It was a banner night for Teays Valley senior Riely Weiss as he ran for a school-record 285 yards and scored four times to help his Vikings beat host Circleville 57-0 Friday.
“Our mindset coming into this game was to do what we knew how to do and play sound football and not take any steps back,” Weiss said.
Weiss used his speed and solid blocking from his offensive line to rush for 237 yards in the first half on nine carries.
“They did an amazing job. I think we’ve got one of the best lines in the league, if not the whole league,” Weiss said. “They work everyday and all credit goes to them. They did a good job of helping me stay up and creating those gaps for me to go through.”
After a long kickoff return from Clayton Knox, Weiss grabbed another 22 yards and his fourth score on the first play of the second half.
He carried the ball three times on the Vikings’ next possession to get into the record book before coming out of the game
“It feels great,” he said of getting the record. “From the hard work I’ve put in through my career, it means a lot.”
“Riely is a special player and he makes special things happen,” TV coach Mark Weber said.
Weiss surpassed Anthony Jones, who set the previous record in 2014, also in a game at Circleville.
“He was real close so I said don’t score on this play just get the six yards, or whatever, because it’s special for the seniors to leave with their name in the record book,” Weber said. “He’s earned it — he’s worked hard and he’s done everything we’ve asked of him.”
The Vikings scored on all seven first-half possessions with Tristan McDanel scoring from 3 yards out, Weiss from 42, Gage Weiler from a yard out and McDanel on a 62-yard run for a 28-0 lead after the first quarter.
The Vikings added to their total with a 75-yard scoring run from Weiss, a 28-yard run from McDanel and a 45-yard run from Weiss to build their lead.
One of the few miscues the Vikings had in the game was a bad snap on the last PAT attempt in the second quarter, but holder Camden Primmer was able to track the ball down and connect with Eli Burgett for a two-point conversion and a 50-0 lead.
Circleville, which had lost two fumbles and had a kickoff hit off one their upmen and be recovered by the Vikings in the first half, closed out the second quarter with a drive that lasted nearly eight minutes and advanced to the TV 34-yard line before time ran out.
“We did a couple nice things, but we keep shooting ourselves in the foot — a penalty here, put the ball on the ground there. It makes it hard when you run the type of offense that we run to have sustained success over the game,” Circleville coach Luke Katris said. “We ran into a buzzsaw tonight. Hat’s off to coach Weber and his team over there, that’s a good football team. They played well and beat our butts.”
TV ended the night with 416 yards of offense, all coming on the ground. Along with Weiss’ big night, McDanel rushed six times for 97 yards and Weiler added 33 on three carries.
“I think we’re getting better as the season goes,” Weber said. “We had three sophomores starting on the offensive line. It wasn’t really injuries, it was guys we felt it would be a good week to get some reps. They did pretty darn good.
“We’re not beating ourselves, which is good. We’re cleaning those things up. I don’t care who you’re playing, you can’t beat yourself,” Weber added. “We cleaned that up but I’m not happy with that yet. We need to keep, in practice, doing what we’re doing. We need to stay focused on what we need to do. That’s where the shift in the mind has been the last couple of weeks is let’s worry about us, let’s not worry about other people. That had hurt us in a game or two where we beat ourselves.”
Circleville had 166 yards of offense, also all coming on the ground. Isac Payne led the way with 68 yards on 20 carries and Colin Michael had 65 yards on 21 carries.
“They blocked us pretty darn hard. Their offense can get off the ball and really block you,” Weber said. “It sounded like a crash every time we were coming in there.”
Next week the Vikings (6-2, 4-0) return home to face Amanda-Clearcreek (7-1, 4-0) in a battle of league unbeatens.
“I think it’s the league championship next week,” Weiss said. “Every time we play them it’s a dogfight, so we’ve got to come in prepared.”
“Huge game – our focus is going to be on us,” Weber said. “We’re going to play our offense, play our defense and square off with Amanda and the best team will win.”
The Tigers are on the road for their last two games as they head to Hamilton Township (3-5, 2-3) next week before finishing up the season at Fairfield Union (0-8, 0-5).
“Everything is going to be dependent on what these last eight practices look like and what we can put together effort wise,” Katris said. “Hopefully we can get a good effort and have a successful last two games.”
Teays Valley 57, Circleville 0
Score by Quarters;1;2;3;4;F
Teays Valley;28;22;7;0;57
Circleville;0;0;0;0;0
First Quarter
TV — McDanel 5 run (Lugenbeel kick), 7:22.
TV — Weiss 42 run (Lugenbeel kick), 6:07.
TV — Weiler 1 run (Lugenbeel kick), 3:04.
TV — McDanel 62 run (Lugenbeel kick), 2:30.
Second Quarter
TV — Weiss 75 run (Lugenbeel kick), 11:36.
TV — McDanel 28 run (Lugenbeel kick), 11:14.
TV — Weiss 45 run (Burgett from Primmer), 7:58.
Third Quarter
TV — Weiss 22 run (Lugenbeel kick), 10:35.
TEAM STATISTICS
;TV;CV
First downs;10;13
Rushing yards;25-416;50-166
Passing yards;0;0
Comp.-Att.-Int;0-2-0;0-2-0
Total yards;415;166
Fumbles-Lost;0-0;3-2
Penalties-Yards;8-65;1-5
Punts-Ave.;1-23;2-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – Teays Valley— Weiss 13-285, Littler 3-1, McDanel 6-97, Weiler 3-33. Circleville — Payne 20-68, Michael 21-65, Donaldson 2-(-15), Thatcher 3-12, Moats 2-3, Travis 2-3.
PASSING – Teays Valley — McDanel 0-2-0-0. Circleville — Donaldson 0-1-0-0, Moats 0-1-0-0.
