Coldwater’s defense brings down Valley View quarterback Brody Gibbs during Friday’s overtime season opening win. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Logan Howard)
The Spartans go for two in overtime but the Cavaliers’ defense rises up, and a team with a new identity discovers what it means to play every down like it’s the last one.
Germantown, OH – Chip Otten watched respectfully from behind as his exhausted Coldwater football players sang the alma mater while tired band members played one last tune.
The scene was an almost solemn finale on the most playful of Friday nights, one full of big plays, trick plays and unsuspecting plays.
Then Otten asked the question that tells you what kind of back-and-forth, up-and-down, inside-out game the Cavaliers had just played against Valley View.
“What was the score?” he said as he looked at the scoreboard that had already been turned off. The scoreboard keeper, like everyone else, was ready to go home after what was probably the last game in Ohio to conclude. It was nearly 11 p.m.
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The answer: Coldwater 49, Valley View 48 in overtime. Silly as it sounds, the game was closer than the final score indicates.
The score was tied six times. Almost every other play in the second half ended with a player on the ground with leg cramps. One time there were four players. So at the end of the first and, thankfully, only overtime period, Valley View coach Matt King decided there would be no more cramps and no more ties.
Coldwater, starting from the 20, scored on the first possession of overtime when quarterback Karysn Homan bulled his way into the end zone from the two for a 49-42 lead. Valley View was next and scored on fullback Tristan Smith’s two-yard run.
King didn’t hesitate to go for two. He didn’t want Coldwater to have the chance to do the same at the end of a second overtime.
“It didn’t appear that we could stop them for the entire second half,” King said. “It’s all or nothing. Let’s control the all or nothing.”
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King called for a pass play, a quick toss out to the left to a receiver releasing off the end of the line. Coldwater blitzed, sending both outside linebackers.
Derek Dues shot through a gap untouched and finally forced Valley View quarterback Brody Gibbs to do something the Cavaliers rarely made him do all night. They made him hurry. Gibbs lofted a pass toward the end zone to an open receiver, but Dues’ pressure rushed him, and the football – so used to lighting up the scoreboard – landed harmlessly in the end zone.
Coldwater’s Cadin Obringer celebrates a Cavalier touchdown in Friday’s win over Valley View.
“It was wide open,” King said. “We just couldn’t connect. It was a timing thing.”
No Cavaliers worried about leg cramps at that moment. They jumped up and down and hugged everyone they could in celebration of a victory they didn’t think many people thought they would get.
“It’s awesome for this group of seniors because they heard all the stuff that last year’s team was such a huge group of seniors,” Otten said of the 2024 Division VI state champions who beat Valley View 38-0 to start that season. “And we knew that Valley View had some really good skilled guys coming back and everybody’s doubting us. For me, it’s just to see the boys so happy.”
Dues said his team heeded his coach’s advice of no matter the adversity – there was plenty of it – don’t go in the tank. Keep the tank full and keep playing, keep playing. That’s what Dues did on the final play.
“I hit him, and once I saw that ball drop, everything just came rushing back to me – all the hard work and dedication that we put in throughout the summer,” Dues said. “It was just the best feeling ever.”
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The entire night was full of good feelings for both teams. So much so that King, obviously disappointed to lose, was thrilled by lots of things his team did. They stayed in the game despite losing their best player to injury in the second quarter, running back Anthony Valenti.
“The guys battled before we ever got here,” King said of injuries and sickness during training camp. “So I just couldn’t be more proud. We talked a lot about never quit, and our guys never quit. One play here, one play there. It makes all the difference.”
Braxton Taylor joined the yards and points parade for the Cavaliers in a 49-48 overtime win.
Numerous plays kept the game exciting, tight and unrelenting.
Otten, known for clutch play calling and taking chances, turned first-year starter Homan, a junior, loose on the Cavaliers’ first play. With a new quarterback, everyone expected a safe handoff. But that’s not Otten’s style.
Homan dropped back and threw deep to Cadin Obringer for a 69-yard touchdown with 8:20 left in the first quarter. Valley View scored the next two touchdowns, set up by big plays, on runs of 14 yards by the quick and shifty Brodie Hopkins and 17 yards by the evasive Gibbs.
Coldwater responded on Homan’s 29-yard pass to Braxton Taylor to the Valley View 30. And Otten caught the Spartans off guard again. A second after the ball was set for play, the Cavs snapped it, and receiver Caleb Schroer swept the right side for a touchdown to the score at 14.
Throw in a double pass play for a big gain in the second half and onside kick that kicker Bryce Couchot recovered himself, and Otten almost emptied his playbook. He knew how important this game is to playoff points. Valley View is a Division IV team that should win a lot of games and help Coldwater’s final seeding. And next week’s opponent, Clinton-Massie, has more to game plan for and worry about.
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“Sometimes you just roll the dice,” he said. “The coaches sometimes look at me and say, ‘Why did you call that?’ Because I think it’s gonna work.”
Mistakes and special teams were part of the game, too.
After Schroer’s touchdown, Hopkins returned the kickoff 89 to put the Spartans back up 21-14. Late in the half Coldwater turned the ball over on downs to the Spartans at the 14 when a snap sailed over the punter’s head. The Spartans soon led 28-21.
Karsyn Homan busts through a Valley View tackle attempt during the second half of Friday’s 49-48 overtime win.
But a squibber on the kickoff set the Cavaliers up at midfield with 1:01 left in the half. And 21 seconds later, Homan scored from the one. The teams alternated touchdowns in the second half with Homan scoring all three of Coldwater’s on runs of two, 25 and two yards.
Homan, who stands 5-foot-8 and weighs 180, rushed for 139 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries and completed 12 of 20 passes for 202 yards, a touchdown and an interception. His 25-yard touchdown run summed up the kind of runner he is, barreling through tackles and knocking down defenders like bowling pins.
“I just run, don’t let people tackle me – keep running until I get brought down,” he said.
Otten knows exactly what it looks like to watch Homan get on a roll.
“A bowling ball,” he said. “Cory Klenke, one of our great quarterbacks of the past, he’s our quarterback coach, and after one of those where he’s pinging around in there, he says, ‘He’s like a bowling ball.’”
Valley View rode its own running quarterback. At 6-foot-3 Gibbs doesn’t look like the kind of runner he was. His 98 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries led a 246-yard ground attack, in addition to the 94 yards he threw for.
“He was slippery,” Dues said. “It could have been sweat on his jersey, and I’ll admit he was pretty shifty. He made some good cuts and just keeping him contained was a hard struggle for us.”
The struggle was real in many ways. But winning this game, proving to themselves that they can be another good Coldwater team, made it all worth it. They surely didn’t care that they pulled into the school parking lot well after midnight.
“Dream come true,” Homan said. “I always wanted to represent the town and pass it on. We don’t rebuild. We just regroup and keep going. Next guy up.”
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