Bearcats fall to Zane Trace in season finale
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
BAINBRIDGE — The Paint Valley Bearcats ended their 2010 football season with a fight, but were not the victors, falling to the Zane Trace Pioneers, 31-14.
The Bearcats finish the season at 2-8 overall, winning two of their final three games, with both wins coming against Scioto Valley Conference opponents (Unioto and Huntington).
The first quarter against Zane Trace belonged to the Bearcats, with PV outscoring the Pioneers 10-7.
ZT's Nick Ganus scored first with a 31-yard field goal with 6:20 left in the quarter.
PV came back to take the lead with a 52-yard touchdown reception by Garett Tyree, from a pass by Eli Barker with 3:30 left in the first. Tyree kicked the PAT for a 7-3 advantage.
Marrell put the Pioneers up 10-7 late in the second quarter with a 2-yard run, followed with the PAT by Ganus.
"This game was a tale of two halves," PV head coach Pete Hollon said. "We played well in the first half but felt like we left two scores on the field. We were in the red zone twice but made some costly mistakes.
"In the second half, the size and experience of Zane Trace caught up with us."
In the third quarter, Marnell added to the ZT lead, scoring twice with touchdowns of 15 yards and 1 yard. The first TD came with 8:12 left in the third, followed by the 1-yard run with .59 remaining.
The fourth quarter began with Ganus kicking a 41-yard field goal with 10:18 remaining.
Marrell scored a fourth touchdown with 4:11 left in the fourth, this time going 57 yards to paydirt.
The final TD of the game was from Tyree, taking the ball 89 yards to the end zone on a kickoff return with 4:00 left in the season.
Mark Clifford led PV with 62 yards rushing on 12 carries. Tyree had two carries for 56 yards, and Barker was 4 of 9 for 77 yards passing, with one TD and two interceptions.
On defense, Tyree had two interceptions.
"This was a good high school football game, but this was a different type of game than the score indicates," Hollon said. "Garett (Tyree) couldn't have picked a better stage for his final high school game. He had 80 yards in receptions that were called back due to penalties.
"Our defense played well, until the third down."
The Bearcats had Zane Trace held to third-and 12 or longer six times but allowed 189 yards of offense on those six plays.
"That has happened to us all season," Hollon said. "We played our best football at the end of the season. It was just frustrating, two seasons in a row we had trouble overcoming injuries to key players. It was hard to overcome Garett's injury for the first few weeks of the season."
One bright spot for PV this year was the emergence of freshman Mark Clifford at running back.
"We are excited about the progress by Mark this season," Hollon said. "We could have gave him the ball more, but we held back this year. We return six juniors (will be seniors next season), and all of our younger kids gained real experience this season. They stepped up and played solid football. We have to work on a few things. We'll take our 28 days off, then show our kids what they need to do to get better."
This game was also goodbye to the senior class.
"I feel bad for them because of all the injuries we had to go through the past two years," Hollon said. "We will remember them as a group that never quit and mentored the young kids."