Troy quarterback Colton Akins scrambled for big yardage late in the game. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Lee Woolery)
It’s not Tigerball, it’s Trojanball! Ryan Jones notched his first one at Troy in a 10-6 slugfest over MVL opponent Xenia.
Troy, Ohio – Head coach Ryan Jones marked up the win column for the first time as the main man at Troy High School. His Trojans held Xenia to six points, while a second-half touchdown and field goal were enough to turn a zero into a one. One of many more to come, no doubt.
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“It’s always great to win,” Jones said after the Trojans 10-6 victory. “The first one is great, but it was more important to see those guys experience that. We got a lot of guys here who haven’t started on Friday nights and don’t have much experience. So for them, it’s really the first win of their careers in a lot of ways where they contributed in a big fashion … That’s the best part of it.”
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After a disappointing 2026 debut against Pickerington North, Troy is right back on the rails. Not a moment too soon since conference play starts in Week 2 for Miami Valley League members. Tippecanoe, Butler, Fairborn, and Greenville joined Troy as victors in MVL openers, but of the five, Troy arguably beat the best opponent.
“You gotta hand it to Xenia,” Jones said. “They played a hell of a game. It was a real classic Friday night football game. It was two teams playing extremely hard. Both teams deserved to win.”
It’s one Jones will remember for a long time. No matter what it looked like, or how the first half felt, or how efficiently the offense played, it’s the one that made him a winner. Heck, given the parking situation at Doug Adams Stadium, he might still be stuck in the Goodwill parking lot reminiscing about it right now.
Xenia running back Kingston Hawkins stiffs arms Troy’s Gabe Brown as he heads for the end zone.
With an MVL win as a launching pad, the Trojans should cruise to a win over West Carrollton next week and enter the rivalry game with Piqua with some momentum, if you believe in such a thing.
“We needed this,” senior Ethan Kirkpatrick said. “Last week was a tough game. I thought we played well but made too many mistakes. We made some mistakes in this game as well, but we really honed in during the fourth quarter. This one is definitely going to matter when you start looking at who’s going to win the league and play in the playoffs.”
The offense sputtered through the first six quarters of the season but proved its mettle in the second half.
A Henry Wolke interception set up a 30-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 10-yard TD reception by Camryn Mangas. That gave Troy a 7-6 lead in the third, thanks to Xenia’s botched PAT snap in the first half.
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Having seen the ball cross the chalk, the offense turned on the heat, but more like a crock pot than a deep fryer. The Trojans got the ball at their own 10-yard line with just over 11 minutes to play and a one-point lead. They ground out a 9-plus-minute, 72-yard field goal drive. Matt Barth knocked through the 35-yarder, in addition to a perfect night of kicking touchbacks off the tee. The methodical possession left just 2:01 for Xenia to operate while trailing 10-6.
Troy offensive lineman Alec Stuchell (68) opens a hole for Colton Akins.
“Gotta hand it to our offensive line,” Jones said. “They did a great job. We had some injuries this week. The left tackle went down and Aaron Forman did a great job in his stead. That’s a lot to ask of a kid. We’ve had a lot of drives we kind of hurt ourselves where we have penalties or missed assignments. I think we just put it all together there on that drive.”
Quarterback Colton Akins and running back Casey Anderson plowed away for 143 yards on 18 carries in the second half.
Troy didn’t need a warm-up on the other side of the ball. The defense held Xenia’s offense at bay for all four quarters, so a two-minute drill was no sweat. Mangas deflected a fourth-down pass to seal the deal.
“That’s just a fantastic play by a guy who’s been waiting his whole career,” Jones said. “And now he’s a senior, and he steps up in a huge game to win it. I couldn’t be more happy for him.”
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The Trojan defensive front looked as confident and prepared as you could hope for from a unit with relative inexperience and a coaching change. They didn’t need stars, they needed “do your job” guys. They have an abundance of those, starting with Kirkpatrick, Cole Tasker, Gabryel Brown, and Waylon Smith.
Over the next eight weeks, Xenia’s “6” on the final scoreboard will look increasingly impressive for the Trojans. Even without Deaunte White toting the rock in 2026, the Buccaneers will hang some figures that make you wonder what on Earth happened in week two.
Troy linebacker Quinn Barhorst makes a tackle to stop Xenia on 3rd down.
Wide receiver Demarco Ruffin caught 13 passes (three jet sweeps) for 155 yards. He accounted for over two-thirds of Xenia’s offensive production. They’ll need more than just a lightning-fast receiver to break through against the top of the MVL, but they might have it in heavy-hitting running back Kingston Hawkins, who scored their lone touchdown from six yards. But Troy’s tackling contained both of their skill sets and prevented a breakaway play from defining the game.
“They’ve got some athletes, that’s for sure,” Jones said. “Couldn’t be more proud of our defense.”
Ruffin produced most of his yards after the catch. Not because he can’t get open deep, but because Troy’s defensive front didn’t give him enough time to do it.
In the third quarter, Ruffin broke free for what could’ve been a breakaway touchdown with an accurate pass, but the pass never came, accurate or otherwise. Troy’s Kirkpatrick had already dragged Xenia QB Gage Stephan to the ground. The silver lining for Xenia: it saved on touchdown fireworks. The budget’s gotta be tight after the most recent stage of the impressive renovation at Doug Adams Stadium.
The Bucs fell to 0-2 for the first time since 2020.
Camryn Mangas scored the only touchdown for the Trojans.
“It’s tough, but I’m very confident our team’s going to keep working to be resilient and find ways to get better,” Xenia Coach Maurice Harden said. “We’re a young football team that still lacks execution and focus. If we can work on those things, we’ve shown in spurts that we can be pretty good. But in the biggest moments, we continue to keep making mistakes … I love our fight. We don’t lay down. I love our resilience; now we just need to learn how to finish.”
Xenia lost junior Angelo Rivers on the first play of the game to a seemingly serious injury. Both teams gathered for a moment of prayer for Rivers as he was taken from the stadium in an ambulance.
The Buccaneers host Butler (2-0) next week in hopes of doing what Jones & Co. did against them: get the round thing out of the W column.
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