By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

ARCANUM – Tri-Village showed why they are one of the teams to beat in Western Ohio Athletic Conference (WOAC) on Friday night when they travelled to Arcanum and beat their school district neighbor 42-6.

The victory meant a cold bus ride home for first year head coach Matt Hopkins. With the clocking ticking down in the fourth quarter, several of the players grabbed the water bucket and doused him. The coach explained it has become a tradition, “Every time they beat Arcanum, I guess they’ve got to bathe the head coach. They warned me about it and I totally forgot so it is going to be a nice cold ride home, but it is going to be a good one.” He said he forgot to bring clothes to change into.

The Patriots scored early and often, and quarterback Braden Keating showed why he is leading the conference in passing yards. From 14-yards out he connected with junior Tanner Printz for a 7-0 lead. Later in the quarter, Reed Wehr proved the offense isn’t one dimensional. The fourth leading rusher in the conference took the ball 35 yards and the Patriots were up 14-0 to end the quarter.

The special teams got in on the scoring in the second quarter. With Arcanum punting from their own endzone, Tri-Village was able to get their hands on the punt and Kaeden Lipps jumped on the loose ball just over the goal line and the Patriots were up 21-0. Six minutes later, Keating connected with Printz again; this time on a 36-yard pass play and a 28-0 lead. With under a minute remaining in the half, Keating and Printz connected for a 29-yard pass but was short of the endzone by a yard. The play set up a one-yard touchdown run for Billy Weyant. Tri-Village led 35-0 at the half.

With a running clock in the second half, the Patriots got their final score of the night in the third quarter with Christian Cantrell taking it in on a one-yard run.

Arcanum got their only score of the night on a huge run from junior running back Dakota Kendig. He took the ball 81-yards for the score. The point after attempt was no good. The score was 42-6 and that’s where it stayed for the remaining two minutes of the game.

Hopkins said, “We were really, really physical tonight. I thought we played with a passion, with a fire and it was good to see.” He is hoping that will help them in their next few games, “We talk about every game is a chance for us to get better. We’ve got Dixie still. We know how they’re going in the season, but it doesn’t matter. It’s homecoming for us so it’s an important game. We understand that Blanchester coming to town is a D5 school and has some wins. Those are huge, huge playoff points to put us in great position and it gets us ready to play a physical brand of football when we host Trail to end the season.”

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].