Sidney senior quarterback Ethan New runs in the end zone after evading West Carrollton’s Brycen Bauer-Jones during a 39-yard touchdown run in the first half of a Miami Valley League game against West Carrollton on Friday at Sidney Memorial Stadium. New threw for 201 yards and three TDs and ran for 59 yards and three TDs in the 58-14 win.
Bryant Billing | Sidney Daily News
SIDNEY — Sidney’s offense is back to full strength and continuing to produce big numbers.
The Yellow Jackets amassed 428 yards of offense and overwhelmed West Carrollton throughout a 58-14 victory in a Miami Valley League game on Friday at Sidney Memorial Stadium. The squad surpassed 50 points for the second time this season and utilized a balanced attack. Five different players scored touchdowns.
“Anybody we gave the ball to, they were going to score,” Sidney senior quarterback Ethan New said. New surpassed 1,000 passing yards on the season in the win.
“It’s nice to have that (balance), especially as a quarterback. Not all the pressure is on you. I don’t have to put the ball in a perfect spot every time. Our receivers will go get the ball no matter where I put it. It’s really nice to have them. I really appreciate them and our running backs.”
New, who is in his first full season as a starter after taking over late last year, completed 10-of-12 passes for 201 yards with three touchdowns. Julius Spradling caught five passes for 91 yards and one TD and Tanner Snider caught two passes for 88 yards and one TD.
The squad amassed 227 yards on the ground. Isaiah Foster ran for 90 yards and two TDs on 12 carries and New ran for 59 yards and three TDs on six carries.
New ranks second among MVL quarterbacks in passing yards (1,037). He has completed 70 percent of his passes this year (49 for 70) and has thrown 12 touchdowns with one interception.
He ran for 145 yards and three TDs in a 67-55 win at Stebbins in Week 2, but he was hurt early in the first half against Xenia in Week 3 and didn’t run much in a Week 4 win at Fairborn.
“Coming off a concussion we took it easy last week,” New said. “But I told (coach Dave Taynor) I was good to go this week for running. It was nice to be able to run again.”
Sidney (3-2, 3-1 MVL Valley Division) sputtered offensively against Xenia (which is still undefeated) in Week 3 after New’s injury but got going against Fairborn last week. Last Friday’s game against West Carrollton was the first time all skill players were healthy for an entire game.
“It’s great to have team wins, where we win by a lot and get everybody’s confidence back up,” New said. “It’s good to have confidence going into our last four games, tough games, being able to play as a team, click on offense. Our defense played a lot better today, and we’ve improved all year.”
New gave credit to the squad’s offensive line, which Taynor also echoed.
“They’ve been playing at a really high level all year,” Taynor said. “Against Xenia, we kind of got rolled, but if you take the negative runs that we had in that game …we had 16 carries for 130 yards against a really good defense,” Taynor said. “So we could run the ball against them, we just lost our ability to throw against them.
“So even in that game, I’ve really been happy with our offensive line performance. I think we always can continue to get better. We made one bad block with our center that led to a negative play …and we got over to the sideline, made the correction, and he adjusted from there and dominated the rest of the game.”
Foster, a senior, has run for 425 yards and five TDs this year and junior Ishhod Diamonde has run for just over 100 yards. Diamonde has been contributing more at running back, especially with Spradling, a senior, playing more at receiver and subbing at quarterback for New.
“We’ve got two really good running backs,” Taynor said of Foster and Diamonde. “You always want to have a pair and a spare when it comes to running back, and our spare is our receivers, because they can also line up there and playing running back.
“Both those guys are dynamic. Isaiah Foster, I can’t say enough about him as a football player. He is a great off the ball blocker, knows the protections. Does a phenomenal job for us. Ishhod is an explosive guy, and he plays at corner, so we’re trying to keep his reps mostly at corner, give him reps at tailback here and there to continue to develop.
Sidney is set to travel to Greenville this week. Like West Carrollton, the Green Wave is winless and has struggled this year, losing in lopsided fashion in each game. Greenville lost 49-0 to Piqua last week and has scored three touchdowns all season.
The Yellow Jackets haven’t lost to Greenville since 2019, and New is hoping the current seniors can close out their careers without having ever lost the Little Brown Jug.
“After that, our last four games are tough,” New said. “If we keep our confidence up, I think we should have a shot against anybody.”
Anna gets above .500
The Anna Rockets knocked off St. Henry on Friday 21-14 at Booster Field in a Midwestern Athletic Conference matchup.
Noah Aufderhaar nabbed two touchdowns in the game but the difference came when Zach Osborn intercepted the St. Henry quarterback and took the ball 70-yards to the end zone.
The win was the Rockets (3-2, 1-2) first win in the MAC on the year.
Quarterback Alex Shappie took multiple hits in the game at the hands of more than four sacks from the St. Henry defense.
Anna next plays MAC rival Delphos St. John’s at St. John’s at 1:30 p.m.
St. John’s is coming off of a 27-14 victory over Fort Recovery in week five for its first MAC win, moving it to 2-3 overall.
Lehman Catholic keeps winning streak alive
The Lehman Catholic Cavaliers won their fourth straight game on Thursday at Sidney Memorial Field 45-35 over Three Rivers Conference rival Miami East, securing sole possession of first place in the conference.
The Cavaliers (4-1, 2-0) fell back 0-7 early but struck back quickly, scoring 21 unanswered points before the end of the first quarter.
CJ Olding and Evan O’Leary scored two touchdowns each while Da’Ron Pride snagged a touchdown on a short run in the second quarter.
Quarterback Turner Lachey got in on the scoring fun himself with a rushing touchdown early in the third quarter which would be the final Lehman touchdown of the evening before a field goal gave it the final score of 45 points.
The Cavaliers are back at Sidney Memorial Stadium on Friday against fellow TRC member Bethel at 7 p.m.
Bethel is coming off of its first conference victory over Covington.
Lehman quarterback Lachey has 11 touchdowns on 1063 yards this season with only two interceptions.
His favorite target thus far in the season has been Evan O’Leary who has 27 receptions and five touchdowns on 479 yards (he averages 17.7 yards a reception).
On the rushing side of things, Da’Ron Pride takes the cake with 202 yards and three touchdowns on 41 attempts on the year.
Fort Loramie can’t overcome Lima Central Catholic
Fort Loramie nearly sent the game to overtime on Friday but fell one yard short as the Thunderbirds took a 28-21 victory at Fort Loramie in a Northwestern Conference matchup.
Loramie fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter and was never able to recover.
Maxwell Maurer had a great game where he snagged two touchdowns on offense as well as an interception on defense.
Maurer looked to score a third touchdown but was tackled at the one yard line as time expired with Loramie (2-3, 1-1) down just seven points.
Fort Loramie ends its three-game homestand next Friday when they take on NWC rival Spencerville at 7 p.m.
Sidney Daily News editor Bryant Billing and assistant editor/sports writer Ryan Harless contributed to this report. Billing can be reached at [email protected] and Harless can be reached at [email protected].
