“I saw a lot of blockers in front of me,” Griffin Richards said. “They made a hole, and I shot it. Elijah Barnett made a legendary block at the end, and that’s when I was like, ‘Yep, crib.’” (Press Pros Features Photos By Logan Howard)
Tri-Village outlasted Ansonia to gain the inside track to repeat as WOAC champs. The Patriots won on special teams and situational defense to overcome gaping deficits in rushing and time of possession.
New Madison, OH – Ansonia outrushed Tri-Village 317-97. Liar, liar.
EB Real Estate, Darke County’s sales leader, proudly sponsors the best area sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.
Ansonia ran 68 plays to Tri-Village’s 37. Pants on fire.
The truth-tellers: 29-22 Tri-Village. In perhaps the defining game of the WOAC in 2026, Tri-Village battled to an uncomfortable, unconventional, but gutsy win Friday night.
“Ansonia plays so hard and physical, it’s unbelievable to beat a team like that,” Tri-Village head coach Matt Hopkins said. “They’re really good at everything they do, and we just made one or two more plays than they did.”
Alan Brads is a contributing columnist and writes sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
In doing so, the reigning WOAC champs climbed back into the driver’s seat, now 5-0 and 3-0 in conference. After Ansonia’s three consecutive league titles, the Patriots are campaigning for back-to-back championships to stake a claim for chairman of WOAC football.
“We’re usually a basketball school, so getting our football name out there, that’s big time,” star left guard Dom Black said.
Arcanum (4-1, 4-0 WOAC) is the only other team unblemished in WOAC play, and flexed in a 45-14 win over a solid Preble Shawnee squad.
There’s plenty of football to play, business to handle, and traps to fall into. But if Arcanum and Tri-Village avoid misstepping, they’ll clash in a week 10 de facto conference title game in Arcanum.
The Patriots also tightened their grip on the No. 1 ranking in Region 24.
The Patriots’ season-defining win didn’t come how we thought it would, if it came at all. Fifty simulations of the game might not have spit out a result where the Tigers outrush them by 220 yards yet trail by 13 with a minute left.
Cole Swafford briefly subbed in at quarterback and converted a game-changing fourth down with a strike to Aaron Bruner.
But Tri-Village won everywhere in the margins.
Situational defensive wins, special teams, and a surprise attack through the air overcame the deficits in the stats we thought would matter most.
Black, Colt Camacho and Hayden Hunt steadied the defense in moments when it was reeling, punched in the face by Ansonia’s four-headed rushing attack.
Late in the first half, the Tigers drove into plus territory, but Black pounced on a muffed exchange to retain a 14-6 halftime lead.
“[Black] didn’t take one snap off tonight,” Hopkins said. “That’s what you need from your best players. That’s what you gotta do to beat a team like Ansonia.”
In the third, Black stuffed a fourth-and-four run near the red zone to get off the field again.
“We knew what we were going to see from Ansonia,” Black said. “They’re gonna get two or three yards on every rush. So we knew we had to get those third and fourth down stops, and we showed up when we needed it.”
Minster Bank is the official banking resource for Press Pros Magazine.com.
And when Ansonia got the ball down 13 with 8:59 to play, the defense won the drive, even though it ended with six points for the Tigers. They bled eight minutes off the clock, setting up the offense to clinch the game with a single first down.
“There’s certain moments in life you don’t get back,” Hopkins said. “We talk about that all the time … And you gotta want it more than they do at that moment in time. Everybody’s gassed, everybody’s tired, you just gotta dig in a little bit deeper. We always talk about half-inch effort. Everybody gives a little bit, but you gotta go a half inch more, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Aaron Bruner tries to shed a tackle from Graham Coppess.
Griffin Richards highlighted the kicking game with a 75-yard kickoff return touchdown that gave Tri-Village the halftime lead.
“I saw a lot of blockers in front of me,” Richards said. “They made a hole, and I shot it. Elijah Barnett made a legendary block at the end, and that’s when I was like, ‘Yep, crib.’”
