Valley View beats Dunbar – after midnight
By Adam Adkins
DAYTON — Talk about Friday night lights.
In a game that didn’t start until nearly 9:30 p.m. and didn’t hear the final whistle until just after midnight, the Valley View Spartans overcame an anemic first half to beat the Dunbar Wolverines on Friday night, 25-12.
Led by Akron-bound QB Kyle Pohl and recently-transferred RB Jake Jarbo, the Spartans worked the run game all night long, and it paid off.
Jarbo carried the ball 30 times for 117 yards and a TD. Early in the second half Jarbo fumbled away another score on the Dunbar 1.
Valley View coach Jay Niswonger is happy to have Jarbo but acknowledges there are things to work on.
“Well, he’s got a lot to learn about our offense,” Niswonger said. “First half he missed a lot of things blocking wise, which hurt our passing game.”
“Obviously he’s an asset. He can make a lot of things happen.”
In the second half the Spartans running game started finding holes, turning what was once 1-or-2 yard gains into 9-or-10 yard bursts. Most of that came from Jarbo.
“In the second half he did a nice job. He could have had another score, but he turned it over,” Niswonger said.
Running backs Tyler Scheck and Brandon Fox also carried the ball to spell Jarbo. Scheck scored on an 8-yard scamper and Fox tackled Dunbar’s James Wright on fourth down to stop a long Dunbar drive.
Pohl scored the clinching touchdown with a naked bootleg from the Dunbar 17 to give the Spartans an 18-6 lead with just over 5 minutes left.
Pohl said it felt great to run it in.
“That’s something we were thinking about doing for a few possessions,” Pohl said. “We thought it’d work so we tried it out.”
Pohl had less than 10 attempts Friday, but according to Niswonger the passing game comes and goes, and Dunbar’s speed was making it too difficult.
“They’re a quick, real athletic team,” Pohl said.
Pohl took a big hit in the first half and stayed down on the turf. He said at first he couldn’t breathe or think, so he just stayed down. He only missed one play, though.
“I just needed to regroup so I could get back on the field,” Pohl said.
Dunbar scored early on a Darold Kelly run, but struggled throughout the rest of the game. QB Leo Montgomery threw 2 interceptions, and twice the Dunbar offense was stopped in its own endzone for safeties.
Late in the fourth quarter, backup QB Kris Hall threw a score to Theron Ellis to make it 25-12.
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