Troy quarterback Aiden Kirkpatrick scores to give the Trojans a 14-7 lead over Piqua. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Lee Woolery)
Aiden Kirkpatrick and a stout defense guided Troy to a 21-7 win in Ohio’s oldest football rivalry. The Trojan defense stagnated Piqua with a tough run front and a little help in the air game from the torrential downpour.
By Alan Brads for Press Pros
A nasty rainstorm turned back the clock on Ohio’s oldest rivalry. Troy’s 21-7 win over Piqua would have looked like a typical football game back in 1899 when The Battle on the Miami was born. The teams combined for just five completed passes, and the victorious Trojans completed just one of five attempts.
But with the forward pass by the wayside due to the whipping wind and rain, Troy (3-3) trudged their way to three touchdowns and the defense took care of the rest.
The Minster Bank proudly sponsors your favorite sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.
Plenty of schools delayed, postponed or even canceled their games due to the conditions. But in the Battle on the Miami, it would take a tornado blowing through the stadium at halftime to shut it down. Even then, it’s a maybe.
Alan Brads writes OHSSA sports and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
The rivalry transcends season standings. Despite two wins apiece entering the game, the deluge, no bands, and a much smaller than anticipated crowd, the rivalry maintained its luster.
Troy defended its lead on the series, reclaimed in last year’s shutout and now holds a 68-66-6 record over Piqua.
Piqua (2-4) came in gunning to tie the series, but Troy’s defense wouldn’t allow it. In fact, they wouldn’t allow much of anything. Piqua gained just 53 yards on 25 rush attempts and completed four of 4/13 passes.
“Our defense just had great preparation and lot of energy,” said Creighton Verceles, the Trojan’s leading tackler. “We just built on our energy from last week and played hard-nosed football. This rivalry’s great, we always play our hardest.”
Troy’s Aiden Gorman and Piqua’s Keaton Bolden battle for the ball.
Quarterback Aiden Kirkpatrick handled the bulk of the work for Troy’s offense, a counterintuitive fact given he completed just one pass. But Kirkpatrick carried the ball 24 times for 125 yards and two touchdowns, both on QB sneaks.
“The weather, the rivalry – it’s just perfect,” Kirkpatrick said. “It was so hard, so tense in the trenches. With the weather you can’t throw as many passes, but we ran the ball and that’s how you win.”
The Trojans frequently ran from the wing-T in the first half and moved to using it exclusively in the second half.
The wing-T freed Kirkpatrick to make changes pre-snap to hand the ball to Dakota Manson, Zachary Ullery, or keep it himself. Manson and Ullery combined for 90 yards on 22 carries.
“I have a lot of control at the line of scrimmage,” Kirkpatrick said. “My coaches trust me and I trust them, so we get to the right play.”
Most often you hear about a quarterback’s decision-making in regard to the passing game, but in the second half, the Trojans forwent lining up wide receivers at all, and still could rely on Kirkpatrick’s pre-snap mental game to give them an edge.
Logan Services, in Dayton, Cincinnati, an Columbus, is a proud sponsor of area sports on Press Pros.
Piqua received the opening kickoff but couldn’t move the ball. After a dropped snap on first down, the Indians fittingly ran a flood passing concept on third, but to no avail. Troy forced a punt and methodically drove for a touchdown before all the fans who were delayed by tree branches in the road had even filed into the bleachers.
Kirkpatrick snuck it in from the 1-yard line after finding Kayden Franklin for eight yards on his first and only completion.
Piqua’s running back Jericho Burns carries the ball against Troy.
The rivals exchanged a few punts, mostly low, wobbly and windswept ones. Screen passes on both sides slipped out of the quarterbacks’ hands, forcing them to resign themselves to a “three yards and a cloud of dust,” style of football. Or more accurately, three yards and a cloud of sopping turf pellets.
“It became a street fight,” Troy Head Coach Troy Everhart said. “It became a fight in a phone booth and our guys showed that they can play physical football.”
Neither side is a stranger to physical football and a grounded offensive attack. Troy ranks ninth of 10 in the MVL in pass attempts. The Indians throw more than they did a year ago, but still prefer relying on Jericho Burns’ legs when they can.
But just when an explosive play seemed impossible, Piqua QB Caiden Thomas connected with Debo Knisley for a 69-yard touchdown to tie it at seven. That pass that could have been, maybe even should have been, a catalyst for a tidal momentum shift. The Indians might have gained a little fire, but not enough to change the 7-7 score before halftime, and small flames can’t stay lit in rainstorms.
The Koverman Staley Dickerson agencies sponsor the Miami Valley League on Press Pros Magazine.com.
In the early third, Piqua kicked an 11-yard punt to the Troy 20, and the Trojans went full bully-ball mode. They used the rest of the third quarter, about nine minutes, on a grueling and even boring, touchdown drive. But sometimes boring is what it takes to win games. The four-yard runs stacked up and put them back at the 2-yard line. Again, Kirkpatrick kept it on a QB sneak and scored without even leaving his feet for a 14-7 lead.
With the rain coming down harder than ever, another 69-yard passing touchdown became infeasible, and the Indians had no other answer offensively. They punted, and Troy played the hits: four-yard runs all the way down the field, but this time punctuated by a 39-yarder from Kirkpatrick. Manson ran to the right side and into the paint from seven yards out to make it 21-7.
Piqua’s Caiden Thomas throws for a touchdown on this play in Friday’s rivalry game with Troy.
Down two scores with 2:50 left, Piqua threw in a soaking wet towel, and punted.
Troy and Piqua both sit on the playoff bubble through Week Six. Troy is ranked 14th, with the Indians trailing one spot behind at 15th. But a generally favorable schedules for both teams – minus dates with 6-0 Xenia – could mean when playoff time rolls around, “in” is a far more likely verdict than “out” for both teams. While Piqua may fall short of restoring the program to its former strength, a playoff berth would be a step in the right direction after missing the cut last year.
Troy could land in unfamiliar territory as a double-digit seed in the playoffs, but that’s a nightmare matchup for a higher seed. The Trojans took 6-0 Tippecanoe to the wire a week ago, and their trajectory is rising.
“Even though we lost last week I thought we played really well,” Everhart said. “That momentum carried us into this week, now we can go into the second half of the season 1-0.”
But right now, playoff seeding, momentum, and last week’s loss are probably the furthest thing from their minds. For now, they’re winners in one of high school football’s finest rivalries, and that’s a pretty darn good thing to be.
Dave Arbogast Ford, in Troy, is a proud sponsor of OHSAA and Ohio State sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.