PIQUA – The Piqua Indians used senior night to defeat the visiting Green Wave 21-7 in Friday night’s MVL matchup.
Greenville turned the ball over five times on the night, losing 3-of-3 fumbles and two interceptions while Piqua was turning the ball over two times, losing 1-of-3 fumbles and throwing one interception.
“We always play hard but we made a lot of mistakes tonight,” said Greenville coach Bart Schmitz. “When you make mistakes like that against a good football team – it’s tough to overcome.”
The Wave went three-and-out in its opening drive while Piqua was coughing up the ball by way of a Bradley Wynn Greenville fumble recovery on the Indians first offensive play of the game.
Greenville put together a 7-play 34-yard drive ending with the Wave’s first fumble of the night setting up an Indians 11-play 69-yard touchdown drive to take a 7-0 lead at 2:02 in the opening period.
The Wave answered with a 13-play 73-yard scoring drive with Tony Sells scoring from 3-yards out. Ethan Flanery’s PAT kick split the uprights tying the game a 7-7 with 7:52 showing on the second quarter clock.
Greenville’s defense held the home team on its next possession only to give up the ball with a fumble on the first play of scrimmage setting up Piqua’s second touchdown of the night coming on the Indians first play from scrimmage good for a 41-yard go-ahead TD run.
The teams would head to the halftime break with Piqua holding a 14-7 advantage.
Greenville stopped a Piqua 11-play 47-yard drive to open second half play taking over on downs at the Wave’s 20-yard line. A Wave fumble on the first play from scrimmage had Piqua recovering at the GHS 15-yard line.
Marcus Wood slammed the door on the Indians next drive with an interception at 4:20 in the third.
With Greenville unable to sustain a drive, Piqua took over on downs with 0:34 remaining in the third period.
Piqua put together an 8-play 57-yard touchdown drive to score the game’s final TD of the night to give the Indians the senior night win.
“Give Piqua some credit,” Coach Schmitz said. “They are well coached, they played hard. We just made too many mistakes tonight.”
Greenville takes a 5-3 record on the road with a Friday night MVL game against the 2-6 Vandalia-Butler Aviators with a 7 p.m. start time.
