With the score tied at 14-14 midway through the fourth quarter, Paint Valley's defense went on a tear to lift the Bearcats to a 34-14 win at Westfall to clinch a share of the SVC Football Championship.
That defensive tidal wave started with a blocked punt, then three fumbles on Westfall's next three possessions. Paint Valley capitalized on each of those Mustangs miscues to score three unanswered touchdowns.
The scoring started with Paint Valley taking the first possession after a big kickoff return and turned it into a 39 yard/6 play drive as Lane Mettler scored the first of his four touchdowns for a 6-0 lead at 9:30 in the period.
Westfall bobbled the ensuing kickoff and started their drive on their own 3 yard line, but Seth Spellman bailed them out with a 94 yard run from scrimmage to the Paint Valley three yard and scored on the next play. The PAT kick by Oscar Rosales put Westfall up 7-6.
PV took a 14-7 lead at 4:07 remaining in the first quarter as they drove 74 yards in 9 plays, with Mettler scoring from 5 yards and then ran in a two-point conversion.
The Mustangs tied the game at 10:06 in the second quarter, going 64 yards in 12 plays as Trenton Davis scored from 13 yards out. That was the score at halftime.
The tide started to turn toward Paint Valley midway through the fourth quarter with the blocked punt that then saw them go on a 53 yard/7 play drive as Brice Newland connected with Caden Johnson on a 14 yard TD pass.
The Cats followed that up by taking advantage of more Westfall fumbles that gave Paint Valley short field drives of 7 and 30 yards with Mettler scoring on each.
Paint Valley had 282 total yards with 242 on the ground. Brayden Ison led the attack with 90 yards rushing, with Mettler scoring four TD's.
Westfall had 288 rushing yards, but 7 sacks for minus 64 yards pulled their total offens edown to 259 yards. Seth Spellman had 136 rushing yards.
Westfall's 5'6, 140 pound junior Chanston Moll and Paint Valley's Lane Mettler stole the show for both defenses with numerous sacks and tackles for loss. Moll had 2 sacks for 4 tackles for loss while Mettler had 4 tackles for loss.
The Mustangs were hurt by three turnovers, a blocked punt and 60 yards in penalties.
The Bearcats improve to (6-0/9-0) and will face (5-1/8-1) Adena for the undisputed SVC Championship next Friday at Paint Valley, with 94 Country WKKJ and iHeart Radio broadcasting. Both teams are guaranteed a playoff berths in Division 6/Region 23 according to Joe Eitel.com. The Warriors edged Southeastern 33-30 to set-up the match-up. Adena can shared the title with a win.
Listen to Mike Smith and B. Jay Dailey's play-by-play call on WKKJ in our podcast link below....