Spring Valley kicker Grady Tucker celebrates after making the game-winning 19-yard field goal in overtime. Tucker also hit a 22-yarder to send the game to overtime and a 40-yarder in the third quarter.
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What started as a battle of nerves turned into an instant classic in the storied history of the rivalry between the Spring Valley Vikings and Richland Northeast Cavaliers. The Vikings couldn’t get out their own way for nearly three quarters, but they fought back from a 19-0 deficit to defeat the visiting Cavaliers 22-19 in overtime Friday, August 22.
“They were able to overcome adversity,” Spring Valley alum and first-year head coach Norman Washington said. “They believed in each other, and we were playing for our brother that’s not here with us, but it’s a special moment for these seniors.” The brother was 17-year-old Matthew Putnam, a defensive end for Spring Valley who was killed in a car crash last February.
The Vikings fumbled away their first possession on the second play of the game. The Cavaliers responded by netting minus 1-yard and then getting the punter tackled for a loss of another ten yards. After that, Spring Valley turned the ball over on downs and punted three times netting 19 yards total. In turn, Richland Northeast netted 13 yards on its next three possessions and punted three times as well.
Viking head coach Norman Washington holds the Sword & Saber trophy, which returns to Spring Valley after two seasons at Richland Northeast.
The Cavaliers finally broke through with 3:46 left in the first half. Facing a second-and-10 from their own 31-yard line, quarterback Kemarion Willingham lobbed a pass to Isaiah Small at the Spring Valley 38-yard line. Small leapt up to make the catch, bounced off a Viking, and then made his way to the end zone to give Richland Northeast a 6-0 lead. Then the Cavaliers promptly recovered their second onsides kick of the game and started their next drive at the Spring Valley 49-yard line. Kyle Porter advanced the ball to the 17-yard line, and Camryn Buckley took it in from there to give Richland Northeast a 13-0 lead with 3:26 left in the second quarter.
The Vikings lost three yards on their next two possessions, and the Cavaliers punted once and drove 33 yards to the Viking 45-yard line before the clock ran out on the first half
Spring Valley’s Bryson Hugee returns an interception to the Cavalier 1-yard line to set up the Vikings’ first touchdown.
Kavion Dawson grabbed an interception on the third play of the second half giving Spring Valley the ball at the Richland Northeast 37-yard line. The Vikings then drove to the 7-yard line with help from a couple of Cavalier penalties, but Elijah Williams’s first down pass was tipped and found its way into the arms of Richland Northeast’s Toryion Livingston. Livingston raced out of the end zone and scored 100 yards later to give the Cavaliers a 19-0 lead with 8:43 left in the third quarter.
Spring Valley responded with a seven-play, 29-yard drive that ended with a 40-yard field goal from Grady Tucker to cut the Richland Northeast lead to 19-3 with 4:58 remaining in the third quarter.
Two plays later Viking defensive-lineman Bryson Hugee picked off a Cavalier screen pass and raced 23 yards to the Richland Northeast 1-yard line. Two plays after that, Dylan Redden muscled into the end zone out of the wildcat formation to trim the Cavalier lead to 19-9 with 2:42 left in the third quarter.
Richland Northeast then drove 35 yards to the Spring Valley 40-yard line, but Marcus Bellinger recovered a Cavalier fumble giving the Vikings possession at their own 42-yard line. Williams connected with Redden for a 20-yard pass, and a Richland Northeast penalty added ten more yards. Brent Mills then ran the ball three times scoring from two yards out on the last one. Tucker added the extra point, and the Vikings trailed 19-16 with 10:31 left in the fourth quarter.
On the possessions that followed, the Viking defense held the Cavaliers to negative ten yards and two punts. The Spring Valley offense missed a 49-yard field goal attempt.
The Vikings then got the ball back at midfield with 2:09 left in regulation and drove to the 17 with 12.8 seconds left on runs from Williams and Mills, a 7-yard pass from Williams to Redden, and a pass interference call on the Cavaliers. Williams then scrambled left and raced down the sideline before he was pushed out at the 5-yard line with four seconds remaining. Tucker stepped in and drilled the 22-yard field goal as time expired to send the game into overtime tied at 19-19.
Richland Northeast’s Isaiah Small leaps for a 69-yard touchdown as Spring Valley’s Kam Portee-Broadwater defends.
The Cavaliers got the first crack in the extra time starting from the Viking 10-yard line. Two runs netted minus one yard. Then on the third play, Dawson hauled in his second interception and gave the ball back to Spring Valley. The Vikings got two yards on two runs, and then Mills bulled his way to the 2-yard line to set up a 19-yard field goal for the win. Tucker stepped in and nailed it.
Tucker’s game-winner started a celebration over two years in the making. Spring Valley had lost 24 straight games, including two straight to the Cavaliers.
That led Washington to scream, “WE’RE BACK! What are they going to say now?”
“We put a lot of work in over the summer,” he continued. “We knew we were the better team out here. We worked our tails off. We got our guys prepared. The only thing I told my guys was, ‘All I want to see is action. We talk with our pads, not with our mouths.’ My guys did that.”
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