Sports
Vinton County’s Yates Connection Benches River Valley
By: Tyler Corbit
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The Vinton County Vikings and River Valley Raiders entered Friday night’s showdown with identical 3-4 records. Both were on a mission to return to .500, but Vinton County would walk off the field at 4-4.
Naylan Yates proved why he was on the pre-season Gridiron Glory Player of the Year watch list as he dismantled the Raider defense with his arms and legs.
River Valley started the game with the ball and would get nothing going. The Vikings would do a complete 180 when they got possession. Naylan Yates would slice and dice through the Raider defense with his arm and his legs before he would connect with Lincoln Hayes for a 9-yard touchdown.
Yates and Hayes would connect again on the next Viking possession. This time it would be from 16 yards out as Vinton County would take a 13-0 lead.
Things would go from bad to worse for River Valley as Nevan Yates would pick off a tipped Patrick Brown pass. On the very next play Nevan would catch a 34-yard touchdown pass from his brother Naylan to put the Vikings ahead 20-0.
Cole Young punched one in for the Raiders to cut the deficit to 20-6. The 13-point deficit wouldn’t last long as Naylan would go to work with his legs, taking in a 12-yard score on a keeper.
Naylan would then take one 68 yards to the house to give Vinton County a 34-6 halftime lead. The Vikings hit cruise control in the second half. River Valley and Vinton County would each score once in the second half as Vinton County would roll in this one 41-13.
It was all about senior leader and quarterback Naylan Yates tonight as he would have five total touchdowns, all in the first half. In the first half Naylan had 306 total yards. The Raider defense just never had an answer for the quarterback.
With the win, Vinton County improves to 4-4 on the season. They are looking down a tough matchup with the undefeated Nelsonville-York Buckeyes next Friday. The loss drops River Valley to 3-5 as they face another tough matchup next week against Athens.