Zane Trace struck quickly to take a lead after just 22 seconds, but the rest of the night belonged to the Paint Valley Bearcats in their 47-13 victory over the Pioneers.
ZT's Brendon Lytle took the opening kick-off 74 yards to the PV 11 yard line, with quarterback Ben Nichols scoring on the first play from scrimmage on an 11 yard run then a PAT kick for a 7-0 lead.
That momentum was short-lived, as Paint Valley's Cavan Cooper took the ensuing kick-off 79 yards for a TD with Dax Estep's PAT kick tying the game at 7-7.
Cordell Grubb put the Bearcats up for good, scoring on a 17 yard run to cap-off a 71 yard/4 play drive at 8:54 left in the first period for a 14-7 lead. That lead expanded to 20-7 when Trammel Byrd raced 78 yards for a score at 4:18, with the PAT failing.
Paint Valley would score two more TD's before halftime on TD runs of 46 and 3 yards by Byrd for a 32-7 lead at the break.
The third quarter brought the continuous clock into play at 40-7, when a screen from Cooper to Estep, who then threw to Kole Miller on a 38 yard TD strike at 10:21 left in the third.
Zane Trace answered with an 85 yard TD run by Logan McDowell at 11:34 left in the fourth quarter, cutting the margin to 40-13.
The continuous clock went back into play with a 45 yard scoring drive for the Bearcats, as Dom Chambers had several nice runs, including his 3 yard run for the final margin of 47-13.
Paint Valley racked-up 504 total yards of offense when 432 on the ground. Running back Trammel Byrd accounted for 234 rushing yards and three TD's. Cordell Grubb added 90 yards and one TD and Cavan Cooper had 71 yards running.
Zane Trace was held to 224 total yards, but committed two turnovers to only one for Paint Valley.
Paint Valley improves to (4-1) in the SVC and stays within one game of unbeaten (5-0) Adena, who clinched no worse than a share of the SVC championship with a 51-8 victory at Huntington. The Warriors can win the Gold Ball and secure an undisputed title with a win at home next Friday against Zane Trace. 94 Country WKKJ will broadcast the game with airtime at 6:40pm.
Zane Trace falls to (2-3).
Listen to the WKKJ replay on our podcast link found below...