Last week the Sun Valley Vanguards were able to overcome their mistakes on their way to a dramatic 17-14 overtime victory over Oxford. This week they couldn’t overcome has the Vanguards fell 35-2 to the Octorara Braves Friday night
To discover what went wrong the Vanguards need to look at themselves. In addition to looking sluggish the Vanguards committed nine penalties for 100 yards and they had trouble holding onto the ball as they put fumbled five times losing two of them. The first fumble of the night for Sun Valley was costly came on their first drive of the game and proved to be costly has prior to the fumble the Vanguards were moving the ball. The Braves would take advantage of the mistake going 50 yards on eight plays before Charles Cooper found the end zone from 22 yards out for the touchdown. Tyler Watson powered his way in for the two-point conversion to give the Braves the 8-0 lead.
Following a 41-yard completion from Billy Hudson to Anthony Okoorian that put the Vanguards into Brave territory. On the very next play the Vanguards again would shoot themselves in the football as a bad snap result in a loss of 20 yards which led to a turnover on downs. “It’s mental mistakes, it’s being flat and being sloppy” a disappointed Vanguard head coach Mark Possenti said. Possenti added, “those are things I have to correct in practice and I will do that this week.”
After penalties backed the Braves deep into their own territory the Braves showed their not immune to mistakes as their center snapped the ball over the head of Quarterback Dan Soloman before he fell on it in his own end zone resulting in a safety that cut the Braves lead down to 8-2.
Unfortunately for the Vanguards the safety woke up the Braves has they would go on to score 27 unanswered points The first Brave touchdown came when Soloman connected with James Brown for the seven yard touchdown that gave the Braves the 15-2 halftime lead.
In the third quarter the Braves continued to add to their lead when Watson would power his way in from six outs out to put the Braves up 21-2
In the fourth quarter extended their lead with two touchdowns the first came when Brown hauled in a Solomon’s pass for a 37-yard strike. Josh Bowman would cap the scoring with his two yard run.
Next Saturday the Vanguards will travel to Kennett to take on the Kennett Blue Demons. Kick off is schedule for 2 pm.
