High School Football: Valley View bounces back, flattens Bellbrook

Offense eluded Valley View in last week’s 41-8 drubbing against Franklin.

Friday the Spartans rediscovered their punch.

Landing big blows out of the gate, Valley View stunned and then outgunned visiting Bellbrook 43-14 at Barker Field in a pivotal Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division game.

Valley View, which rebounded from its first loss, kept its league title hopes alive and improved to 5-1 overall and 1-1 in the league. Bellbrook, which opened 4-0, falls to 4-2, 0-2.

Valley View also snapped a two-game skid in the rivalry series and on its home field to the Eagles. The Spartans last win over Bellbrook at Barker Field was 2010.

Valley View scored on the third play of the game and on their first three possessions to take a 22-0 first quarter lead. After the first 12 minutes the hosts had 183 yards of offense.

“We faced a pretty good defense last week and we worked on shoring some things up this week,” Valley View head coach Bob Skidmore said. “It showed. It wasn’t big changes, it was just paying attention to detail. We didn’t do that last week and it was evident against a good team.”

Said junior quarterback Collin Wood: “We knew we had to come out and show some pride.”

Junior running back Collin Genslinger was the catalyst.

Genslinger broke off a 63-yard run on the game’s second snap and capped the drive on the next play with a 1-yard run. On Valley View’s third possession, Genslinger went 89 yards on the first snap for his second touchdown. Sandwiched in between was an 8-yard touchdown run by junior PJ Varnadoe. Wood hit senior receiver Micah Matheson for a 28-yard second quarter touchdown. Matheson was named Homecoming King at halftime.

Bellbrook scored on its last two possessions of the first half to draw within 29-14 at the break. Sophomore quarterback Brendan Labensky hit Jacob Schmidt for a 4-yard touchdown pass and threw another 1-yard strike to Jack Campbell with nine seconds left in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, Devin Vantrease scored on a 32-yard run and Wood hit Matheson for another 35-yard touchdown that capped the scoring.

Valley View ended with 407 yards of offense. Genslinger ran for 207 yards on 16 carries.

“Collin has been amazing all year,” Skidmore said. “He’s been keyed on and keyed on and tonight he just broke loose.”

Said Genslinger: “Everything was clicking.”

Bellbrook, which had surrendered 27 points the first four weeks, has allowed 84 the last two games.

“We knew we had to make a big statement after last week,” Wood said. “We came out firing and they weren’t ready. We took advantage of that.”

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