Piqua receiver Ryan Brown hauls in one of his three touchdown receptions Friday night as West Carrollton’s Kevin Davis gives chase at Alexander Stadium/Purk Field. The Indians won 58-0.
Mike Ullery | Miami Valley Today
Piqua’s Ky Warner turns a catch into a 42-yard TD pass from Brady Ouhl against West Carrollton.
Mike Ullery | Miami Valley Today
Piqua’s Drake Owen (16) and Mickey Anderson (11) combine on a tackle as Sam Schmiessing (8) closes in Friday night.
Mike Ullery | Miami Valley Today
PIQUA — The Piqua football team heads into a big two-game stretch clicking on all cylinders.
In Friday’s 58-0 win over West Carrollton, the Indians did what they wanted on offense, the defense scored a touchdown, the special teams put points on the board for the second straight week and there has been no sign of a punter yet this season.
“We did a lot of things well on offense and got a lot of people involved,” Piqua football coach Bill Nees said.
On offense, Piqua quarterback Brady Ouhl completed four of six passes for 176 yards — with all four completions going for touchdowns.
“That’s a pretty good percentage,” Nees said. “We didn’t run all that many plays on offense, but we were able to do a lot of good things.”
The Indians had the ball for just 32 plays on offense in the game to West Carrollton’s 64 and had just 16:08 of possession time in the game.
One big reason for that was the explosiveness of receiver Ryan Brown.
Brown caught three passes for 134 yards and three touchdowns.
In the opening quarter, he made a diving catch of 26 yards in the end zone for a touchdown.
He added TD receptions of 67 and 41 yards and Ky Warner turned a short pass into a 42-yard touchdown, evading one would-be tackler and going down the sidelines into the end zone.
“Brownie (Ryan Brown) is coming off an outstanding season in track last spring,” Nees said. “He hasn’t missed a beat.”
When they did need to run the ball, Bryson Roberts and Sam Schmiesing both found the end zone in the first half and Jerico Burns ran for a touchdown in the second half from one-yard out after Owen Shawler recovered a fumble.
Schmiesing finished with 55 yards on four carries and Andrew Miller had 12 carries for 44 yards in the second half.
“Sam (Schmiesing) and Bryson (Roberts) are completely different style runners, but both are effective,” Nees said. “What shouldn’t be overlooked is what Andrew Miller did. He is doing a great job for us on Friday nights and Saturdays.”
Piqua got a boost from the defense early on when Bryson Roberts returned an interception 45 yards for a touchdown in the opening quarter.
“Bryson (Roberts) was able to step back and make that play,” Nees said. “We had some starters that we were able to get back on defense this week (from injury) and that helped us. I thought the defense took a step forward this week. The tackling was much better this week.”
Schmiesing had nine tackles and three sacks from his linebacker position.
Colten Beougher and Mickey Anderson both had five tackles, while Anson Cox had two tackles for loss and Devon Finley added one.
Piqua was able to take advantage of sever short fields after bad snaps on West Carrollton punts, getting a safety when the Pirates fell on the ball in their own end zone.
Jackson Trombley kicked eight PATs and all nine kickoffs were touchbacks.
“We were able to take advantage of some of their mistakes on special teams,” Nees said.
Now, comes a big week two-week stretch as the Indians host Troy Friday and travel to Xenia the following week.
You can reach Sports Editor Rob Kiser at [email protected]
