XENIA — Sidney stayed close to the defending Miami Valley League champions on Tuesday but made too many errors to pull off an upset.

The Yellow Jackets pulled within nine points in the fourth quarter, but Xenia grabbed a late interception and ran out the clock to preserve a 24-15 victory at Doug Adams Stadium.

“I feel like we adjusted pretty well (defensively) as the game wore on, but we’ve got a lot to improve upon,” Sidney coach Dave Taynor said. “Offensively, it was not a very consistent performance.”

Xenia, which finished 10-0 in regular-season play last year, opened the season by blitzing Beavercreek and West Carrollton 36-0 and 37-7, respectively. The Yellow Jackets’ defense made several big plays to contain the Buccaneers on Friday.

But Xenia (3-0, 2-0 MVL Valley Division) scored on the opening drive and never trailed. The Buccaneers scored on a TD run early in the fourth to take a 24-7 lead before the Yellow Jackets (1-2, 1-1) got back in it late.

“We’ve got to learn to start a little bit faster,” Taynor said. “In the last three weeks, twice (we started) on offense and went three-and-out and didn’t execute things on the opening script. Today, (starting) on defense, it wasn’t the same defense that played the rest of the game. That first series, we were doing a lot of catching and not playing at the rate of speed we need to play at.

“We felt like we adjusted pretty well after that. Xenia, hats off to them, they do a great job with the run game, they’re going to keep pounding it and keep trying to force you to defend them.”

The Buccaneers finished with 356 yards of offense, 212 of which came on the ground.

Sidney finished with 290 yards of offense, over half of which came on its two scoring plays. Julius Spradling scored on a 90-yard TD run in the second quarter, and Perry “Tank” Fleming hauled in a 72-yard TD pass from Tucker Herron in the fourth.

“Some of the things we had done well previously, we didn’t do as well,” Taynor said. “But I felt like on the positive side, Julius Spradling did a great job of running the ball, being a guy that could really do a lot of different things for us. Tank made a big play. We’ve just got to protect the ball and take what the defense gives us every time, not try to make something happen.”

Spradling, a junior receiver, played some at quarterback, including in the second quarter when he broke free on a run and raced 90 yards up the home sideline for a TD to tie it 7-7. He finished with 185 all-purpose yards and also led the squad with 13.5 tackles. He also forced and recovered one fumble.

“That’s been something that we’ve had ready to go, using (Spradling at quarterback),” Taynor said. “We knew coming into this week, we wanted to be able to run the football a little bit more than what we had.

“… He can make some plays. He’s got to work on a little bit of quarterback presence. It’s something he hasn’t done. I expect to see a big improvement from that with him in future weeks. The kid does a phenomenal job of learning and growing on a daily basis.”

Herron completed 8-of-9 passes for 125 yards with one TD and two interceptions.

Xenia led 14-7 at halftime. The Yellow Jackets went three-and-out to start the third. Xenia drove and stalled, but Sean Leonard hit a 36-yard field goal with 8:25 left to push the lead to 10 points.

Ronnie Butler intercepted a pass for the Buccaneers at midfield late in the third, and Elijah Johnson capped off the ensuing drive with a 7-yard TD run with 11:16 left in the fourth to push the lead to 24-7.

But on a third-and-long, Herron launched a pass to Fleming along the home sideline, and Fleming caught it despite pass interference from his defender, then ran into the end zone for a TD with 9:07 left.

Herron caught a two-point conversion pass from Spradling to cut the gap to nine points.

Sidney forced Xenia to punt with 4:29 left, but on a fourth-and-long a little over a minute later, Luke Russell intercepted a pass from Herron.

The Buccaneers ran out the clock.

Xenia drove 75 yards on their first possession and scored when Gavin McManus threw an about 40-yard touchdown pass over the middle to Juan Underwood to give the squad a 7-0 lead.

Neither offense did much the rest of the quarter. The Buccs fumbled at Sidney’s 25 on a fourth-and-short late in the first. Sidney went three-and-out, but Xenia fumbled the return at its own 39. The Yellow Jackets went three-and-out again, though.

Sidney broke through early in the second quarter.

After being pinned to its own 6 on a punt, Spradling went in at quarterback and two plays later broke free on the 90-yard TD run. Joey Flynn made the PAT to tie it 7-7.

But the Buccaneers responded with a long drive and scored on a 5-yard TD run by Jace Jones with 4:39 left to take a 14-7 lead.

Sidney is scheduled to host Fairborn (1-2) this coming Friday. The Skyhawks beat West Carrollton 34-6 on Friday for their first win.

Reach Bryant Billing at 937-538-4818, or follow @SidneyOHSports on Twitter and @BryantBillingSDN on Facebook.