Team

LaBrae

Record	Div.	Conf.
3/5	Div. V	All-American Conference Blue Tier

Team

Valley Christian

Record	Div.	Conf.
2/5	Div. VII	Portage Trail Conference (Metro)

Percich accounts for two of LaBrae’s six rushing TDs

By Greg Gulas

sports@vindy.com

POLAND

Joe Percich ran for 85 yards and two touchdowns, the LaBrae offense accounted for six rushing touchdowns and the defense held Valley Christian to just 10 yards on the ground in the Vikings’ 41-7 win Saturday night at Dave Pavlansky Field.

Holding the Eagles to -23 yards rushing and -4 total offensively in the first half was what set the tone of the game according to LaBrae head coach John Armeni.

“Offensively, we showed some really big play capability but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Armeni said. “Our kids did a nice job on both sides of the football, however, we had some sloppy plays on offense and some arm tackles on defense. As a football coach, my mind is just thinking about what we need to do in order to get better for our next game.”

LaBrae struck for 21 quick points in the opening quarter with Percich’s two tallies, the first from a yard away at 8:55 and the second at 2:05 from 7 yards .

A Carlton Brown 3-yard run at 5:13 rounded out the scoring and gave LaBrae a 21-0 lead heading to the second period.

“The key for us tonight was ball control,” Percich said. “A couple of fumbles didn’t shake us and as far as we were concerned, even though we had a 27-0 lead at halftime it was still a scoreless tie going into the second half.”

A 7-yard touchdown scamper by Arjay Oliver in the second quarter increased the Vikings’ lead to 27 points at intermission.

“It’s not about our statistics, it’s about being 1-0 after tonight,” Oliver said. “Offensively, we executed like we had to and that was because of excellent blocking from the entire offensive line. Keeping our momentum after the rain and a lightning delay was also big.”

The game was stopped for 46 minutes with 5:10 remaining in the second quarter due to lightning on two separate occasions, but the Vikings picked up right where they left off right after the half.

J.T. Wolke’s 12-yard run midway through the third frame increased the Vikings lead to 34-0 with 12 minutes remaining.

Colton Stoneman’s 8-yard touchdown run at 11:08 made it 41-0 in favor of the Vikings.

Kimonie Bryant’s 83-yard catch from Milan Square at 8:10 of the final quarter helped the Eagle avoid the shutout.

“There were too many negative plays and tonight, they beat us in the trenches. The monsoon and lightning delay also didn’t help this young team,” Eagles head coach Brian Marrow said. “We gave them 21 quick points and you can’t afford to do that, especially with a young team like ours. It just became a field position game in the first quarter. I’m proud of how we finished the game and we’ll learn from this experience. We’ll watch the film and everyone will get better from this.”

The Vikings racked up 288 yards of total offense while the Eagles were held to 107 total yards offensively — 83 coming on Bryant’s touchdown reception from Square.

LaBrae held an 18-5 advantage in first downs.