Throwing four touchdowns and running for two more, Henson, a senior quarterback, led Valley View to a 42-24 victory over Waynesville before a crowd of 4,000 at Springboro’s CareFlight Field.
The regional title is the second in a row for Valley View (13-1) and ninth overall. Waynesville (11-3) was appearing in its first regional final.
Valley View advances to play Liberty Center — a 17-7 winner over Coldwater — in next week’s state semifinal at Sidney’s Memorial Stadium.
The victory avenged Waynesville’s 49-40 victory over Valley View in Week 10 that secured the SWBL Buckeye title.
Henson, named the D-V Southwest District Offensive Player of the Year earlier this week, has accounted for 57 touchdowns this season. Uncommitted, he will visit Austin Peay on Saturday.
“He’s a great player and he’s a play maker that does what he needs to do,” Valley View head coach Matt King said. “Anyone that turns on the film knows he makes us a pretty good team.”
“At any level of football, whenever a quarterback is a running threat, it evens out the numbers defensively and it makes it an even game and creates one-on-one match ups across the board,” Waynesville head coach Ben Johnson said. “You have to win those one-on-one match ups and they won a few more of them tonight.”
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Henson ran for a 17-yard touchdown and threw 16- and 9-yard touchdown passes to Jed Lynch and Anthony Valenti as Valley View built a 21-10 halftime lead.
Back-to-back interceptions of Henson on third-quarter possessions set Waynesville up with short fields of 11 and 15yards, which Alex Amburgy and Garrett Lundy capped with 2- and 7-yard touchdown runs, respectively, to give Waynesville a 24-21 lead with 9:57 to go in the third quarter.
Henson responded with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Micah Valenti, a 48-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Valenti and a 22-yard touchdown run.
Valley View’s defense flexed its muscle as well.
“Week 10 was a wake-up call,” King said. “Waynesville is a great team, they have really good players and the took advantage of that in Week 10. Our guys buckled down. We knew we had to be better.”
Said Henson: “Giving up 49 is not typical of a Valley View defense. They scored on big plays the last time we played, and our defense did a great job taking away the big plays and making them drive down the field tonight. They couldn’t do that consistently against our defense.”
Waynesville capped a historic run. Prior to this season it had two postseason wins. Now it has five.
“It’s been an outstanding historical season for our team, and school and community,” Johnson said. “When we had our opening meeting for football, I told these guys the phrase that comes to mind is ‘The few and the proud.’ These guys are the only guys at Waynesville HS tough enough to come out here and do this. And I love them to death. We don’t have a bunch of kids, but the ones we do are committed.”
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