English Valleys dominates

VICTOR — They lost a fumble on the first play of the game, but the rest of the evening went all right for the English Valleys football team as they dominated HLV 46-6 in the Class 8 District 6 opener for both schools Friday night at Victor.

The Bears didn’t turn the ball over again after that early miscue, forced three turnovers of their own and outgained the Warriors 393-108 in total yards while improving their record to 1-0 in the district and 2-1 overall.

HLV, who has been outscored 166-18 this season, fell to 0-1, 0-3.

“We had a bad handoff exchange that caused us to fumble to start the game, but other than that I thought the offense did a good job and our defense came out and played extremely well,” said English Valleys Coach Brennen Grimm.

“Overall, it was a good bounce-back game after a tough loss to Midland.”

The Bears’ defense, led by junior Keyden Lown and sophomore Cael Grove, gave up just 35 yards on the ground to the Warriors and held them to 75 yards through the air while converting each of HLV’s turnovers — a fumble and interceptions by Myles Grove and Keyden Geiger — into points.

The Warriors’ lone score came late in the second quarter on a 26-yard touchdown pass from senior Max Henstorf to senior Carter Sholtus.

By that time English Valleys had already built a 20-0 lead as Grove, EV’s senior quarterback, ran for touchdowns of 37 and 12 yards, and passed for a 22-yard touchdown to Lown.

Grove added two more touchdown runs in the third quarter covering 25 and 4 yards, and sophomore Deshon Anderson put the icing on the cake for the Bears with two fourth quarter TD runs of 6 and 45 yards.

Grove finished the night with 202 yards rushing on 18 carries and four TDs. He was 5-of-10 passing for 61 yards and one score. Anderson had 108 yards rushing on 12 touches and two TDs.

English Valleys looks to make it two wins in a row this Friday at home against Iowa Valley (2-1). HLV will travel to Calamus-Wheatland (0-2) where both teams are seeking their first victory.