By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

ARCANUM — “We got the monkey off of our back. It was ugly, but we did a lot of great things. Our defense was lights out,” said Head Coach Matt Macy after his team picked up their first win of the season and his first as the Trojan head coach. They knocked off Mississinawa Valley 46-13 in Arcanum.

Arcanum wasn’t the only team that played “ugly.” From start to finish, both teams are going to be able to find a lot of things they need to fix when they look at film. The first quarter alone featured five scores, three touchdowns and a safety for Arcanum and a touchdown for Mississinawa.

Junior Dakota Kendig put the Trojans on the right track on the kick off. He broke tackles and had a 62 yard return to give Arcanum great field position to start the game. Four plays later, Jacob Rayburn found the endzone with his first touchdown of the night. The score came after a little over two minutes had ticked off the clock. The extra point was no good, but Arcanum had their first score of the season and a 6-0 lead.

On the Blackhawk’s first drive of the night, the Arcanum defense stepped up big and made their first of several interceptions to give their offense great field position.

A huge mistake on the next play took away a 45-yard pass for a touchdown, but Arcanum wouldn’t be deterred. A couple of plays later Arcanum went up 12-0 on a 23 yard pass play. The extra point was no good.

MV responded immediately on the kick off with a 70 yard kick off return for a touchdown and cut the lead in half, 12-6. Over eight minutes still remained on the clock in the first quarter. The extra point was no good.

“We had some big plays on defense, some long runs, long kick off returns and they had a long kick off return. Our special teams are horrendous. We’ve got to get better,” said Macy.

The Trojans and Blackhawks traded interceptions over the next couple of series, but Arcanum’s led to points on the pick 6 with 3:27 remaining in the first quarter. The two point conversion was no good, but Arcanum led 18-6.

Arcanum picked up its third interception of the quarter on the Blackhawk’s next drive. The Trojans returned it to the Blackhawk 19 and were threatening to score when the Mississinawa Valley defense stepped up and stopped the Trojans on fourth and goal from the one yard line.

Mississinawa Valley took over on downs, but Arcanum stopped them in the backfield on the next play giving Arcanum the safety and two points to go up 20-6.

The Blackhawks were driving when they threw their fourth interception of the quarter. This time to Micah Jarrett at the eight yard line. He took it all the way back to the Arcanum 46 yard line.

At the end of the first quarter, there were five interceptions thrown by both teams. It looked like it was going to be that kind of night a couple of plays into the second quarter. Mississinawa Valley got the interception and took it all the way down to the Arcanum three yard line. Dylan Wehrkamp ran it in from the three and the extra point was good to make it a seven point game, 20-13.

That would be all the Arcanum defense would allow.

They recovered a Mississinaw Valley fumble with 6:36 left in the half and took three minutes off the clock before Rayburn found the endzone again on a 23 yard run. The extra point was no good, but the Trojans led 26-13.

Arcanum would score one more time in the half. With 20 seconds left they went up 32-13. The extra point was no good.

Mississinawa came out throwing in the second half, but two plays into the half, MV quarterback Chastan Daniels took a hard hit and came up shoving Arcanum players. He was ejected from the game.

Arcanum extended their lead to 40-13 with seven seconds remaining in the third quarter on a 44 yard touchdown run from Garno. The two-point conversion was no good.

The Trojans got their final score of the night on a five yard touchdown run from Kendig to go up 46-13. The extra point was no good.

With a more than a 30 point lead, the officials had a running clock for the remainder of the game. Mississinawa Valley was unable to get anything going and the Trojans were able to run it out.

When asked about the positives he will take away from the game, Macy said, “We were able to put it together and win. We’ve been struggling so much trying… We’ve had so many injuries and moving people around all summer. Finally just to put it together and be successful and win.”