COAL GROVE – The streak has been snapped.

Wednesday, August 30, 2000

COAL GROVE – The streak has been snapped.

Even with their leading rusher leaving the game with an injury and their quarterback hobbled, the Coal Grove Hornets brought the Lucasville Valley Indians 41-game regular season winning streak to an end Friday night with a 24-12 win.

"Valley was a good football team and they have a good tradition. They came in with some adversity, but we lost our best player and we were still able to come up with the win," Hornets coach Nick Miller said.

The Hornets leading rusher Jason Adams suffered a strained Achilles tendon but managed to score two touchdowns before leaving the game. Quarterback J. J. Hunt reinjured a pulled muscle although he did finish the game.

"We’re hoping with a little rest that they’ll be back by next Friday," Miller said.

But Adams’ backup, senior Andy Bryant, didn’t miss a beat as he ran 23 times for 98 yards and two touchdowns.

"We had a kid step in and pick up the slack. We knew he was a good athlete. We ran him with the first group in our scrimmage because we didn’t want anything to happen to Adams," Miller said.

"He ran well and we knew he would be capable. He did a good job."

The opening game win was in contrast to last season when the Hornets dropped their first eight games.

"When you don’t have any success early, it makes it hard to tell the kids to keep working and good things will happen. We had a lot of kids from last year, but we have a different attitude. They’re willing to sacrifice and do what it takes to win," Miller said.

Lucasville Valley’s only losses in the past four-plus seasons have come in the postseason playoffs.

"The streak was going to com e to an end sometime, we were just hoping it would be at a different time," Valley coach Darren Crabtree said.

Valley jumped out to a 6-0 lead when Jud White hit Mike Collins with a 45-yard touchdown pass on its first possession.

Coal Grove came back to tie the game when Adams intercepted a White pass and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown.

The score didn’t remain tied for very long as Zach McCoy ran 3 yards for the touchdown with 2:56 left in the quarter. The drive was highlighted by a 44-yard pass by White.

The Hornets tied the game when Hunt hit Adams with a screen pass on a fourth-and-10 play that covered 20 yards for the touchdown and it was 12-12 at the break.

With Adams out, Bryant took over the second half and punched in a 1-yard scoring run to put the Hornets ahead 18-12.

Bryant added an insurance score in the fourth quarter as he bolted 27 yards for the touchdown.

The Hornets defense shut down the Indians offense after the first quarter and limited them to 38 yards the second half.

"Our defense did a great job. To hold them to 38 yards in the second half is a great effort. We were flying to the ball," Miller said.

Another key for the Hornets was the punting of Andy Dean.

"The punting of Andy Dean put us in good field position all night," Miller said. "There was one time the snapped rolled back and he picked it up and kicked it 40 yards. He was a key and did a great job."