No. 2-seeded Valley View (11-2), which had won 11 straight since an overtime loss in the opener against Coldwater, was playing in its third regional championship since 2022 – when the Spartans made the first of back-to-back state semifinal appearances.
“These seniors are 46-9 in four seasons,” Valley View coach Matt King said. “They’ve won two regional titles. They’ve won three league titles. They’re regional runner-up in Region 16. Just great kids, worked their tails off. … They didn’t quit, even though we were down by a bunch of points. But, just a fun season. They battled all year long, and I’m really proud of this group.”
The Spartans couldn’t have asked for a much better start. They struck first on Brody Gibbs’ 51-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Valenti to take a 7-0 lead with 6:36 left in the first quarter, and although the Braves (13-0) quickly responded on Evan Riggs’ 75-yard touchdown run, Valley View still maintained a lead thanks to a tipped point-after attempt.
Isaac Johnson rebuilt a cushion when he returned the ensuing kickoff 81 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-6 with 4:50 left in the first quarter, and the Spartans seemed to be rolling when Gavin Phillips picked off Braves quarterback Devlan Daniel’s deep ball on the next drive.
“Our special teams are a huge part of what we do, and we put a lot of time into it, coaching wise, and the players have bought into it, and we’ve got some good guys with the ball in their hand,” King said. “And offense, we hit some things. They know that they take some risk defensively, and they know that it could hit for big plays, and we got some on them. And then that kind of shut off as they got a little more used to how things went, I think.”
That’s when the flip switched. Daniel scored on a 63-yard keeper late in the first quarter to cut the Braves’ deficit back to one, and the Spartans’ offense sputtered, while the defense couldn’t figure out how to stop Riggs.
Riggs gave Indian Hill the lead for good with 5:57 left in the second quarter on a 24-yard touchdown run, the second of his four on the night. Another big run, with a horse collar penalty added on, set up Riggs for a 7-yard touchdown run on the first drive of the second half, and just like that, Valley View was down 34-14 after Garrett Brewer threw a pick-6 on a trick play, returned 25 yards by Jaxon Frye.
The Braves’ final score, from Riggs, came with 9:08 remaining.
“Our tackling was real bad, and we couldn’t make any plays,” King said. “Schematically, we had things, actually, won’t believe it, but actually fitting off pretty well, and we just could not make play, and so they made plays and we didn’t. In the second half, you know, you got to play a little risky, because you win or you go home. And so, did some things that weren’t so great and made some mistakes. You can’t win a regional title when you’re making that many mistakes, so it’s unfortunate.”
Riggs had 75 yards and two touchdowns on five carries in the first half alone, and Indian Hill had 273 yards of offense at that point, compared to 66 yards for Valley View.
The Braves are now headed to their first state semifinal appearance, where they meet Shelby.
“We definitely needed our offense to score, because they just run so much power football and one thing I tried to try to tell our kids is we just gotta match their numbers and try to get one more,” Indian Hill coach John Rodenberg said. “I feel great for our kids. It’s the first time Indian Hill’s been in the state semis, and I’m proud of them.”
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