Springs Valley Community High School

On the Springs Valley football team’s opening drive of the second half against Perry Central on Friday, it had a chance to reclaim the lead. The Blackhawks had battled back and forth with the Commodores in the first half, heading to halftime down just 20-17, and with the way their offense had been playing it seemed they’d have every opportunity to forge ahead once again. They got into Perry Central’s half of the field and just as it seemed they’d gotten into scoring position, the ball was brought back because of a penalty. That would happen on more than one occasion for Springs Valley in Leopold and it became costly. The Blackhawks would finish the game with eight penalties for 60 yards as opposed to Perry Central’s three for 25 and that doesn’t even account for all the yards lost on explosive plays that were canceled out and the points that were never put on the board in part because of them. The Blackhawks would eventually return the ball to the Commodores on that initial second-half drive, they would drive down the field to extend their lead, and they would build on that momentum to win 41-30. “We certainly need to clean some things up and not put ourselves in a position for momentum-shifting calls like that to be made,” Springs Valley coach Jason Lowe said. “Our kids were playing hard and I think when that happens things obviously look a certain way. We’ll work to clean those things up moving forward. It's always hard to win a game when you have explosive plays taken away from you.” One of the big reasons why the Blackhawks were even in the game to begin with was the way they started the evening. Perry Central elected to receive the ball to open the game, but couldn’t do anything with it as Springs Valley forced a turnover on downs. The Blackhawks then drove down the field to take a 7-0 lead on a short touchdown run by senior Ezra Mills. That set the tone for the remainder of the first half as Springs Valley looked every bit the part of a contender against the team atop the Patoka Lake Athletic Conference standings. “It was huge. Regardless of what week of the season we are in, we have a relatively young and/or inexperienced team, especially in regards to being the guys out front,” Lowe said. “I feel like our coaching staff knows what this team and these guys are capable of. We knew we were better than a 4-4 team going into this game and we needed to prove that. Coming out and stopping Perry's opening drive was a great step towards making that statement.” The Blackhawks also got a big lift from its offensive line. The five-man tandem of Jake Hammond, Jonas Hammond, Tristen Edwards, Teagun Rominger, and Kayce Jones was excellent for much of the game, paving the way for Mills to rack up 219 yards and a pair of touchdowns while also giving Springs Valley quarterback Mavrick Land some time to freelance in the passing game when he needed it. The youth of that group — four of them are first-year starters and three are just sophomores — combined with its performance is a particular point of optimism for the program moving forward. “I told the kids — and the linemen specifically — before the game that Perry Central is known for having big, physical linemen. The size part is always out of a coach's control, but the physical part is not,” Lowe said. “We started three sophomores against the PLAC champions Friday night and that's tough. Luckily for us so were those three sophomores. The future is very bright when you talk about linemen at Springs Valley. I loved the way our kids played up front offensively Friday night and I love the linemen we have coming up through our program right now.” Springs Valley (4-4, 2-3 PLAC) has just one game left on its regular-season schedule now, a home date with North Daviess. The Blackhawks will try to snap their current two-game skid against the Cougars, whom they’ve beaten in six of their last seven matchups including a 38-7 victory last year in Elnora. The ‘Hawks will have some extra motivation in the game as well as they’ll celebrate their six seniors — Mills, Jake Hammond, Jack Dalton, Griffin McGee, Ivan Drake, and Cam Hughes — beforehand and with the sectional draw released they know they won’t play at home again until at least a potential sectional championship game. “I can't wait for our kids to come back home and play their last regular-season game. North Daviess is a good team with some explosive players,” Lowe said. “We will put a big emphasis on our line play this week, we need our offensive and defensive lines to control the line of scrimmage. If our o-line can open holes and protect Mav I think our offense is playing really well. Defensively we will rely on (defensive ends) Larron (Childers) and Xander (Cook) to keep everything inside and let our interior linemen and inside linebackers get pressure. We have a great group of seniors that we need to play hard for.” COMMODORES 41, BLACKHAWKS 30 Springs Valley (4-4);7;10;0;13—30 Perry Central (7-1);7;13;14;7—41 FIRST QUARTER SV: Ezra Mills 1 run (Griffin McGee kick), 3:14. SV, 7-0. PC: Sawyer Guillaume (Jared Wagner kick), 0:14. 7-7. SECOND QUARTER SV: McGee 43 field goal, 9:54. SV, 10-7. PC: Lucas Mitchell 7 run (Wagner kick), 8:40. PC, 14-10. SV: Mills 68 run (McGee kick), 8:20. SV, 17-14. PC: Mitchell 4 run (Run failed), 7:05. PC, 20-17. THIRD QUARTER PC: Guillaume 49 run (Wagner kick), 7:15. PC, 27-17. PC: Mitchell 4 run (Wagner kick), 5:53. PC, 34-17. FOURTH QUARTER SV: Xander Cook 14 reception from Mavrick Land (McGee kick), 8:06. PC, 34-24. PC: Mitchell 15 run (Wagner kick), 7:08. PC, 41-24. SV: Jaheim Hamilton 37 reception from Land, 0:00. PC, 41-30. TEAM STATISTICS ;;Springs Valley;Perry Central First downs;15;12 Rushes-yards;48-266;34-419 Passing yards;147;0 Total yards;413;419 Passes;8-19-1;0-7-0 Fumbles-lost;0-0;0-0 Penalty yards;8-60;3-25 RUSHING Springs Valley: Ezra Mills 31-219, Konner Chase 10-29, Mavrick Land 7-18. Perry Central: Sawyer Guillaume 18-229, Lucas Mitchell 8-115, Chase Hubert 5-34, Jimmy Sprinkle 2-34, Adam Goffinett 1-7. PASSING Springs Valley: Mavrick Land 8-19-1-147. Perry Central: Chase Hubert 0-7-0-0. RECEIVING Springs Valley: Jaheim Hamilton 2-60, James Walls 2-38, Keaton Pritchett 3-34, Xander Cook 1-14, Konner Chase 1-0. Perry Central: N/A.