Xenia’s Senior Shawn Fishwick hauled in ten passes for 112 yards and a touchdown. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright Daniel)
Piqua’s three costly giveaways kept the Indians out of it in a 42-21 loss to Xenia. The Buccaneers converted all three interceptions into touchdowns.
Piqua, OH – Good news and bad news for the Piqua Indians.
Alan Brads is a contributing columnist and writes sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
The bad news first: Three turnovers against Xenia struck a fatal blow to the Indians, as the Buccaneers marched to a 42-21 win. Each of Piqua’s three interceptions proved even more lethal than your garden-variety turnover.
Xenia’s Alex Gragg returned the first pick 35 yards for a touchdown. The second gave the Buccaneers the ball at Piqua’s 7-yard line for another easy score. And the third interception cut a promising drive short in the red zone.
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“This is a great football team we were playing, and that’s just something you can’t afford,” Piqua coach Bill Nees said.
But believe it or not, for the 2-4 Indians, there’s more good news than you might expect. Take away those three snaps of the football, and Piqua gave the Buccaneers (5-1, 4-1 MVL) a run for their money. Of course, you don’t get to take those turnovers away, that’s not how football works. But if they can correct it moving forward, the foundation is there for them to be a successful football team.
The connection between quarterback Chris Davis and receiver Rayshawn Garrett gives the Indian offense the downfield threat it’s been starved for. Davis completed 16/23 passes for 196 yards. A large chunk of his production came on screens. Garrett caught eight passes for 95 yards and two touchdowns.
Xenia’s Sincere Valdez takes control of Piqua’s Debo Knisley.
On top of the reinvigorated downfield attack, the Piqua run defense, spearheaded by Landen Brown and Landyn Delph, pulled off what few have done by bottling up Xenia running back Deaunte White for a time.
But in the end, Xenia had answers.
The Bucs’ screen pass game shredded Piqua’s secondary. Sophomore quarterback Gage Stephan went 21/26 for 233 yards and three touchdowns. The vast majority of his completions and yards came on screen passes
“Being a young quarterback, we’ve got a lot of seniors like [WR] Shawn Fishwick, Deaunte White, our whole O-line, and all our receivers that make my job so much easier by just being able to know I can trust them out there,” Stephan said.
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Rather than bringing in extra tight ends to run the ball via brute force, Xenia prefers to spread four receivers wide, and either run against lighter boxes, or bet on the physicality of their receivers to win blocks against cornerbacks. That bet was a winner against Piqua.
Piqua’s Rayshawn Garrett hurdles a would-be Xenia tackler for yardage.
Senior Shawn Fishwick hauled in ten passes for 112 yards and a touchdown.
“Shawn’s a game-changer,” Xenia coach Maurice Harden said. “We try every week to scheme up some things to get the ball in his hands. So we were able to do a really good job of figuring out ways to manipulate the defense to get him some one-on-one matchups, and he took advantage of it.”
As Piqua diverted attention out wide to Fishwick, even bracketing him in the fourth quarter, Xenia’s run game found its legs.
White ripped a chunk run for 40 yards to cap his night of 134 yards on 7.4 per carry and a touchdown.
“It just wears on you,” Nees said. “And they’ve got a great RPO type deal. We were hoping to not give up a deep one, but we gave up a deep one, and that’s just a momentum shot. Those types of things are just like turnovers. It creates quick momentum.”
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Xenia grabbed momentum first when Fishwick sealed the edge on a WR screen that Lucas Williams delivered 40 yards to the end zone for the opening score.
On the next drive, Davis never saw Xenia linebacker Alex Gragg lurking, and what was intended to be a quick, easy completion on 3rd & 1 transformed into a pick-six for the Bucs.
Three on three, Piqua’s Zaydyn Allen attempt to tackle Xenia’s Deaunte White.
Piqua’s offense recovered and marched down the field before apparently stalling on an incomplete RB screen on 4th & 5, but a roughing the passer penalty extended the drive. A few plays and another Buccaneer personal foul later, Davis connected with Garrett on a post route for 13 yards and a score to cut the lead to 14-7.
The Indian defense bent all the way down to its own 1-yard line, but made a valiant goal line stand, turning Xenia over on downs.
But Buccaneer linebacker Torian Hill intercepted a pass batted at the line, setting Xenia up at Piqua’s 7-yard line. The Bucs wouldn’t take no for an answer a second time, and Jaxon Austin broke open for a touchdown catch to make the lead 21-7.
Piqua’s offense rolled into the red zone early in the third quarter, but its fortunes turned sour yet again when cornerback Jamari Scott jumped a route for a third game-changing Xenia interception.
After another interception, Debo Knisley getting his thoughts together for the series of downs.
“The defense did a good job of being as sound as they can be,” Harden said. “And when they got their opportunities to strike, they did that, and that helped us out.”
Screen passes drove the Bucs back down the field, and Stephan found Fishwick with a jump ball on a hitch-and-go for a 25-yard touchdown.
“He just threw it up,” Fishwick said while Stephan laughed sheepishly beside him. “It was a double move, but the defender didn’t bite. But [Stephan] still believed in me to go up and catch the ball. We’re starting to get in the groove because he’s a young quarterback, and that takes time to get used to. But he’s starting to do what I know he can do.”
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“We worked all offseason on our deep ball,” Stephan said. “I’ve got a connection with this guy. Coming out of halftime, we’d seen these DBs and we know what can beat them, so we said let’s just take a deep shot.”
The passing success opened running lanes for White, who finally found the end zone on the following drive, to push the lead to 35-7, ending any hope of a comeback.
Rayshawn Garrett hauls in a touchdown pass from quarterback Chris Davis.
Piqua’s Garrett exploded late, catching a 21-yard touchdown and a 43-yard pass to set up a 15-yard Debo Knisley touchdown run. But Xenia held the Indians at bay with a score of their own by Emani Rackley on a one-yard run.
The win boosted Xenia into third place in Region 8, good enough for a first-round bye and at least one home playoff game if they can hang on to their position.
“We want to make it to the third game in the playoffs,” Fishwick said. “That’s something that’s never been done in Xenia school history, so we wanna go make school history.”
The Bucs host the MVL favorite Tipp Red Devils next week.
Piqua held steady at 16th in the region, no longer a playoff-eligible spot this year. The Indians still have work to do if they want an 11th game.
But there’s one final bit of good news for the Indians. Tipp, Troy and Xenia are all in the rearview mirror, and if they’ve learned and improved from their losses, the wins should come soon. The remainder of their schedule includes Fairborn, Stebbins, Butler and Sidney. At the risk of counting some chickens before they hatch, if the Indians can limit the turnovers, the first .500 season since 2022 could be on their horizon.
Xenia’s Lucas Williams gives Piqua’s Keaton Bolden the stiff arm.
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