DRESDEN — The news shook the Tri-Valley football team to its core.
It was at practice on Sept. 4 when word passed that senior lineman Kurt Ross was involved in a car accident on his commute from Mid-East Career Center. The aftermath left him in ICU at Genesis Hospital with multiple injuries, including a broken leg and collapsed lung.
Given the circumstances, nary a soul would have blamed the team for lacking focus as rough-and-tumble Clarksville Clinton-Massie invaded Jack Anderson Stadium.
Instead, they saw a revved-up Scotties squad show up like gangbusters in a 35-0 rout that showed just how much mettle this group possesses.
Another gut punch for Tri-Valley
Ross’ crash was the latest blow to the Scotties (2-1) still reeling from the loss of head coach Josh Wright, who died unexpectedly in June.
Ross was on his way to practice from Mid-East when he crashed on North River Road just north of Zanesville. Head coach Cameron West and defensive coordinator Jeremy Cameron visited Ross on Friday, and West admitted Ross has “a long road to recovery ahead of him.”
“It was really good seeing him,” West said. “He was in good spirits, about as good as you can expect for being in pain. But he was cracking jokes and, you know, he was the old Kurt.”
Senior Boston Smith, whose play at linebacker was among many defensive highlights, admitted the team “kind of had a meltdown” when some of the fellow Mid-East students passed the word before practice.
“But we knew it was Thursday, and we had to prepare for the biggest game of the year,” Smith said.
If anything, it helped galvanize a team already used to dealing with adverse occurrences. It certainly provided plenty of extra motivation.
“It was tough, but all summer we’ve been dealing with it,” Smith said. “This was just another string that has been added on. (Kurt) is a really nice guy and a team player. He comes out here and he will do whatever the coaches tell him to do.”
West told them team he was proud of their play in an impassioned postgame speech.
“In terms of adversity, we’ve been through the gamut this year,” West said. “Our kids are handling it really well for 14-to-18-year-old kids. It’s pretty impressive how they’ve handled bad things happening with their friends and their coach. We played inspired.”
Leevi Wade runs wild
No one looked more inspired against the Falcons, coming off a 14-7 win against perennial state power Coldwater, than Leevi Wade.
The 15-year-old sophomore carried 28 times for 268 yards and four touchdowns on a night the Scotties leaned heavily on the ground game behind sophomore quarterback Stone Spiker.
The tone was set quickly with his 50-yard touchdown run on the game’s first series. He added a 38-yard scoring jaunt with 9:35 left before half, then scurried for two more in the second half as the Scotties dominated both lines of scrimmage.
He produced 115 yards in scoring plays alone and already has three 100-yard games to his credit. The combination of his sturdy build, deceptive speed and natural vision have married up well with a rebuilt offensive line.
“Leevi is his own running back,” West said. “We run a lot of zone (schemes), and a kid that has the vision that he does — the beauty of zone is you can run it five times in a row and it can look like five different plays.
“It’s all dependent on the vision of the running back. He has a really good feel, pace and tempo. We ran the same (outside zone) play probably 20 times.”
In contrast, the Falcons had only 30 yards rushing in the first half and had three turnovers — two were lost fumbles. They had two more lost fumbles in the second half.
“We thought it was going to be a closer game,” Wade said. “We thought it would be a dogfight because they’re very physical. (West) said they’re probably going to win the rest of their games this year.”
Defense joins the party
Two straight weeks of allowing at least 28 points is hardly the type of defense Tri-Valley fans come to expect. But a return to normalcy arrived in the form of some lockdown tackling and interior dominance, led by senior end Logan McClellan, edge defender Isaiah Doyle and linebacker Smith.
The Falcons completed one pass and managed only 82 yards on 19 carries against the Scotties’ starters, who sat the fourth quarter. Twenty-one yards came on Ty Martin’s first run of the third quarter.
“Physical, physical, physical,” said Doyle, who had two tackles-for-loss in the first quarter, said when asked of the defense’s focus. “We knew we had to come out and be physical and tackle. And we executed. We just mashed them up front, physically dominated the game.”
Call it another moment of growth for West’s quickly improving outfit, which replaced all but three starters from 2024.
Now it’s a matter of handling success — and Homecoming Week. Can they handle it?
“I think it remains to be seen, to be honest,” West said, noting the emotional week and aforementioned distractions. “I hope we are mature enough to not get big heads and come out and think we’re the best thing ever. We will see how practice is this week.”
sblackbu@gannett.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: ‘We’ve been through the gamut’: Tri-Valley football handles adversity vs. Clinton-Massie
Reporting by Sam Blackburn, Zanesville Times Recorder / Zanesville Times Recorder
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
