HIgh School Football Week 3: Piqua overcomes early deficit, beats Stebbins

Trailing 10-0 early in the first quarter, the Piqua High School football team scored 27 unanswered points to beat Stebbins 27-10 in a Miami Valley League crossover game on Thursday night at Edmundson Stadium.

Sophomore Tanner Kemp rushed for two touchdowns and Makeegen Kuhn and Caron Coleman also rushed for TDs for Piqua (1-2), which snapped a two-game losing streak. Coleman ran for 102 yards on 13 carries.

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On their first possession, Stebbins quarterback Nate Keller threw an 83-yard TD pass to Daniel Bowman to give the home team a 7-0 lead. Stebbins senior Gage Forsberg hit a 24-yard field goal on their next possession to make it 10-0 with 5:31 remaining in the first quarter.

From that point forward, it was all Piqua. After Stebbins fumbled on the 1-yard line, Kuhn scored to cut the deficit to 10-7. A second Stebbins fumble led to a 15-yard TD run by Kemp a few plays later to give Piqua a 14-10 lead at the half.

“We shot ourselves in the foot,” said Stebbins coach Greg Bonifay. “The kids played hard and that’s all I can ask for. We’ve just got to cut out some mistakes. We’ll get there.”

Piqua made a few slight coverage adjustments after Stebbins’ big play, which made a difference later in the game, said Indians coach Bill Nees.

“We’ve got experience in the front of our defense and we’ve got inexperience in the back of our defense,” Nees said. “They hit an 80-yard pass the third play of the game. (The defensive backs) are continuing to grow. I thought after that they played a pretty good game.”

The coverage adjustments also allowed the defensive line to get to Keller. Piqua junior Jerell Lewis had five sacks, six tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.

“Our pass rush really picked up in the second half and that helped those guys in the back end,” Nees said. “Those guys really took control of the game, made some huge stops in the backfield. They get the entire defense going when they’re rocking.”

Kemp scored on another 15-yard run in the third quarter and Coleman scored on a 16-yard run as Piqua ran the clock out in the fourth quarter to make it 27-10.

Piqua caused two turnovers in last week’s 17-14 loss at Lima Senior, but couldn’t convert them into points, Nees said.

“We punted in both situations,” he said. “This week, we were able to finish it off like we were supposed to.”

Piqua hosts rival Sidney (0-2) next week in the annual battle for the “Battered Helmet.”

There were 17 penalties for more than 125 yards, including several that called back big plays for Stebbins. Keller went 10-for-12 for 180 yards and a TD and Bowman caught three passes for 103 yards. They host Xenia (1-1) in the MVL Valley Division opener for both schools.

“We talked all week about effort,” Bonifay said. “The kids gave every ounce of effort they had. We’ve just got to cut out the mistakes.”

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