Bearcats travel to Piketon

      BAINBRIDGE - Coming off a painful loss a week ago, the Paint Valley Bearcats have no time to rest as they have to travel to Piketon to take on the Red Streaks this Friday night, in week seven.
      Piketon stands even at 3-3, but Paint Valley head coach Pete Hollon said don’t go by their record this season.

     "Piketon's record is deceiving," Hollon said. "They played a very difficult non-league schedule and they return nine defensive starters. They
also have eight returning on offense."
      Piketon possesses a lot of speed, with Hollon stating the Red Streaks will be the fastest team the Bearcats will see all season.
      "They use their speed to their advantage," he said. "They run a straight Pro-I and have a smaller offensive lineman than they are accustomed to."
      Leading the Red Streaks on offense is running back Tyler Tackett. Tackett
has rushed for over 800 yards this season. He stands at 5-6, 195 pounds.
      "The best way to describe Tackett is he can flat-out fly," Hollon said.

     The Red Streaks also have Caleb Southworth on their team. The tight end and linebacker has verbally committed to Central Michigan. The senior stands at 6-5, 215 pounds.
     On defense, Piketon will line up in their traditional 4-3, cover scheme.
     "They don't blitz as much as they have in the past, but have more of a read-and-react style of defense," Hollon said.
      The main forces on defense for the Red Streaks are defensive end Brandon
Varney and strong safety Jordan Miller.
      "Both are good players who dominated us last year," Hollon said. "We lost
to them 42-22."
      Hollon said the only thing his players have left to play for is pride, as they are 2-4 overall, 1-2 in Scioto Valley Conference action.
     "We have our backs to the wall," he said. "We have to play better in the trenches on both sides of the ball. To win games we must run the ball well and stop the run. Right now we can't do either. Our focus must be to run the football."
      The 'Cats have ran 138 less plays than their opponents this season, and have committed 22 less penalties in their six games.
     "We are doing some things right, but we can't sustain drives on offense, and we can't get our defense off the field playing like that."
      In his final comments the Paint Valley coach said it was gut-check time for his team with four games remaining.
     "We are going to find out if our kids want to be apart of the Paint Valley tradition. We have to be more competitive and we will be happy if we can do that. We want to win, but we want our kids to be competitors."