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River Valley Hopes To Double ’13 Win Total Versus Southeastern On Friday


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With Week 1 of the 2014 season in the books, just three teams in the TVC-Ohio were able to grab wins . One of those teams was the River Valley Raiders.

The Raiders (1-0), who are in their first year as members of the TVC-Ohio, hope to double their win total from a season ago when they host the Southeastern Panthers (0-1) on Friday. The Panthers are members of the Scioto Valley Conference and fell to Northwest last week 28-14.

This will be the Raiders second consecutive non-conference opponent, which can make it difficult for coaches during game preparation.

“What stresses you out about non-conference opponents is we think we know what we’re going to get, but we’re not exactly sure” said fourth-year River Valley head coach Jerrod Sparling. “We have to adjust well, we have to run our systems well and we’ll see what that is.”

Offensively, junior quarterback Dayton Hardway may give the Southeastern defense some problems. In 2013, he threw for more than 1,700 yards just in the last six games of the season alone.  While Hardway can air it out, River Valley has a capable rushing attack and was able to stick with their game plan in Week 1, playing what Sparling called a complete, team football game.

“I thought we were patient last week and executed the game plan,” said Sparling. “I was happy with our guys. We were going to tempo it and run the football; they gave us looks running the football and we were going to stick with it. Our guys were unselfish.”

As members of the Ohio Valley Conference last year, the Raiders notched a 1-9 overall record and were outscored 163-21 in their first four games. In just one game this year, the Raiders have made noticeable improvements on both sides of the ball, but players are not satisfied with their week one performance. 

“We’ll celebrate any win,” Sparling said, “but for us, a bunch of guys were telling me last Friday ‘I’m thrilled that we won, it’s a great feeling, but I’m really not looking forward to film because we didn’t play that well.’ That tells me that they’re in the right mind set and that they get it.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at River Valley.

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