Oxford rolls past Sun Valley
OXFORD >> Sun Valley came out of the gate strong, but Oxford turned what looked like might be a close game early on into a blowout. After spotting the Vanguards a six-point lead, the Hornets reeled off 49 unanswered points on the way to a 55-13 victory.
“It show what we’re capable of what we can do when we put in four good quarters on both sides the ball,” said Oxford coach Mike Means. .”Really it’s the first time we’ve done that all year. Even in our other wins, we didn’t execute on both offense and defense for all four quarters. The kids were just really dialed in tonight after a great week of practice.”
Sun Valley came in to the contest two points behind the Hornets (4-2, 1-2) in the District 1 power rankings, sitting at number 11 while Oxford is number 10. And at the outset, looked primed to push the Hornets for that spot.
After forcing a three-and-out on Oxford’s first possession, Sun Valley marched off a 62 yard scoring drive, capped by a 38-yard pass from Anthony Ellis to Julz Kelly. Twice more in the first period, the Vanguards (3-3, 1-2) found themselves deep in Hornets territory, only to come up short on fourth and short in the red zone.
“We moved the ball pretty well early on, scoring on the first drive,” said Sun Valley coach Greg Bernhart. “We shot ourselves in the foot on a couple of drives, getting hit with an offisides on fourth and two. But then Oxford came out in the second half things just snowballed and everything that could go wrong went wrong. We just have to put this behind us and get back to work Monday and try to make the playoffs.”
Lost in the final outcome for Sun Valley was a nice day from running back Caliph Jones, who finished the day with 148 yards on 22 carries.
Riding the momentum of the Hornets first big defensive stop, the offense finally got going with a 4-play, 72-yard scoring drive, highlighted by a 44-yard run from Brandon Holz, who led the Hornet ground game with 136 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 20 carries.
“None of us was happy about what happened last week against Unionville,” said Holz. “That was not Oxford football. We knew we were going to have to come out and play this week. Offense and defense, we played the kind of game we knew we can play.”
Oxford capped the drive with an 11-yard pass from Chandler England to Brandon DeShields (4 rec, 84 yards, TD)
“They came out and scored on that first drive on us, and we just said ‘OK, that’s it,’” said Hornet safety Brett Kochmansky, who not only was all over the field making tackles all night, but chipped in with a 30-yard rushing touchdown on his only carry of the evening. “We decided that we weren’t going to give anything else up. We didn’t drop our heads and just got to work.”
The Hornet defense came up big again late in the second, killing a drive at midfield when Julian Nadachowski recovered a Vanguard fumble. A few short plays later, the Hornets bumped the lead to 21-7 headed into the break.
England was efficient, if not quite as prolific through the air as in past weeks, completing 8 of 11 passes for 110 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He also ran four a pair of scores.
“We were worried coming into this game,” said Means. “What we saw on film, we saw how tough they’ve played, even in their losses. This was just one of those nights when everything just worked for us.”
