SIDNEY — The celebrations started at Sidney Memorial Stadium on Friday well before kickoff and lasted until the stadium cleared.
Sidney matched its highest scoring total in the last three seasons in a 56-26 victory over West Carrollton and broke a two-game losing streak by winning the Miami Valley League Valley Division contest.
The first celebration involving Sidney football players happened when senior receiver Sam Reynolds was crowned homecoming king 30 minutes before kickoff. Plenty more celebrations followed as the squad scored early and often and recorded 4.5 sacks and 8.5 tackles for loss.
It was the first time Sidney (3-4, 3-3 MVL Valley Division) has scored more than 50 points since a 56-0 win over Greenville in Week 1 of 2020. The high-scoring performance comes after the squad had scored two touchdowns in the last two weeks, both of which came in the fourth quarter of lopsided losses.
“We definitely needed that on that side of the ball,” Sidney coach Adam Doenges said. “It was nice to see us be able to establish the run and still be able to pass the ball. I’m proud of what the staff and the kids on that side of the ball have been doing all year, not just this week. But hopefully, tonight is something we can continue on in the last few weeks.”
Julius Spradling had five receptions for 107 yards and had two touchdown receptions. Reynolds caught six passes for 98 yards and had two touchdown receptions. Jy Foster-Wheeler had 54 all-purpose yards and scored two TDs.
Martez Harris ran for 86 yards on 14 carries and scored one TD. Isaiah Foster ran for 46 yards on 10 carries.
Junior quarterback Tucker Herron completed 15-of-20 passes for 232 yards and four TDs with one interception. Foster-Wheeler completed one TD pass for 30 yards.
Sidney had 400 total yards of offense.
“It was definitely a balanced attack,” Doenges said. “We have weapons, but we’ve just been struggling to maintain some consistency. Tonight, we were able to do that a little bit better.”
It’s wasn’t a spotless performance. West Carrollton amassed 420 yards of offense, its highest amount since a 62-26 loss to Miamisburg in Week 1.
“They’ve got some athletes,” Doenges said. “Coach (Chris) Mobley is a good dude, and he’s going to do some good stuff there.
“… They gave us some problems. They have some athletes. We challenged our corners and our secondary a little bit tonight. Their kids were able to make some plays. But our kids bounced back, and we were able to finish it off.”
Sidney senior linebacker Myles Vordemark again led the team in tackles by recording nine, including two tackles for loss.
He added kicking duties to his repertoire on Friday and made 4-of-4 extra-point attempts. His PATs came after Sidney’s last four TDs; normal kicker Joey Flynn and backup Cory Blackford each missed one attempt before Vordemark took over.
“We had some issues with the kickers; Joey had an injury from soccer,” Doenges said. “We had to go into the deep bowels of our kicking game and go to our third stringer. Myles is always saying he can do it. He did a nice job with the kicking duties. I’ve always said if we could play with 11 Myles, we’d be great. Unfortunately, we can only play with one.”
Sidney is scheduled to travel to Fairborn (1-6, 1-5 MVL Valley) next Friday. The Skyhawks lost 35-21 to Stebbins on Friday.
West Carrollton fumbled on its first drive, and Sidney quickly scored.
Herron threw a pass over the middle to Sam Reynolds on a fourth down, and Reynolds jumped up and made the catch just in front of the goal line, then fought a defender for the last few yards on a 28-yard touchdown reception. Mitchell Davis caught a two-point conversion pass from Herron to give Sidney an 8-0 lead with 7:50 left.
The Pirates turned the ball over on downs on their next drive, and Sidney scored when Herron threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Spradling. Spradling caught the pass near the 20-yard line close to the home sideline, then maneuvered around defenders back up the field to score. The extra-point attempt was no good, but the Yellow Jackets took a 14-0 lead late in the first quarter.
West Carrollton scored when Aret Kadiri caught a 6-yard TD pass from Logan Cloyd on the second play of the second quarter, and the two hooked up again on the two-point conversion try to cut the gap to 14-8.
Sidney quickly responded.
The Yellow Jackets drove down the field and scored when Foster-Wheeler took a snap and ran in from 4 yards out. The extra-point try was low, but Sidney led 20-8 with 7:55 left.
Kadiri hauled in a 72-yard touchdown pass from Cloyd less than a minute later to cut the gap to 20-14 after a missed two-point conversion try.
But Sidney pulled away before halftime.
Spradling took a shovel pass 30 yards up the home sideline for a touchdown with 4:30 left, and a successful two-point conversion run by Foster-Wheeler boosted the lead to 28-14.
After West Carrollton was forced to punt, Sidney drove and scored when Foster-Wheeler caught a 14-yard TD pass over the middle from Herron with 1:06 left. Vordemark made the extra-point attempt to boost the lead to 35-14.
Reynolds caught a 30-yard TD pass from Herron with 8:16 left in the third to boost the lead to 42-14. Kevin Davis threw a 5-yard TD pass to Brycen Bauer-Jones to cut the gap to 22 points after a missed two-point conversion try, but Sidney sophomore Tank Fleming returned the ensuing kickoff 65 yards for a TD with 2:55 left to boost the lead to 49-20.
Cloyd threw a 33-yard TD pass to Antonio Robinson with 5:55 left in the fourth, but Harris led Sidney down the field on a series of runs and scored on a 1-yard rush with 3:16 left to push the final gap to 30 points and start a running clock.
