Reade 3-peats for all-OVC football

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PORTSMOUTH — For three football seasons, Portsmouth wide receiver Reade Pendleton put his name on the map as one of the top targets of the record-breaking quarterback Drew Roe.

Roe repeated TWICE to the all-Ohio Valley Conference first team, and captured the OVC’s Player of the Year honor.

This season, as the 2022 all-OVC unit is announced, Pendleton followed in Roe’s running and throwing footsteps —and is also now a three-time first-team selection.

Pendleton was one of seven total Trojans named all-OVC —part of five first-teamers and each team’s two automatic Honorable Mention choices.

But Pendleton, as all seven Portsmouth picks were seniors, was the only repeater of any type —having made first team in 2020 and 2021 as well.

In those two years, Pendleton aided in Roe’s stardom, as he did this past campaign for Roe’s replacement under center —Tyler Duncan.

Pendleton played defensive back as well, as the Trojans’ other first-time first-teamers in addition to Duncan were wide receiver/defensive back Jayden Duncan, linebacker/running back Brenden Truett, and linebacker/running back Beau Hammond.

The two Trojans earning Honorable Mention were Nolan Heiland and Amari Harmon.

All of the all-OVC selections and top honors are made by the league’s head coaches — as under previous conference rules, there was no POY selected for football all-league.

But Roe won that last year, and this year the award went to Coal Grove running back/linebacker Chase Hall.

Besides Pendleton, other first-team repeaters included Hall, Fairland senior Steeler Leep, and Gallia Academy’s Isaac Clary, Kenyon Franklin and Cole Hines.

Clary was a senior, while Franklin and Hines were juniors —as both Clary and Leep landed Honorable Mention as sophomores.

Speaking of Hines, he and Pendleton were the only three-time first-teamers on the list —and has an opportunity at making it 4-for-4 next fall.

The Blue Devils, also with seven selections, and Trojans tied for OVC runner-up at 5-2 —with Gallia Academy and Ironton beating Portsmouth, while the Blue Devils did almost upset Ironton in week nine.

Gallia Academy’s other loss was an upset of the come-from-behind fashion —by visiting Rock Hill at Gallipolis’ Memorial Field.

The Trojans finished 4-2 and in third-place in the OVC in 2021 —losing only at Fairland and at Ironton while not playing Gallia Academy, which played only four (2-2) conference contests.

Excluding two years back 1-5 but coronavirus-impacted campaign, Portsmouth was coming off a pair of second-place performances in 2018 and 2019 —with a full seven-game league schedule and with back-to-back experienced clubs.

Ironton, at 7-0 in the OVC, won the league for the fourth straight year —thus making fifth-year head coach Trevon Pendleton the Coach of the Year again.

The Fighting Tigers, whose only truly close conference contest was their 29-22 win over Gallia Academy, enjoyed eight selections — all of which were seniors and all of which were first-timers.

Ironton, eventually, advanced all the way to the Division V state championship game —for the third time in four years.

Another Blue Devil, senior quarterback Brody Fellure, climbed from Honorable Mention to first team —as repeat Honorable Mentions included Gallia Academy’s Mason Skidmore, Coal Grove’s Steven Simpson and Fairland’s Steven Rhodes.

Coal Grove gained six honorees headlined by Hall, as the Hornets and Rock Hill had 3-4 league records — preceded by Fairland’s 4-3.

The Dragons and Rock Hill had five selections apiece, but all five Redmen were seniors.

South Point (1-6) and Chesapeake (0-7) both had four picks, two of which were the automatic Honorable Mentions.

ALL of the OVC selections for 2022 were either juniors or seniors.

The OVC features eight schools, as Portsmouth joined the primarily Lawrence County-based league seven years ago (2015).

A year later, Gallia Academy officially entered the OVC — as Coal Grove (2017), Gallia Academy (2018) and Ironton (2019, 2020 and 2021) had captured the league championship in each of the past five seasons.

* * *

2022 all-Ohio Valley

Conference football team

FIRST TEAM

Tayden Carpenter, Ironton; Trevor Carter, Ironton; Jaquez Keyes, Ironton; Lincoln Barnes, Ironton; Landen Wilson, Ironton; Ty Perkins, Ironton; Reade Pendleton*, Portsmouth; Tyler Duncan, Portsmouth; Beau Hammond, Portsmouth; Jayden Duncan, Portsmouth; Brenden Truett, Portsmouth; Isaac Clary*, Gallia Academy; Brody Fellure#, Gallia Academy; Hudson Shamblin, Gallia Academy; Cole Hines*, Gallia Academy; Kenyon Franklin*, Gallia Academy; Steeler Leep*, Fairland; Brycen Hunt, Fairland; Peyton Jackson, Fairland; Kordell French, Rock Hill; Andrew Medinger, Rock Hill; Skyler Kidd, Rock Hill; Chase Hall*, Coal Grove; Dustin Lunsford, Coal Grove; Elias Bazell, Coal Grove; Brett Klaiber, Coal Grove; Jordan Ermalovich, South Point; Xavier Henry, South Point; Camron Shockley, Chesapeake; Nick Wright, Chesapeake

Player of the Year: Chase Hall, Coal Grove

Coach of the Year: Trevon Pendleton*, Ironton

* — indicates repeat first-team selection (Reade Pendleton of Portsmouth and Cole Hines of Gallia Academy were first-team selections in 2020; Trevon Pendleton of Ironton was COY in 2019 and 2020)

# — indicates 2021 Honorable Mention selection (Steeler Leep of Fairland and Isaac Clary of Gallia Academy were Honorable Mention selections in 2020

HONORABLE MENTION

C.J. Martin, Ironton; Aiden Young, Ironton; Nolan Heiland, Portsmouth; Amari Harmon, Portsmouth; Dakota Siders, Gallia Academy; Mason Skidmore#, Gallia Academy; Ryan Dixon, Fairland; Steven Rhodes#, Fairland; Chase Delong, Rock Hill; David Jenkins, Rock Hill; Landon Webb, Coal Grove; Steven Simpson#, Coal Grove; Blaine Freeman, South Point; Gage Chapman, South Point; Marcus Burnside, Chesapeake; Ryan Martin, Chesapeake

Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @paulboggssports © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved

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