The Adena Warriors football team put an exclamation point on their unbeaten SVC championship season with a 46-0 win at home over the Zane Trace Pioneers, Friday.
It took the Warriors only 11 seconds to get the ball away from the Pioneers and score, when Preston Sykes scooped up a fumble and took it for a 7 yard TD. The two-point PAT run by Sykes made it 8-0.
Adena increased their lead to 16-0 at 10:06 left in the first quarter when Sykes connected on a 46 yard TD pass to Tate Myers, followed by a Sykes PAT run.
It went to 19-0 at 3:39 left in the first when Caden McWhorter connected on a 27 yard field goal to complete a 33 yard/5 play drive.
In quarter two, the Warriors made it 26-0 when Nate Throckmorton scored on a 4 yard TD run to cap-off a 63 yard/6 play drive.
Adena made it 32-0, scoring with 13 seconds left in the half on an 8 yard TD pass from Sykes to Logan Bennett, but the PAT failed, which was the halftime score.
Two more touchdowns in the second half came on a Sykes 67 yard run with McWhorter's PAT for a 39-0 lead. The final score was a Gabe Stark 10 yard run with a PAT kick, to complete a 57 yard/6 play drive for the 46-0 final.
Adena compiled 342 total yards with 264 on the ground. Preston Sykes threw 3/7 for 78 yards and two TD passes. Sykes also ran 10 times for 127 yards and a TD.
Zane Trace was held to 106 total yards, 71 rushing.
The Warriors improve to (6-0) and win their first SVC football title since 2010. It is also Adena's 9th title in school history and 6th Gold Football.
Adena has a bye week in the playoffs and will play October 17th against the winner of next week's Rockford Parkway/Saint Bernard-Elmwood Place game. The game will be at Adena on 94 Country WKKJ, with airtime 6:40pm.
Zane Trace falls to (2-4) and travels to Coshocton on October 10th at 7pm, in Round One of the playoffs.
You can hear the replay of the game, including the postgame interview with Adena seniors and head coach John Penwell in our podcast link below....