SPORTS

Paint Valley kicks off season by thumping Irish

Derrick Webb
Reporter
  • Paint Valley kicked off its 2015 season with a 36-6 drubbing of Lancaster Fisher Catholic.
  • The Bearcats' defense held the Irish to just 91 total yards of offense — in comparison to PV's 218.
  • PV quarterback Anthony McFadden scored 4 touchdowns on the night — 2 rushing and 2 passing.
  • McFadden passed for 53 yards and rushed for 60, leading his team to a 1-0 start.

CHILLICOTHE – At the end of the first half of Thursday night's inaugural Ross County Kickoff Classic, Fisher Catholic had as many total yards as Paint Valley had points: 36.

That tells the gist of the story.

The Bearcats (1-0) used first half scoring plays of 27, 10, 30, 11 and 18 yards to bury the Irish by a final score of 36-6 at Chillicothe High School's Herrnstein Field.

"We really wanted jump on (Fisher Catholic) early," Paint Valley head coach Pete Hollon said. "The plan going in was to spread the wealth around and I think we did a pretty good job of that. I don't think we had one guy with crazy numbers but we had four different guys that scored and a bunch of guys that carried the ball. For our first time out, it was a great atmosphere. I would call it a tremendous success."

Paint Valley quarterback Anthony McFadden — who was given tremendous field position all night long — was responsible for four total touchdowns on the night. The senior led his team into the limelight with the performance and helped eradicate some butterflies.

"We have been a little flat that last two weeks," Hollon said. "We were really concerned with how our guys would respond. Hopefully we can continue turning the lights on after seeing a different animal pops out. We've got some tinkering to do but, again, we found ways to get our skill kids the ball."

Paint Valley wasted no time in setting the tempo.

Senior Tony Hatfield took the opening kickoff 54 yards to the Fisher Catholic 27-yard line. Two plays later, he was on the receiving end of a 27-yard touchdown pass from McFadden with 11:08 left in the opening quarter, giving his team the early 7-0 lead.

After forcing the Irish to go three and out, senior running back Caleb Johnson put the exclamation point on a 4-play, 44-yard drive with a 10-yard touchdown scamper, making it 14-0 at the 7:55 mark in the first.

After a botched snap that resulted in a safety, Paint Valley took a 16-0 lead before making it 23-0 on a 30-yard touchdown pass from McFadden to Johnson.

With 10:08 left in the second, McFadden scrambled and scored from 10 yards out, making it 30-0. He would add his fourth touchdown of the night with just 35.7 left in the first half, from 18 yards out to cement the drubbing and give Paint Valley a 36-0 advantage heading into halftime.

The Irish would score on a 38-yard reverse play with 4:45 left in regulation, rounding out the final.

While McFadden was extraordinary, the highlight of the night may have been the Bearcats' defensive unit. In total, Fisher Catholic (0-1) managed just 91 total yards of offense — 38 of which came on one play.

"The defense was just lights out," Hollon said. "Our kids really hit and I thought they played extremely physical. Our front seven really took a lot of pressure off of our defensive backs because (Fisher Catholic) did try to throw the ball, especially as they got down. We were kind of in cruise control for awhile there because of the way our front seven played. We could have kept our (starters) in there and kept the goose egg but we wanted a lot of kids to play and get to be in this type of atmosphere."

McFadden finished 5-of-10 passing for 53 yards and two scores. He also rushed for 60 yards on eight carries while adding two scores.

Running back Teagan McFadden carried the ball nine times and gained 82 yards. Johnson chipped in by carrying the ball twice for 32 yards and a score while catching two balls for 34 yards and a touchdown.

For the Irish, quarterback Jared Faulkner finished 4-of-13 with 24 yards and an interception. Senior running back Hayden Muckenstrum carried the ball seven times for a total of 12 yards.

Paint Valley will now travel to Williamsburg in Week 2 while Fisher Catholic visits Portsmouth East.

dwebb@chillicothegazette.com

Twitter: @dw1509