COAL GROVE — That grinding offense of the Coal Grove Hornets was put aside Friday night for a quick-strike attack.

Using several big plays, the Hornets were able to score in the final seconds of the game and beat the Lucasville Valley Indians 36-28 Friday night.

The key big play was a 64-yard pass from Evan Ferguson to Aaron Dickess that set up the game-winning touchdown, a 1-yard plunge by Frank Delawder.

Ferguson then ran for the conversion with 11 seconds to play.

The touchdown came shortly after Valley’s Zach Utley passed 45 yards to Luke Keller for a score with 1:48 to play. Utley hit Blake Yates with the then-tying extra points.

Valley (2-1) scored first on a 27-yard pass play from Utley to Yates, but the Hornets’ first big play followed as Boo Woods returned the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown and the Hornets trailed 7-6.

Delawder ran 5 yards for a touchdown with 7:31 left in the half and put Coal Grove up 13-6. But the Indians scored just before the half on a 13-yard pass from Utley to Yates and Valley led 13-12 at the half.

The Indians scored first on an 8-yard run by David Schult to lead 20-12 after Evan Richard’s conversion kick at the 8:13 mark of the third quarter.

Coal Grove (3-0) took control as Oakie Haynes ran 5 yards for a touchdown and added the conversion run to tie game. Woods then broke loose on an 80-yard scoring run. Bubba Wood added the conversion and tied game.

That set up the furious and exciting finish.

Despite the close score, the statistics were heavy in Coal Grove’s favor.

The Hornets ran 45 times for 303 yards and Ferguson was 4-of-11 for 107 yards to give them 410 total yards.

Woods finished with 104 yards on four attempts while Delawder added 67 yards on 20 attempts.

Lucasville Valley had just 90 yards rushing and Utley was 11-of-20 for 159 yards. Utley added 32 yards rushing on 12 carries.

Lucasville Valley 7 6 7 8 = 28

Coal Grove 6 6 16 8 = 36

First Quarter

LV — Blake Yates 27 pass from Zach Utley (Evan Richard kick) 7:42

CG — Boo Woods 98 kickoff return (run failed) 7:22

Second Quarter

CG — Frank Delawder 5 run (run failed) 7:31

LV — Blake Yates 13 pass from Zach Utley (kick failed) 1:03

Third Quarter

LV — David Schultz 8 run (Evan Richard kick) 8:13

CG — Oakie Haynes 5 run (Haynes run) 4:17

CG — Boo Woods 80 run (Bubba Wood run) 1:09

Fourth Quarter

LV — Luke Keller 45 pass from Zach Utley (Blake Yates pass from Utley) 1:48

CG — Frank Delawder 1 run (Evan Ferguson run) 0:11

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LV CG

First downs 9 13

Rushes-yards 26-90 45-303

Passing yards 159 107

Total yards 249 410

Cmp-Att-Int 11-20-0 4-11-0

Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-1

Penalties-yards 3-15 6-45

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING—Alex Holcomb 6-27, Zach Utley 12-32, David Schultz 4-15, Brice Crabtree 2-5, Zach Bukiewicz 2-11; Coal Grove: Boo Woods 4-104, Frank Delawder 20-67, Oakie Haynes 19-87, Bubba Wood 5-17, Evan Ferguson 4-11, Jake Murphy 2-17.

PASSING—Zach Utley 11-20-0 159; Coal Grove: Evan Ferguson 4-11-0 107.

RECEIVING—Blake Yates 5-68, Luke Keller 1-45, Zach Bukiewicz 2-21, Alex Holcomb 3-25; Coal Grove: Frank Delawder 1-15, Aaron Dickess 1-64, Oakie Haynes 2-28.