Sports
Maiden and Nelsonville-York Pummel River Valley
By: Taylor Jedrzejek
Posted on:
Garrett Maiden had carved up the River Valley defense through the air the entire first half. The Nelsonville-York quarterback put up stats in the first half that most might not be able to in a game: 13-21 passing for 332 yards and five touchdowns.
But he wasn’t going to settle for dominating the Raiders (2-2, 0-1 TVC-Ohio) with his arm. He also wanted to do it with his legs.
On the final play of the second quarter, Maiden ran around the right side on a quarterback sweep, ran through a gap to get to the sideline, made a couple of River Valley defenders miss as he cut back to the middle of the field, spun back to the right sideline to shake a couple more Raiders only to stop and reverse field back to the left where he had a convoy of Buckeyes to take him into the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown to give Nelsonville-York (4-0, 1-0) a 42-7 lead heading into the half.
The Buckeyes went on to defeat River Valley 49-7 on Friday night at Boston Field.
Maiden didn’t wait long to start laying it on the Raiders. Just four plays into the game, the senior quarterback hit a streaking Chris Cook down the far sideline for a 72-yard score to give the Buckeyes a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.
Less than four minutes later, Nelsonville-York once again scored a touchdown in just four plays. This time, it was Keegan Wilburn on the receiving end of a Maiden touchdown toss. Wilburn caught the 29-yard touchdown off the hands of a River Valley defensive back to extend the Buckeye lead to 14 points.
The third of Maiden’s five first half touchdown passes came with just over a minute to play in the first quarter to a third different receiver. Shakim Williams caught a pass over the middle, withstood a couple hits from Raider defenders and outran everyone to the endzone for a 55-yard touchdown. Nelsonville-York led 21-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Just 1:46 second passed before the Buckeyes scored again. Ronnie Wend became the fourth Nelsonville-York receiver to haul in a touchdown pass from Maiden when he grabbed a 20-yard score with one hand to extend the lead to 28-0 with 11:15 to play in the first half.
River Valley finally responded on their ensuing drive, moving the ball 87 yards in eight plays to get on the board. Patrick Brown found Dustin Barber in the left flat for a 6-yard touchdown to cut the Buckeye lead to 28-7 with 9:12 remaining in the second.
However, the Buckeyes weren’t going to let the Raiders back into the game. Wend reeled in his second touchdown of the night on a 3-yard lob to the back of the endzone from Maiden to regive the Buckeyes a 28-point lead, 35-7, with just under four minutes remaining until halftime.
A River Valley punt with less than a minute to play in the half set up Maiden’s video game-like touchdown run.
It was a record-breaking night for Maiden, who now holds the Nelsonville-York record for passing yards in a single game. He finished with 340 yards and 5 touchdowns through the air and another 63 yards and a score on the ground. Wilburn added 115 all-purpose yards, 84 on the ground and 31 through the air for himself.