Less memorable but still critical edges on special teams included two onside kick recoveries as the receiving team, a kickoff marked at Ansonia’s six-yard line due to the return man stepping on the chalk, and a 10-yard punt by Ansonia.
Jacob Schmitmeyer, Ansonia’s star running back – and notably – punter, bombed a 60-yard punt before exiting after one drive with an apparent right leg injury.
Despite Schmitmeyer’s absence, Ansonia’s Lander Shives, Austin Tobe, Jake Pierre, and Cade Shellhaas propelled the Tigers to over five yards per carry on 63 attempts.
Mercer In-Sight Eye Care proudly sponsors the best in area sports coverage on Press Pros Magazine.com.
“When one guy goes down, the next guy’s gotta step up,” Ansonia coach Adam Hall said. “We’re gifted. We’re lucky to have the guys that we have. That makes it a lot easier to do what we do.”
But even that effective run game couldn’t outstrip Tri-Village’s newfound passing attack.
Tri-Village’s Brecken Gray proved this week he can sling the rock, but he does plenty of the dirty work too.
Brecken Gray, with brief aid from Cole Swafford, completed 14-of-20 passes for a touchdown and nearly 200 yards.
“We knew they were gonna stack the box,” Richards said. “All year we’ve been trying to establish our run game. But today Hop [Hopkins] said to me, ‘I really wanna throw today. I feel like throwing the ball.’ We trusted that, and our quarterbacks came through with it.”
If the Patriots’ versatility extends to the end of the season, don’t be surprised by an encore of last year’s 10-0 record.
Richards had a career night out wide, starring in the quick passing game, and adding a 41-yard catch in the seam to set up an easy touchdown.
“He does some really special things with the ball,” Hopkins said. “We try to make sure he gets the ball, and we should do it more.”
Aaron Bruner moved the sticks with a couple of crucial receptions, and Hunt supplemented as a pass catcher, in addition to a rushing touchdown.
Wilson Health/Orthopedics proudly sponsors the best in area sports and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Press Pros.
Despite the shakiness of the outcome, Tri-Village only trailed for 17 seconds.
Gray scampered in from five yards for the opening score, but Ansonia’s Graham Coppess responded with a 19-yard touchdown catch. Ansonia freed him up with play action, throwing its first pass on its 19th snap. He had more space than a social-distancing Californian in 2020. Shives’ two-point conversion gave the Tigers a short-lived lead before Richards’ kick return reclaimed it.
Ansonia’s Graham Coppess hangs on to a catch as Elijah Barnett makes him pay for it.
Out of the locker room, Tri-Village’s Staley Colston punched in a one-yard score after Gray nailed Richards downfield.
“We started the second half exactly how we don’t want to start a half,” Ansonia coach Adam Hall said. “We could have folded and thrown in the towel, but that’s when we came to life and kept ourselves in it … I give a ton of credit to our guys for how they worked and fought back.”
Tobe fought back by breaking through for a 30-yard touchdown, and Shellhaas kept it on the conversion to cut the lead to 21-16.
The Tigers had all the momentum after forcing a three-and-out and driving almost to the red zone, but Black spearheaded a fourth-down run stuff to prevent the accelerating spiral.
Camacho finished the ensuing drive with his touchdown, and Hunt caught the two-point conversion to make it 29-16 with 8:59 left.
The Patriot defense bent, and bent, and bent, finally allowing Shives to plow in for a score, but with only 60 seconds left. Swafford recovered the onside kick to send the Tigers packing.
Despite the loss, they still rank second in Region 28. They return home for what should be an easy homestand against Twin Valley South and Bradford.
Tri-Village can likewise come up to breathe against Mississinawa Valley, Dixie and Bradford, before ramping up for Preble Shawnee and Arcanum to settle the fate of the WOAC
Staley Colston barrels in for a score, and is serenaded with “Happy Birthday” by the student section.
The Arbogast family of dealers proudly support University of Dayton basketball on Press Pros Magazine.com.