Tipp’s Xavier Melton gives Piqua’s Keaton Bolden the stiffarm. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
After throttling Bellbrook in their season-opener, the Tippecanoe Red Devils looked swift and powerful against Piqua, but they also provided plenty of coaching points for a team intent on making a deep playoff run.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
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Tipp City, OH — Minutes after his team beat Piqua 40-7 Friday night, Tippecanoe coach Matt Burgbacher was already looking forward to laboring on Labor Day.
His Red Devils were far from perfect while improving to 2-0 on the season, and he kind of liked it that way for a program with championship aspirations and demons to exorcise.
“Monday will be fun,” the Tippecanoe coach said. “We get to go in Monday morning then take the rest of the day off.”
Winning has become a habit for the Red Devils, who beat Piqua for the fourth year in a row. They have won at least 10 games three seasons in a row but had ultimate prizes elude them.
Tipp’s quarterback Larkin Thomas completed 16 of 22 passes for 258 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 52 yards on nine carries.
They came within a game of Canton in 2022 and won two postseason games in ’23 before suffering a painful second-round exit at the hands of St. Mary’s last season. The score of the most recent setback —16-14 — is posted around the Red Devils’ locker room, but they are beyond the time to need constant reminders of a feeling they don’t want to have again.
The fact is, they can’t win a second-round playoff game until November. They have lots of football to play between now and then and much to improve on, too.
Friday night they lost a fumble inside the Piqua 10-yard line and threw an interception at the 3. They had a punt return touchdown called back for an illegal block and multiple big plays wiped out on offense for holding.
The Red Devils were also flagged for two personal fouls on one drive — including one that was offset by a Piqua personal foul when things got chippy — but they still dominated the game behind the passing of Larkin Thomas and most especially the running of Xavier Melton.
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“We have the big picture there,” Burgbacher said in reference to his team’s season goals, “but to be able to make it look prettier, we got to take care of today. We got to take care of this, you know? And we don’t talk about the signs in the locker room. We see it. We don’t need to remind them, but it’s just a good reminder because we know everybody that plays us is ready to give us their best shot. So we gotta be ready. And the kids, they just keep working. Because we have so many things — you saw the penalties tonight. Everything. We got so many things that we can improve on, but to beat a Piqua squad by 33 points, I’ll take that every day of the week.”
Tipp’s Will Strong gains some yardage.
Melton is listed at 5-11, 176 pounds this year. That’s an inch taller and only three pounds heavier than last year when he ran for 900 yards on 145 carries, but he looked more stout while creasing the Piqua defense 22 times for 180 yards and four touchdowns Friday night.
“It takes a lot of hard work,” he said after crediting his offensive line. “I mean, there’s a lot of offseason training that goes into it, but at the end of the day, it’s a team effort. It’s not something that just comes up to me. It’s something that the whole team has to do. Everybody has to do their job, whether it’s big or small, and that’s what allows us to have these accomplishments.”
Melton’s heavy lifting made life easier for Thomas, a junior who completed 16 of 22 passes for 258 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for 52 yards on nine carries.
He called the interception a dumb mistake but enjoyed watching Melton do his thing.
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“Xavier’s physical, but he’s also fast, and we’ve been training together,” Thomas said. “He’s been working hard this whole offseason, and I knew it was coming.”
Beyond their physical contributions, Melton and Thomas both sounded like team leaders who have gotten the message loud and clear: This season is about avenging last year’s early playoff exit, but they can’t do that until they take care of business here and now.
Tipp’s Jackson Robbin’s crosses the goalline for another Tipp touchdown.
“Every week is a new week, and even if we beat a good team, we know we could have a bad day and get beat,” Thomas said. “And I think we’ve learned our lesson from last year in the playoffs on keeping a level head and coming in every day and executing.”
Friday night, Tipp looked poised to take the lead on the second play of the game when Will Strong broke loose on a screen pass for 65 yards, but the pursuit caught him inside the 10 and he lost the ball as he went to the ground. The Indians recovered at their 7, but they quickly had to punt, and Melton capped the ensuing 60-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run.
They added seven more points on the next drive when senior Jackson Robbins caught a screen from Thomas in the left flat, made a man miss then scampered into the end zone from eight yards out. He went 75 yards for another touchdown the next time they got the ball.
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That march was actually longer because of three Tippecanoe penalties, but Melton wiped out the last one with a 19-yard run to the 1 that set up Thomas to score on a keeper one play later. Although the PAT was no good, Tipp led 20-0 with 11:11 left in the second quarter.
That’s when Piqua had its best sequence of the night.
Indian Garrett Rayshawn breaks thru a tackle to make Piqua’s only touchdown against the Red Devils.
First the Indians struck with a 67-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Chris Davis to swift senior Rayshawn Garrett, who caught a swing pass in the right flat, picked up a couple of blocks and dashed down the sideline to give the Indians some life.
They showed a little more on the next defensive possession when freshman Landon Sullenberger picked off Thomas at the 3-yard line after he tried to find a receiver late while scrambling to his left, but the Indians couldn’t do anything with that possession.
They narrowly avoided a safety on first down and were probably relieved to be able to punt two plays later, but Tipp took advantage of good field position when Melton capped an eight-play drive with a 4-yard touchdown run with 1:27 left in the first half.
Twice in the third quarter, Max Deckard set up the Tipp offense with strong punt returns, and the Red Devils took advantage both times with touchdown runs of six and four yards from Melton. The second activated the running clock with 2:41 left in the third quarter.
“We’re going to enjoy the win tonight because any team coached by Bill Nees is a good football team, and that’s a good football program,” said Burgbacher, whose team plays host to 2-0 Fairborn next week. “So very, very proud of these boys, and we are where we want to be right now. You can only play two games. We’ve won two, but now we gotta go get number three next week.”
After losing 12-7 to Lima Senior in Week 1, the Indians are 0-2. They return home to face Greenville next week.
Coach Burbacher talking with his team after their victory over Piqua.
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