “We got locked in in the second half and came together as a group and stopped playing as individuals.”
From 168 yards passing and 47 yards rushing in the first half, the Vikings ended with 392 passing yards and 142 rushing yards.
“The first half started out slow. I wasn’t getting the ball out quick enough. I went with the mentality that I’ve got to get the ball to my guys and let them do their work. They took advantage of it,” RV senior quarterback Chase Ebert said. “We had to execute, and we executed. The O-line are my guys. They protected me. There were two sacks maybe.”
Who were the standouts Friday?
Ebert finished with 125 yards rushing on 20 carries, scoring a 24-yard QB draw with 31 seconds left in the third period for a 24-14 lead. He also completed 26 of 43 passes for the 392, throwing three touchdowns and one interception.
Axline had both touchdown grabs in the first half, scoring on plays of 25 and 15 yards. He ended with four catches for 126 yards, plus intercepted a pass on defense. Eli Snyder also had 126 reception yards on nine catches with a 28-yard scoring grab in the fourth period. Kolton Lang added eight catches for 97 yards, plus recovered a fumble. The Vikings ended with 27 first downs with 12 in the first half. Jackson Kloha recovered a fumble for RV, and Tyson Waddle scored the final TD on a 2-yard run.
For Highland (3-5, 2-3), Kolton Stover was 10-for-10 passing in the first half and ended at 15 of 24 for 127 yards and an interception. He had a 9-yard touchdown pass to Branson Newsome, plus he ran it 15 times for 64 yards. Stover also picked off a pass on defense.
Zach Church paced the Scots on the ground with 20 carries for 104 yards and the game’s first TD from 4 yards. Highland had 17 first downs.
“The defense stepped up in the second half with a shutout,” Waddle said. “The offense started to explode a little bit with some big plays. Hudson again did a great job kicking the ball off on kickoffs and PATs and a field goal there. We’ve just got to be able to do that for four quarters.”
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This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Who were the second-half standouts for River Valley against Highland?
