Sidney junior tight end Ethan New tackles Tippecanoe’s Lucas Merry during a Miami Valley League game on Friday at Tipp City Park.
Bryant Billing | Sidney Daily News
TIPP CITY — Sidney battled with Tippecanoe for most of the first half of a Miami Valley League game on Friday.
But a disastrous final two minutes of the second quarter precipitated a bad second half and a 47-14 loss at Tipp City Park.
The defeat stopped a three-game winning streak for the Yellow Jackets (4-3, 4-2 MVL Valley Division), which had outscored opponents 147-13 during the streak.
Despite being without its two most productive offensive players, Sidney took a 7-6 lead after Isaiah Foster took a short pass, maneuvered around defenders and scored on a 13-yard touchdown reception with 2:07 left in the second quarter.
But the Red Devils quickly drove and scored after a few passes to take a 12-6 lead, then intercepted a pass and scored again with two seconds left in the quarter and made a two-point conversion to take a 20-7 halftime lead.
Tipp scored on the first possession of the third quarter to take a 20-point lead and pushed the margin to running clock territory midway through the quarter.
“We scored that touchdown, we took the lead, we got real mentally high,” Sidney coach Dave Taynor said. “We have to understand when you’re playing against good teams, you have to respond (to adverse situations).
“We were tied with them for a conference championship lead at the start of this game. For the first quarter and a half of it, it was two very evenly matched teams. Then in a two-minute period, we let them respond, then we made a mistake and let them get to 20. We didn’t respond the way that we should have.”
The Red Devils (5-2, 5-1 MVL Miami) finished with 391 yards of offense while Sidney had 249.
Tucker Herron completed 17-of-25 passes for 185 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Foster ran for 46 yards and one TD on 12 carries. Ethan New caught five passes for 95 yards and Foster caught four passes for 40 yards with one TD.
The Yellow Jackets have been without senior Julius Spradling, who has played at QB, RB and receiver, since he suffered an injury just before halftime two weeks ago at West Carrollton. Tank Fleming, the squad’s leading receiver, is no longer on the team. Combined, the two players scored 20 touchdowns in the first six weeks.
Sidney is scheduled to host Vandalia-Butler (5-2, 5-1 MVL Miami) this coming Friday.
“We will bounce back,” Taynor said. “We will snap back next week. We’re going to get ready to go play Butler. We’re 0-0 right now, that’s the mindset moving into next week. We want to respond as a team and finish next week 1-0.”
The teams exchanged a series of punts in the first quarter. The Red Devils broke through in the last minute when Cael Liette scored on a 5-yard run to give the squad a 6-0 lead after a missed extra point.
The teams exchanged more punts through the first two thirds of the second quarter. Sidney got the ball with under five minutes and went on a lengthy drive, which Foster capped off with the 13-yard touchdown reception with 2:07 left.
But Tipp drove down and scored on a 39-yard TD reception by Evan Liette with 50 seconds left to take a 12-7 lead after a missed extra point.
The Red Devils intercepted a pass in Sidney territory, then quickly scored before halftime. Senior quarterback Peyton Schultz scored on a 6-yard run, then threw a two-point conversion pass to Cael Liette to boost the lead to 20-7 at halftime.
The Red Devils scored on the second half’s opening possession. Logan Bowling hauled in a 12-yard TD pass with 9:40 left to push the lead to 27-7 after an extra point.
After a three-and-out by Sidney, Cael Liette scored on a 2-yard run with 5:55 left. The Red Devils recovered the ensuing kickoff in the red zone and scored again on a short run by Liette with 5:37 left to take a 40-7 lead and start a running clock.
Logan Butera scored on a 7-yard TD run in the fourth quarter for Tipp. Foster scored on a 1-yard run for the Yellow Jackets.
Schultz completed 17-of-23 passes for 209 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Cael Liette ran for 93 yards and three TDs on 16 carries. Evan Liette caught seven passes for 111 yards with one TD.
Eli Biddle led Sidney with 7.5 tackles (six solo, three assists) while Mitchell Davis made seven tackles. Dylan Kelly made four tackles and intercepted one pass.
Reach Bryant Billing at 937-538-4818, or follow @SidneyOHSports on Twitter and @BryantBillingSDN on Facebook.
