The Peebles Indians celebrate their back-to-back championships in the Southern Ohio Independent League after an 806 win over West Union on Oct. 30. (Photo provided)
8-6 win over West Union gives Peebles back-to-back titles
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Tough, physical, intense, sometimes even brutal. Some of those adjectives can describe the high school football meeting between Peebles and West Union, but maybe they don’t even do the battles justice. For the second consecutive season, the Indians and Dragons met in the Southern Ohio Independent League championship game, dubbed the “Super Bowl”.
This year’s title bout took place at Kelly Anderson Memorial Field in Seaman and a day of rain left the field in rough condition, muddy and wet from end zone to end zone. For these two teams and their match ups, the weather and field conditions seemed somehow appropriate. The field conditions definitely affected play as defenses dominated what turned out to be a low-scoring affair. It took a third quarter touchdown in a st of bizarre circumstances for the Indians to defend their SOIL title, claiming a hard-fought 8-6 win to go back-to-back championships, with the title games in both years decided by a mere two points.
“Peebles and West Union games are just always going to be like this,” said Peebles head coach Mike McDonald after the win. “Ten years from now if both teams are 0-8, it’s always going to be a game like this.It’s not just because it’s a rivalry- they’ve got really good coaches, we’ve got really good coaches, we’ve both got really good players, so it’s always going to be a tough game.”
The weather conditions definitely affected the offensive performances of both teams and with the inability to get a passing game of any kind going in the mud, both teams turned to the ground game and that chewed up rapidly the first half clock. After a scoreless first quarter, the first three possessions of the second quarter came up empty. Finally, the Dragons were able to muster a short drive, aided by a facemask penalty call on the Indians. With just 34 seconds left in the first half, the Dragons’ Matthew Hurley found the end zone from four yards out to give his team the lead. The two-point conversion try failed, a play which loomed large later in the game, but West Union took that 6-0 advantage into halftime.
The Dragons got the ball to begin the third quarter, but were forced to punt, and a huge return by Peebles’ Sol Beech-Turner set the Indians up in good field position. A penalty on the Dragons gave Peebles a first down and a run by Jayce West put the Indians in first and goal at the West Union 7. Then things got a little crazy.
Runs by Matthew Hudgel on first down and West on second down were stopped shot of the goal line and a third down holding penalty set the Indians back. On the next play, the Dragons apparently forced a turnover when a Zane Knechtly pass was intercepted by the Dragons’ Bobby Gallowitz, but somewhere out of the darkness came a yellow flag and Gallowitz was called for pass interference, much to the chagrin of anyone on the Dragons side.
That resulted in the Indians keeping possession and with 5:46 left in the third quarter, West scored from four yards out and a two-point conversion run by Hudgel gave Peebles an 8-6 lead.
From that point on, the contest became quite intense with the score firing up the Peebles defense and the Dragons recovering a Turner fumbled punt, but then giving it right back when Knechtly went high to pick off a pass from West Union quarterback Colby Harover, and that was all to just end the third period.
The final quarter began with the Indians turning the ball over on downs and the West Union offense getting a big run from Domonick Webb and another first down run by Harover, setting them up inside the Peebles 10 yard line. Two runs for losses and a delay of game call pushed the Dragons backwards and an incomplete pass on fourth down looked like the end of the drive, but his time the Indians were flagged for pass interference, giving West Union one more shot at the end zone and the lead, but the Peebles defense made a stop and forced the turnover on downs.
The Dragons soon got another chance to pull off the win as they recovered a Peebles fumble with 2:20 left, first and goal on the Peebles 7. A negative run on second down put West Union behind the eight ball and on fourth down, out of timeouts, and with just 28 seconds to play, a Chris Steed run was stuffed by the Indians’ “D” and all that was left was the kneel down and the Indians had captured their second consecutive SOIL championship and completed an undefeated season at 9-0.
“I remember four years ago when I started as a freshman, getting beat down every game,” said the lone Peebles senior, Matthew Hudgel after the win. “But to see our program grow and be able to win back-to-back championships, it’s been an honor. Our coaching staff worked really hard to get us to the point where we are and I’m going to hat to leave my teammates but I feel like they have the power and drive to come back next year and do this again.”
“Our defense has been top-notch all year but we have been a slow starter on offense all season,” said Coach McDonald. “We made some adjustments at halftime and it worked for us. I’m just happy for our kids. The kids just have bought in to what we do and all the changes we have made from week to week and year to year.”
I’m very proud of our team for a great season,” said West Union (6-2) head coach Scott McFarland. “Our defense played great tonight and held a high scoring offense to just one score.Bobby Gallowitz made a great interception that was negated by what some thought was a questionable pass interference call and that set them up for their only score.”
” Our kids worked hard all season so it’s difficult to see a championship game determined by one play like that but unfortunately life isn’t always fair and we have to move on. Both teams played their hearts out and we want to congratulate Peebles and the rest of the SOIL teams on a great season.”
