12/3/1992, Thursday

Gainesville Daily Register Sports Editor, Mike Pender

                Talk about teams on a roll, how about Valley View.  The Eagles have taken care of business over in Region III of the Class A bracket.

                This week is the real test, though.  Head coach Mark Davidson’s bunch will face the Tenaha Tigers, District 21-A champions.

                Valley View looked good in beating Overton last week 23-6.  Tenaha (12-0) played Overton for the district championship in the last week of the regular season.  Tehaha 16, Overton 13 -- if you take any stock in that sort of thing.

                Davidson said Overton and Tenaha are a little alike, but Tenaha seems to be an exaggerated version of Overton.  The Tigers are bigger and more scary, faster.

                Seems as if Tenaha doesn’t mind going to the air either.  Tiger quarterback Joey Lathan has thrown for 1,644 yards and 17 touchdowns through 12 games.  New math says that’s about 20 yards per reception.

                In the backfield, the Tigers also sport a few weapons in Willie Pipkens, Ray Robertson and Robert Bowden.  None are really that close to breaking the 1,000-yard mark, but all are in the 500 yard category.

                I’m convinced Tenaha hasn’t faced a running team like Valley View, though.  Seems as if the Tigers allow their opponents to only 127 yards per game.

                My guess is that will change slightly come Friday.

                I haven’t picked Valley View to win for the past two weeks and don’t think I’m changing now.  Harris says Davidson will be picking up equipment this weekend as the V-men are five point [under-NLN] dogs….. TENAHA 24, VALLEY VIEW 20.

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12/6/1992, Sunday

Valley View continues quest with 21-14 win

By MIKE PENDER
Register Sports Editor

                Van – The Valley View Eagles edged closer to the Class A state championship Friday night in Van as they knocked off previously undefeated and No. 1 ranked Tenaha by a 21-14 count.   [Error as Tenaha was not ranked #1, NLN]

                With the victory Valley View moves its overall record to 11-2-1 and heads to the state semifinals, while the Tigers end their season at 12-1.

                The Eagles will next face the winner of the Bartlett (12-0) and Runge (12-0) contest which was played Saturday night in San Marcos.  Valley View will play the winner at a time, date and site to be determined.

                Valley View head coach Mark Davidson said his team benefited from outstanding play from his men in the trenches.  Davidson said the offensive line did an excellent job of getting off the ball against the Tigers.  He said they didn’t allow Tenaha’s linebackers many tackle opportunities. 

                “Going into the game with them we felt like when you play those people that have some speed, we had to run some option to keep them honest.” Davidson said.  “We went in with that idea and our linemen did a good job in carrying it out.”

                Davidson said that one of the reasons the Eagles are still playing is the fact that his “hogs” have been controlling the line of scrimmage.

                The men in the trenches offensively for Valley View are tackles Josh Nickerson and I.V. Aubert, guards Glenn Hacker and Chris Whited and center Ethan Graves.

                Another key ingredient to the Eagles win was the option, which running back Michael White and quarterback Jeremy Tipps broke for touchdown runs.

                White led Valley View in rushing with 63 of the team’s 190 yards on the ground, while Tipps completed one pass to Lance Morris for an 18-yard pickup, and also ran back an errant Joey Latham pass 48 yards for a touchdown.

                Davidson said the Eagles started out a little slowly in the first quarter of action as Tenaha capitalized on a mistake and scored the game’s first touchdown.

                “We made a few mistakes in the first half.” Davidson said.  “Their first score came after a bobbled snap on a punt.  It was a bad situation because we had the wind advantage.”

                After the muffed punt, Tenaha quarterback Latham found Stacy Thompson on a 34-yard post pattern for the score.  The extra point kick was blocked, giving the Tigers a 6-0 advantage.

                But Valley View got rolling in the second quarter as White broke free for a 31-yard score, then Lance Morris booted the extra point to give the Eagles a 7-6 lead as the teams headed into the locker room at the half.

                The third quarter was all Valley View as Tipps scampered in from 25-yards out, then intercepted a pass and ran it back 48 yards.

                Tenaha added a late score when Ray Robertson hauled in a 15-yard pass from Latham, but the Eagles’ defense held tough down the stretch to secure the win.

                Davidson said he was very pleased that his defense only allowed 20 total rushing yards, but said the Tigers passing attack gave the Eagles trouble throughout.

                “We were getting a lot of pressure in the early going,” Davidson said.  “Then they went to the shotgun – which we hadn’t seen them in.  We adjusted, but we didn’t have as much time to get pressure on him.”

                Latham finished with 155 passing yards on nine completions and 34 attempts.