Gallery by Karen Akers
Shady Spring – PikeView’s philosophical shift on offense from a pass-heavy team to a run-heavy team has had it benefits, shortening the game for its defense.
On Friday Shady Spring exposed its weaknesses.
Holding strong on third down, the Tiger defense stifled PikeView throughout the evening, delivering Shady a 26-6 win on homecoming at H.B. Thomas Field.
Facing PikeView’s methodical run defense, the Tigers were lights out on third down, holding the Panthers to 4-of-15 on third down attempts with three of those conversions coming on the final drive with the game in hand.
“It comes down to we played a team we could matchup with,” Shady Spring coach Vince Culicerto said. “We’ve got young guys and we’ve talked about it 100 times but they’re just puppies trying to grow up and get big and we’re not there yet. PikeView’s a good team but it’s somebody we could matchup with and play and our defense was aggressive and did a super job. Phil Culicerto, my brother, did a super job planning for them and we came ready to hit and played good defense.”
The Tigers used their own ground game to establish an advantage early, sprinkling in passes when needed.
Despite a trio of penalties in the red zone on their first drive, the Tigers marched 47 yards in 11 plays, drawing first blood when Adam Richmond found pay dirt on a four-yard rush.
PikeView responded with a 12-play drive to the Shady 32 before turning the ball over on downs.
Facing third-and-7 on the ensuing drive from the PikeView 47, Culicerto called one of the trick plays installed this week which involved wide receiver Tyler Mackey taking a pitch, rolling to his right and tossing the ball downfield to an open Jalon Bailey. The latter did the rest, catching the ball at the 23 and racing to the end zone to pad Shady’s lead.
Trick play!
Q2
SS: Mackey 47 pass to Bailey (Henderson), 10:33
SS 14, PV 0#wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/PTZZszz39m— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 24, 2022
“It was just a little pitchback because Tyler can throw the ball,” Culicerto said. “We put in a couple of those every week and we switched it around a little bit this time. We did it out of a shoot formation and Adam (Richmond) gets the handoff and pitches it back to (Mackey) and then we go out like we’re blocking and hit Jalon down the field. Mackey can throw it though and he throws it well. It’s one of those where you always have a couple (trick plays) and you use them sometimes and you don’t. We like to.
“It keeps the kids excited and you throw in a couple every week and they always ask if we’re going to run it. I told them I was going to run it tonight and when I did Mackey looked at me and said ‘Oh man! He’s going to do it now’ but he executed.”
PikeView’s offense searched for a similar jolt but failed to find one until the second half.
After a 25-yard rush from Logan Cook put the Panthers at the Shady 29 on their first drive of the half, the next three plays failed to move them any closer to the end zone so PikeView head coach Jason Spears rolled the dice. On fourth-and-10, PikeView QB Peyton Greer connected with Nathan Riffe on a 15-yard pass to keep the drive alive and four plays later at the Shady 13 Spears was faced with the same decision, going for it again and reaping the benefits when Greer connected with Andrew Wenning on a 13-yard touchdown pass.
Q3
PV: Greer 13 yard pass to Wenning (Blocked), 6:30
SS 14, PV 6#wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/GqCokw3jSV— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 24, 2022
Unfortunately for the Panthers those smiles were quickly wiped away with Shady marching 50 yards in seven plays, answering with an 11-yard James Sellards touchdown run.
A turnover on downs deep in Tiger territory by the Panther offense was followed by a quick three-and-out but a muffed punt was recovered by Shady at the PikeView 20. From there it took just two plays for Richmond to score, this time from two yards out to cement the final score.
“We beat ourselves,” a frustrated Spears said. “We came out and we had a lot of mistakes that shouldn’t have happened. If we can get that first stop on defense then things can go our way and we can start putting the run game in and when you fall behind it makes it more difficult when you have a plan and try to catch back up.”
When the Panthers did take to the air they didn’t find much success, repeatedly targeting Jalon Bailey on the left side of the defense. The first-year sophomore responded with five pass breakups and an interception inside the Shady 5 on PikeView’s final offensive play of the game.
“He did a super job,” Culicerto said of Bailey. “He’s learning through the school of hard knocks and that’s what a lot of our boys are doing but we know he’s going to be special. He’s just a 10th grader that didn’t play last year and he’s a little fella but he’s growing and we think he’s going to be a real special player.”
Shady improves to 2-3 and will host Greenbrier West next week while PikeView drops to 2-3 with a road matchup against James Monroe slated for Friday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
PV: 0 0 6 0 – 6
SS: 7 7 6 6 – 26
Scoring Plays
Q1
SS: Richmond 4 rush (Henderson kick), 7:15
Q2
SS: Mackey 47 pass to Bailey (Henderson), 10:33
Q3
PV: Greer 13 yard pass to Wenning (Blocked), 6:30
SS: Sellards 11 rush (Kick fails), 3:46
Q4
SS: Richmond 2 rush (Conv fails), 9:01
