CARROLL — Friday night’s game got away from the Bloom-Carroll Bulldogs.
After taking a 14-7 lead midway through the third quarter, Bloom-Carroll’s offense dried up and the defense allowed 28 unanswered points to Teays Valley as the Vikings knocked off the Bulldogs 35-14 at Carl Fell Stadium Friday night, Aug. 28.
Since Teays Valley (1-1) left the Mid-State League three seasons ago, the Vikings and Bulldogs have played each in each of those three seasons in non-league action, and the Vikings have now won all three games by an average margin of 18 points.
“We knew we were going to get their best,” Bloom-Carroll coach Steve Daulton said. “(The Vikings) have a big-time OCC schedule; we knew at no point, getting the lead, were they going to slow down or was it even close to being over. We did some great things defensively and got some stops, had success moving the ball at times, but we are just not consistent in areas right now that are necessary to win football games.”
Teays Valley won the game with its ground game on offense in the second half with six players combining for 232 rushing yards and four touchdowns. Evan Maynard scored on a 21-yard touchdown run with five minutes left in the third quarter that tied the game at 14-14.
After a Bloom-Carroll (1-1) three-and-out on offense, Teays Valley got the ball back and faced a fourth-and-two at midfield as time was winding down in the third quarter. The Vikings went to the heavy formation and handed off to Landon Slusser, who bounced the run outside and found enough space to outrun the Bulldog defense 50 yards for the touchdown to give the Vikings the lead back.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Slusser found some fourth-down magic again as he took another handoff and this time went up the middle, shed a few Bulldog tacklers, and then again outran the defense 60 yards for his second touchdown of the game to give the Vikings a 28-14 lead.
The Vikings then put the game away with three minutes left when Clayton Grayley scored on a 37-yard touchdown run that bumped the score to the final 35-14.
“You got to block and got to tackle well,” Daulton said of his team, “and when you do those things inconsistently it’s tough to sustain drives, help the defense out when they’re being successful. And on the flip side, if the offense is struggling a bit you need to get stops to alleviate the pressure and play complimentary football. If we don’t block and tackle it doesn’t matter what age group, what level football, you’re going to struggle and (the Vikings) did that better than us tonight.”
As Daulton described, the Bulldogs were simply not consistent enough on Friday, especially on offense. The Bulldogs punted eight times with quarterback Caiden Schooley connecting on just 11 of his 25 pass attempts and the team averaging 3.6 yards per-carry on the ground.
Kyson Cline finished with 113 rushing yards on 24 carries and one touchdown, though 52 of those yards came on two carries, while he averaged just 2.7 yards per-carry on the remaining 22 attempts. His touchdown was also some fourth-down magic with a 42-yard run in the second quarter to tie the game at 7-7 early. Cline later had a big 19-yard run that set up Schooley for a one-yard touchdown plunge in the third quarter that gave the Bulldogs their only lead of the game.
Near the end of the third quarter the Bulldogs had a big kick return by JuJu Ward that set up the home team at the Vikings’ 20 yard line to start the drive trailing 21-14. However, the offense was not able to move the ball past the eight yard line and attempted to notch some points with a 25-yard field goal attempt, which unfortunately got blocked by the Vikings to keep the visitors on top by a touchdown.
One positive point for the Bloom-Carroll defense was its improvement defending the pass. On Teays Valley’s first drive, quarterback Landon Helser threw a 26-yard touchdown pass and continued on to start the game 4-of-5 passing for 70 yards. However, the Bulldog defense made some adjustments with some blitzing, which helped affect Helser as he completed just three of his final 14 pass attempts.
Helser also threw an interception that was picked off by Bloom-Carroll’s Robert Williams in the first quarter.
“We made a few adjustments, a few slight game plan calls that got us in the groove,” Daulton said of the defense. “Situations like that you just have to win first down and then settle guys down. When you’re doing well on defense there and turn around and you’re not sustaining drives and I’ll say flip the field offensively and let some of those guys get a breather, it’s tough. Complimentary football, it’s definitely something people overlook way too much.”
Bloom-Carroll stays home to host Jonathan Alder (2-0) in Week 3, while Teays Valley travels to take on Licking Valley.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Bloom-Carroll falters late in loss to Teays Valley
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