Moore claims crown, four scores as Greencastle downs Owen Valley

Before being crowned as homecoming king at halftime, Greencastle's Lamar Moore was given the royal road to his first score of the night as the Tiger Cub offensive line, including Ashton Dayhuff (54), Zion Slater, Jackson Buis and Kaiden Tomasino (56), blast the Owen Valley defensive line back into the endzone as the hosts claimed a 35-15 win Friday night, their sixth-straight victory.

Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

Emotions swirled at Greencastle Friday night as the Tiger Cubs celebrated homecoming on a pair of fronts against Owen Valley.

Tiger Cub head coach Dave Stephens and quarterback Cole Stephens met against the same players that had been amongst just a year prior with the Patriots trying to halt a three-game slide.

The home side scored on its first three possessions and led 28-8 at halftime, the lead carrying to the end of the night as the hosts won 35-15, running their win streak to six, with Lamar Moore scoring four times on the night.

“We’re a balanced offense that takes what a defense gives us,” Greencastle head coach Dave Stephens said. “With (Owen Valley) playing three down linemen, two high safeties and linebackers outside the box, they’re giving us great box county numbers, even when trying to add a guy late.

“The run was there more and we took it.”

Owen Valley’s run-centric approach saw the visitors pick up two early first downs before turning the ball over on downs near midfield and Greencastle was quick to punish the short field.

Stephens connected with Brendle Brennan and Owen Huff for first downs, along with Ian Williamson to negate damage from a holding penalty, before Moore crashed in from eight yards out for a 6-0 lead midway through the opening quarter. The Tiger Cub defense followed by pinning the Patriots on their own one-yard line following a holding call and two negative plays with the following punt downed at the 12-yard line.

Stephens would hit Huff two plays later for a nine-yard score with Anthony Adams adding the conversion to make it 14-0 with two minutes left in the period.

Owen Valley went three-and-out and the hosts picked up first downs on three consecutive plays before Moore scored for the second time on a two-yard run to make it 21-0 at the start of the second quarter.

The teams traded punts, but a good return by Tim Harden set up the Patriots at the Greencastle 25-yard line.

A bit of trickery got the visitors on the board two plays later as Calvin Dean took a handoff before rolling to the right, stopping and firing back to the left where quarterback Elijah Anderson found separation for a 25-yard score to reduce the deficit to 21-7.

Owen Valley followed it up with an onside kick recovery by Bryan Richardson with a pair of penalties on Greencastle seeing the Patriots get inside the hosts’ 15-yard line, only for Kyvan Bandy to cough up the ball with the Tiger Cubs recovering.

Although forcing a punt, Anderson coughed up a second fumble that Cameron Pingleton recovered at the Owen Valley 40-yard line.

Greencastle needed five plays to capitalize, though the hosts nearly gave the ball back when Williamson was stripped of a completion short of the goal line, only for a whistle to blow just before the ball came loose.

Moore slammed the ball home from two yards out on the next play to make it 28-8 where the score would remain heading into halftime.

The Tiger Cubs started the second half with a two-minute drive that ended with Moore scoring for the fourth time on the night, this time from nine yards out, to make it 35-8.

Owen Valley’s response was a 20-play, 13-plus minute effort that covered 71 yards and finished with Anderson running in from a yard out to make it 35-15.

“It was what it was and I feel a little bad for the Owen Valley kids that, being down four scores, you have a drive where you’re waiting for the last few seconds of the play clock before snapping,” Stephens said. “If it’s a one or two-score game, there’s a strategy involved there, but in a four-score game, it wasn’t fair on them.

“To their credit, we didn’t stop them. We were willing to give them three, four, five yards a carry because we were up four scores.”

The Tiger Cubs moved quickly into visiting territory but Brayden Monroe lost the ball after being crunched by a pair of Owen Valley defenders, the visitors recovering the loose ball at their own five-yard line.

“The one disappointing thing tonight was that you have to know when the weather gets like this, the ball gets slicker,” Stephens said about putting the ball on the ground a few times. “We didn’t do as good a job as we needed to of explaining how the ball was going to be slicker without the heat and humidity.

“When you get hit, the ball gets knocked out and we saw that firsthand a couple of times tonight.”

Greencastle’s defense got the stop it needed to force a final punt and though Huff looked to cap the night off with a final score, a penalty negated the play and the hosts took a knee to end the night.

Scoring

1st Quarter

G — Moore 8-yard run (XP no good) 5:38 6-0

G — Huff 9-yard pass from Stephens (Adams run) 2:06 14-0

2nd Quarter

G — Moore 2-yard run (Williamson kick) 11:45 21-0

OV — Anderson 25-yard pass from Dean (Anderson run) 5:53 21-7

G — Moore 2-yard run (Williamson kick) 2:10 28-8

3rd Quarter

G — Moore 9-yard run (Williamson kick) 10:04 35-8

4th Quarter

OV — Anderson 1-yard run (Walker kick) 8:36 35-15

Statistics

Individual Statistics

Rushing

Owen Valley — 49-192, TD — Andreson 26-91, TD; Bandy 16-100; 7. 6-7; Dean 1-(-6)

Greencastle — 23-115, 4 TD — Moore 18-97, 4 TD; Stephens 3-14; Monroe 1-2; Adams 1-2

Passing

Owen Valley — 2-7-30, TD — Anderson 1-6-5; Dean 1-1-25, TD

Greencastle — Stephens 13-18-140, TD

Receiving

Owen Valley — Anderson 1-25, TD; Dubois 1-5

Monroe 4-46; Huff 3-40, TD; Brennan 2-28; Williamson 2-21; Moore 1-5