Warriors conquer Longhorns in junior varsity affair, 22-8

Published 10:44 am Tuesday, October 20, 2020

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BY NIC MILLER
STAR CORRESPONDENT

HAPPY VALLEY – As the football season continues for area high schools this fall, Mondays during this time mean junior varsity gridiron action.

This week, the Happy Valley Warriors would be on Warrior Hill to take on the team from Mountain City, the Johnson County Longhorns.

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And things got off to a great start for the Longhorns as on Happy Valley’s first play, the ball would come out and be recovered by Johnson County on the cusp of the red zone.

Only a few plays later the visitors would capitalize with a short rush along the outside followed by more of the same on the conversion to give the Longhorns the advantage early, 8-0.

But the Warriors would retaliate quickly when Jason Thomas would field a punt at midfield and take it to the house followed by a Joseph Sowards conversion to knot things up, 8-8.

Towards the end of the first quarter, it seemed like deja vu for the Warriors as a tipped Longhorn punt would be fielded by Antonio Martin and taken all the way down inside the five to the three-yard line, but a holding penalty would push Happy Valley back leaving them scoreless on the drive.

Halfway through the second quarter, the Warriors would finally take the lead with a ten-yard touchdown rush by Rex Ranck followed by lineman Cameron Cochran splitting the uprights for the 15-8 advantage that would stay the same all the way until the halftime break.

The third quarter was a relatively quiet one, as the Warriors marched down the field for the majority of the period.

But just before the clock hit zero, Logan Groom took the ball up the middle across the goal line from five yards out followed by another Cochran point after to give the home team a 22-8 lead going into the final quarter.

And that score by the Warriors would be the last for both teams in this game as neither squad was able to reach the goal line for the remainder of the contest.

Happy Valley would go back to the locker room happy in this one, as the Warriors bested the Longhorns, 22-8.