Opening Night Blues?…Coldwater, Valley View Share Their Moments In Cavaliers’ 37-21 Win

It was not the opening night that two good football teams would hope for…mistakes, focus, and penalties.  But in the end Coldwater got talent back on the field, came away a winner.  And no one got hurt.

Coldwater, OH – Here’s how Valley View coach Matt King and Coldwater’s Chip Otten characterized Friday night’s 37-21 Cavalier win in front of a good home crowd at Cavalier Stadium

King:  “They’re a good football team and that’s why we schedule them.  And now we know…we’re not a very good football team.  And that starts with me.  I didn’t coach them very well.”

Otten:  “It was the ultimate opening night.  So many odd plays and mistakes,  We didn’t play very well with the lead in the third quarter…gave up the touchdown on the kickoff, lost the onside kick that became a touchdown, and had a pass deflection intercepted.  But we’re going to feel pretty good because I think that was a good team we played.  Beating a team like that is a good way to start.”

Well, whoever you root for, Valley View or Coldwater, take a deep breath.  These were, and are, two very good Division IV and V teams, and without a doubt their best football is ahead of them in 2026.

And yes, it’s disappointing when you anticipate a game so highly, and the challenge of gauging yourself against someone besides an overwhelmed scrimmage opponent becomes something less than you anticipated.

But what is it that the man once said (whichever man it was)…a win is a win, is a win.  And Coldwater came away with their third straight against a good Division IV opponent in Valley View, who obviously made the long trip north from Germantown Friday night with thoughts of atoning last year’s overtime loss.

As it was, both went home with a laundry list of things to clean up before week two.

They both got off to a halting start in the first half, good plays and gains negated by penalties…and probably a few nerves.  Coldwater finally scored first in the final minute of the first quarter on a 24 yard touchdown throw to Karter Freed from Karsyn Homan…7-0.

Valley View came back quickly to score three minutes into the second quarter, a touchdown pass from Brody Gibbs to Isaac Johnson, 26 yards on a blown coverage in the secondary where no Cavalier defender was within fifteen yards of Johnson…7-7.

Three minutes later, on the ensuing possession, Derek Dues scored for Coldwater on a three-yard run…14-7.

And then things began to come apart for Valley View, when with five minutes left before halftime Karsyn Homan crashed through the line and tackled Gibbs for a safety in the Valley View end zone…16-7, Coldwater…and on the possession that comes with a safety Braxton Taylor quickly scored on a 19-yard run at 2:37 to make it 23-7.

More misery for Valley View when they fumbled away the ensuing kickoff…when with 32 seconds remaining Homan hooked up with Karter Freed for the second time in the game from seven yards and Coldwater was suddenly on the doorstep of a rout…30-7.

“I challenged them at halftime,” King would later say, and his fire and brimstone brought results because a different team came out to start the second half.

The Spartans’ Trey Reed picked up a short kickoff from Andrew Myers and waltzed through the Cavalier special teams coverage untouched for a touchdown…30-14…and Valley View suddenly had hope.

On the ensuing kickoff, Valley View didn’t even disguise that they were going to onside kick, Coldwater mishandled it, and Valley View recovered and scored four plays later on a Brodie Hopkins run…30-21.

Now every bit of the momentum belonged to Valley View, Coldwater was suddenly looking out the ear hole in their helmets, wondering when something was about to go their way again.  And it didn’t until the fourth quarter, despite some ferocious hitting by the Cavaliers’ defense that put the fire out of Valley View’s new-found momentum.

But with eight minutes left in the game, Coldwater finally mounted a drive off its run game culminating in a Homan run for a touchdown with 3:33 left.

And that’s how it ended…37-21 in favor of Coldwater, and those things to clean up before Clinton-Massie next week on the road.

“It wasn’t pretty, but you want to play a good team…so you know [who you are],”  said Otten.  “We let ’em back in it in the third quarter and when you do that you saw what happens.  And we know they were a good team because of the way they scrimmaged against Marion.  So OK, we won and we feel good about that.”

Coldwater ended up with 327 yards of total offense, to Valley View’s 178.  So even with a couple of hiccups and some missed tackles, credit the Cavalier defense for playing well enough on opening night.

Credit, too, the play of quarterback Karsyn Homan, who completed 14 of 21 passes for 154 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a pair of interceptions.  It was good enough to win.

And Coldwater ran it 36 times for 171 yards, led by Homan’s 77 yards.  Braxton Taylor and Derek Hues, however, were within two yards of each other, combining for 90 yards.

And the kicking game, long a staple of Coldwater teams, was managed capably by sophomore Andrew Myers, who converted on all five of his extra-point attempts.

“We had a good game plan,”  said Homan.  “How we did it wasn’t the prettiest, but we had to fight through it, stay mentally strong, and keep playing.  We came out of it with a win.  There’s going to be some mistakes and some big plays go against you…things that you can’t practice.  But we kept playing, we had some young guys out there getting their first look, and they did a good job.  We know we beat a good football team, and we know that Valley View wanted it bad.”

And, the Cavaliers welcomed back Braxton Taylor, who missed two-thirds of last season with a seriously torn hamstring.  All’s well now, however, and his 46 yards rushing and and some impressive tackles on defense proved that.

“It felt good to be back,”  he smiled, afterwards.  “It’s my senior year and I said to myself that I might as well be out there hitting people as hard as I can.  It’s my final year and tonight felt great.  I’ve been out for so long.  The field was really wet tonight, and it was tough to get momentum off the snap.  So things felt slow, but our linemen got it figured out and we got things going.”

Before he left for the locker room, Chip Otten characterized the night as a glass half full, better than it looked.  Because like the man said…a win is a win.

And he could have been in Matt King’s shoes, who despite having a better football team than he admitted, he didn’t drive all the way to Mercer County just to have a more satisfying trip home.  He came to win.

“We got some tough games coming up with Franklin and Bellbrook.  It would have been nice to win this one,”  he lamented.

But playoff points notwithstanding, Valley View is a good football team, likely to win a lot of games and make a deep run.  It’s just that on opening night it’s awfully hard to beat Coldwater, in Coldwater.

But that’s why Matt King schedules them.  You take your chances.