By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

NEW MADISON — The Tri-Village Patriots moved to 8-1 on the season after a resounding victory over the Blanchester Wildcats. The Patriots scored 43 points while shutting out their opposition. The Clinton County school was added to the schedule after Bradford announced they would not have a varsity team this season. Blanchester came into the game at 6-2 in was atop their division in the Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference.

Coach Matt Hopkins said he didn’t know what to expect from the Wildcats, but knew they liked to run the ball. For the first couple of possessions, it looked like the defenses were going to control the game. The Wildcats made a huge mistake on a Patriot punt that changed the course of the game. The Blanchester receiver muffed the punt and Tri-Village recovered, which set them up for a 16-yard touchdown run from Reed Wehr.

Hopkins explained his team’s slow start, “I think we were just amped up too much. It was a big game. We knew we had a good team coming in to play us. We didn’t know what to expect and we were just kind of juiced. It took that play (muffed punt) to snap us out of it and get us going.”

It was all Tri-Village after that. They got a 70-yard touchdown pass from Braden Keating to Tanner Printz to go up 13-0. That was followed by a 29-yard field goal from Keating to start the second quarter.

Printz caught his second touchdown pass with 6:33 left in the half to put the Patriots up 23-0. Wehr added to his touchdown total with 4:45 left in the half and went 57 yards for the score. He added an 8-yard touchdown run with 26 seconds left in the half to give the Patriots a 36-0 lead at the half.

Tri-Village got their final score of the game on a highlight reel 6-yard pass from Keating to Noah Finkbine. Visit facebook.com/advocateearlybird to see the great catch.

“It’s always the game plan to spread the ball out as much as possible and then make them defend all of our skill guys,” said Hopkins. “Tonight, everybody just played really, really well and executed our game plan. I’m really happy with it.”

In their final regular season game, the Patriots will face a tough National Trail team. What will it take to beat the Trailblazers? Hopkins said, “Stop the run. National Trail is going to try to be physical and run the ball down our throats, just like these guys did. This was a great test to get our guys ready to go for National Trail.”

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