McGUFFEY – Usually at this time of the year at Upper Scioto Valley, the Rams have put their helmets and shoulder pads in storage, and the football players who participate in basketball head to the hardwood for another season of hoops.
But this year, basketball practice will be put on hold for another week. If the Rams have it their way, it could be several weeks more, after the Upper Scioto Valley football team qualified for the playoffs for the first time in school history.
Not only did the Rams make the postseason, but USV also clinched a share of the Northwest Central Conference title, also a first in the school’s history.
“Winning the NWCC is huge,” said Rams head coach Josh Spencer. “It is really exciting. We never have won the league, whether it was the NWC (Northwest Conference) or the NWCC. This is the first time for that and then the playoffs. We are just extremely excited, and the kids are on cloud nine and really confident and ready to play on Saturday.”
Spencer said now that they are in the playoffs, the team is not just satisfied with making it. They want to make a statement in the postseason.
“We achieved the goals we originally set at the beginning of the season, and now we have to take that next step again,” Spencer added. “We are looking to make a deep run, and we are looking to surprise some teams. We talked about not setting our goals too low now. We set them pretty high at the beginning of the season now we have some new ones.”
Coming into the season, the Rams had high expectations of accomplishing both goals. However, things did not look good when USV opened the year 1-3 with losses to Ada, Indian Lake and Sidney Lehman. All three of those teams also made the playoffs this year.
In addition to playing tough competition, one reason for the slow start was an injury to running back Austin Sloan. The standout senior, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards last year, was injured early in the opener against Ada, and he did not really get back to 100 percent until after the Lehman game in the fourth week.
Once Sloan was back at full strength, the Rams began to roll, and USV reeled off six straight victories to finish with a 7-3 mark overall and a 6-1 mark in the NWCC.
Spencer said the 36-21 victory over Riverside in the seventh week was a key win that really solidified the Rams’ confidence.
“We started with a tough schedule,” Spencer said. “But after that Sidney Lehman game is when we really turned it on. We are averaging about 50 points a game and given up about 16 in our last six games, so we are on real nice roll right now.
“The difference was when we beat Riverside. That was a tough game for us last year. Once we won that game, I could see the team’s confidence increase, and then when we went into Fort Loramie and did the same to them, the kids are extremely confident now.”
Spencer admitted the early losses were tough on the team mentally, but he said the team remained focused because players knew Sloan would be returning to the team.
“It was our mindset,” Sloan said about the team’s turnaround in week five. “We knew it was time to toughen up and get the job done, and we needed to win out to get to where we wanted to be, and we did it.”
As a senior and leader on the team, Sloan sad they tried to keep the team focused despite the early season woes.
“We expect a lot from the younger players,” Sloan said. “We are a senior class who has won all through midgets and junior high. We are a winning group, and we knew what kind of mentality was needed and what was expected to win.”
The tandem of Sloan and Chase Rose is what made the USV offense go this year. Sloan rushed for 1,444 yards and 18 touchdowns, and Rose caught 45 passes for 712 yards and 10 touchdowns during the regular season.
But Spencer said it was the development of quarterback Jason Moots that propelled USV to new offensive heights. For the season, Moots was 73 for 130 with 1,287 yards and 18 touchdowns.
“Offensively Jason Moots has been off the charts,” Spencer said. “His numbers are more than we expected, and he has provided leadership. We knew what to expect with Austin. We knew what to expect out of Chase Rose, but the quarterback was a big of a question mark.”
Spencer added that last year the Rams did not expect much from Moots. This year he was called upon to be a bigger factor in the offense, as they moved him from behind the center into shotgun. With the added responsibility, the junior signal caller responded.
“We are extremely excited about what he has brought to the team this year,” Spencer said.
Spencer said the front seven is the strength of the defense. Led by the defensive line play of Peyton Dyer and Dakota Dunifon, the Rams have have given up an average of 16.3 points in their six-game win streak. For the season, Dunifon and Dyer have combined for 22 sacks this year. Also contributing on the line were Isaac Smith, who notched four sacks, and and junior Jason Agnew who recorded five sacks.
The linebacker corps was led by Kolton Keith, who was first on the the team in tackles with 106, followed by Travis Freytag with 98 and Wayne Lowery with 57.
“Those kids have really solidified the front for us, and then on the back end it has made it easier for our guys in coverage because they know they don’t have to cover as long,” Spencer said. “We have progressively improved in our coverage. We have seen continuous improvement from our defense all season.”
The Rams defense will be tested this Saturday night when they take on Troy Christian (9-1), ranked seventh in the state. The Eagles come into the game averaging 40.4 points a game while giving up an average of 11 points a game.
This is Troy Christian’s fifth playoff appearance in school history and its first since 2014.
“They are the No. 2 seed for a reason,” Spencer said. “They are a big physical team with a nice quarterback and a nice receiving corps, and they are big up front. They are going to pose some challenges to us.”
Spencer added that he hopes to counter their size with the Rams’ speed but for the most part they will not be making any changes at this point in the season.
“We like our scheme,” Spencer said. “We are going to keep giving Austin and Chase the ball and let Jason throw it. We are going with what got us here.”
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