OAK HILL — Sometimes, perhaps, it isn’t all about how you start —OR how you finish.
Instead, as often is the case, the truth, or in this instance Minford’s dominance over Oak Hill on Friday night, spanned somewhere in the middle.
That’s because visiting Minford scored all 38 of its points over the span of 25 minutes, and pushed past the Oaks 38-10 in a Southern Ohio Conference Division II football tilt inside Oak Hill’s Davis Stadium.
The young Oaks, after a 15-play and 71-yard drive, opened the scoring with a 26-yard Garrett McKinniss field goal with two-and-a-half minutes left in the opening quarter.
From there, though, it was all Falcons —until Oak Hill’s Masen Saunders scored with a five-yard run with only a minute and 42 seconds to play.
McKinniss made the extra point for the 38-10 final — but the Falcons stymied the Oaks to only 196 total yards, forced five punts, and capitalized on three Oak Hill turnovers.
With the win, Minford moved to 5-3 and 1-2 in the SOC II, while Oak Hill fell to 1-7 and 0-3 —as the Oaks have lost seven straight, following a 27-0 season-opening shutout of Wellston.
For the Falcons, they outscored the Oaks 32-0 over the middle two cantos, getting two touchdown passes from Peyton Caudill to Jeffrey Pica —following Pica’s 32-yard touchdown run, and Myles Montgomery’s extra-point kick that made it 7-3 only a minute and 34 seconds into the second stanza.
Pica’s touchdown receptions were good for 51 and 22 yards, sandwiched around a 34-yard touchdown connection between Caudill and Mason Book.
That was with a minute and 40 seconds gone by in the third frame, as Montgomery kicked the extra point for a 20-3 advantage at that juncture.
With three minutes left in the third, and nine-and-a-half minutes left in the fourth, the Falcons found the end zone twice more on short runs —a 5-yarder from the quarterback Caudill and a one-yard dive by Tysen Kingery.
The Falcons showed balance by rushing for 162 and passing for 165, as Pica carried 11 times for 73 yards —and caught the two touchdowns for 73.
Saunders paced the Oaks with 60 yards on 15 totes, as Eddie Abele completed 13-of-22 passes for 95 yards —with the Oaks driving 11 plays and 73 yards on their final scoring series.
The Falcons return home, and return to SOC II action, on Friday night against 3-5 and 1-2 in the league Waverly.
* * *
Minford 0 13 19 6 —38
Oak Hill 3 0 0 7 —10
OH— Garrett McKinniss, 26-yard field goal, 2:26, 1st (3-0 OH)
M— Jeffrey Pica, 32-yard run (Myles Montgomery kick), 10:26, 2nd (7-3 M)
M— Jeffrey Pica, 51-yard pass from Peyton Caudill (kick blocked), 5:53, 2nd (13-3 M)
M— Mason Book, 34-yard pass from Peyton Caudill (Myles Montgomery kick), 10:20, 3rd (20-3 M)
M— Jeffrey Pica, 22-yard pass from Peyton Caudill (kick failed), 4:29, 3rd (26-3 M)
M— Peyton Caudill, 5-yard run (kick blocked), 2:55, 3rd (32-3 M)
M— Tysen Kingery, 1-yard run (kick failed), 9:24, 4th (38-3 M)
OH— Masen Saunders, 5-yard run (Garrett McKinniss kick), 1:42, 4th (38-10 M)
Team Statistics
M OH
First downs 11 15
Scrimmage plays 42 59
Rushes-yards 27-162 37-101
Passing yards 165 95
Total yards 327 196
Cmp-Att-Int. 10-15-0 13-22-1
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-yards 5-50 5-47
Punts-Ave. 3-39.3 5-25.6
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Individual Leaders
RUSHING — Minford: Jeffrey Pica 11-73 TD, Peyton Caudill 6-44 TD, Tysen Kingery 8-20 TD, Randall Schreick 2-25; Oak Hill: Masen Saunders 15-60 TD, A.J. Harrison 13-48, Nate Clutters 4-9, Eddie Abele 5-(-16)
PASSING — Minford: Peyton Caudill 10-15-0-165 3TDs; Oak Hill: Eddie Abele 13-22-1-95
RECEIVING —Minford: Jeffrey Pica 2-73 2TD, Mason Book 1-34, J.D. Matiz 3-22, Bennett Kayser 2-9; Oak Hill: Andy Meldick 8-66, Nate Clutters 3-21, Garrett McKinniss 2-8
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