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Belpre bested by Lucasville Valley, 48-7

STEVE HEMMELGARN The Marietta Times Belpre’s Logan Adams (14) tries to get away from Lucasville Valley’s Nate Crabtree during a high school football game Friday night at Ralph Holder Stadium.

BELPRE — A thorough 48-7 thumping at the hands, feet and arms of visiting Lucasville Valley Friday night at Ralph Holder Stadium left Belpre with a 3-5 record going into the last two games of the season for the Golden Eagle football team.

The Indians took command of Friday’s matchup right from the start, scoring on their first two possessions. A fourth-down 24-yard pass completion out of punt formation put Valley at the Belpre 19 before quarterback Andrew Shope found Tanner Cunningham with a 20-yard TD toss at the 8:16 mark for a quick 7-0 lead.

That followed just four minutes later with a second Valley touchdown to go up 14-0 when Shope hit Gabe Streeter with a 25-yard aerial strike to the Belpre 22 to set up a 7-yard dart to Jesse Jones for six points at 4:14.

Belpre’s Logan Adams returned the ensuing kickoff 68 yards to the Indian 32 and later a 35-yard pass from QB Brandon Simoniette to Adams to the Valley 3 was prior to Tojzae Reams’ getting two yards to the 1, from where he either fumbled through the end zone or Lucasville recovered in the end zone to deny the Golden Eagles.

Valley pounced on a Belpre bobble of a punt catch at the Belpre 33 on the first play of the second stanza. A pass interference call and back-to-back penalties versus Belpre enabled Shope to have to go just three yards to paydirt at 11:04 to balloon the margin to 21-0.

STEVE HEMMELGARN The Marietta Times Players for Belpre, right, and Lucasville Valley collide during a high school football game Friday night at Ralph Holder Stadium.

After Gavyn Freeland’s fumble recovery with 10 minutes to go in the first half, Belpre drove all the way to the Valley 3, but no further and a field-goal try was blocked at 7:28.

Valley made it 28-0 with one play at 4:14 of the second when Kayden Mollette broke away and raced 79 yards down the sideline to score, and a punt return to the Belpre 36 at 2:17 led to a 13-yard TD pass from Shope to Tyler Mitchell at 47.7 seconds to make it 35-0 at the half.

Streeter came close to matching’s Mollette’s long-distance scoring jaunt by speeding 67 yards for a TD at 10:53 of the third for a 35-0 lead, and Valley tacked on a TD 10-yard run by Wesley Holbrook at 1:27 of the third.

Belpre finally did score in the fourth when Simoniette took to the air with passes to Adams (22 yards) and Adams again (23 yards) before a Reams run, 18 yards to the Valley 5. Later, Reams on a pitch left, cut back inside to score at 7:20.

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