All that could slow down the Piqua Flash was an hour lightning delay in the middle of the second quarter. But that was temporary. Medley and his teammates continued to strike until they had a 42-23 victory over Tippecanoe to remain unbeaten, take control of the Miami Valley League’s Miami Division and move into first place in their region’s playoff computer points.
Medley finished with a career-high 308 yards on 20 carries and tied his career-high of four touchdowns, a number he’s reached three times this year.
“They’re a great team, they can stop the rush really well, but I just wasn’t expecting a game like that,” said Medley, who surpassed 1,000 yards through seven games.
The conventional wisdom is that Brandon Saine, who led the Indians to the 2006 Division II state title and played at Ohio State, holds the school record, but coach Bill Nees couldn’t recall the exact record.
“It is for tonight – I will declare that – he has the record,” he said then laughed. “And then tomorrow I’ll have to take that back.”
Piqua (7-0, 5-0), ranked third in the Division II state poll, entered the game in second place in the Region 8 playoff race behind Kings. According to joeeitl.com, the Indians are now first in the region. Tipp (6-2, 6-1) entered third in Division III, Region 12 and fell to sixth.
As Medley left the field, he passed Tipp coach Matt Burgbacher while he was being interviewed. “I’m gonna talk about you here, you wanna listen,” the coach said. Medley smiled and they wished each other luck.
What Burgbacher saw was Medley run 60 yards for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage 19 seconds into the game.
If you think lightning only strikes in the same way once, it doesn’t. Friday was the third time this season Medley scored on Piqua’s first play for scrimmage. He raced 61 yards against Xenia and 59 against Fairborn.
Two possessions later, after Tipp had driven for a 35-yard field goal by Jackson Kleather and converted an interception by Grayson Ring into a three-yard touchdown run by Cayd Everhart, Medley did it again.
On the first play of the possession, he went 74 yards for a 14-9 lead with 2:52 left in the first quarter.
“It’s such a big equalizer after they are feeling good about themselves,” Nees said. “It really gets to the other team that that happens.”
Burgbacher knew his defense had to be perfect to stop Medley.
“He’s not a good running back, he’s a dynamic running back,” Burgbacher said. “We knew we couldn’t give him a crease, because we give him a crease and you saw what he did. You give him six inches and he’s going to take 60 yards.”
The next time the Indians got the ball Medley hurdled a Tipp defender at the line of scrimmage and went 56 yards to the Tipp 18 to set up quarterback Brady Ouhl’s one-yard touchdown run for a 21-9 lead just before the lightning delay.
“Just a small hole and I’m always looking forward so I can see how everybody is spread out and I can run between them,” said Medley, who runs the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds.
Tipp’s up-tempo offense that mixed short passes by Liam Poronsky and the running of Poronsky and Cayd Everhart challenged Piqua’s defense that had allowed only 20 points this season.
“They do everything right, their blocking schemes are right, the know how to hit the hole right,” said Medley, who plays safety. “They’re just very aggressive. That’s what we needed.”
Medley, who has committed to play safety, and maybe a little running back, at Youngstown State, wasn’t quite finished with the lead at 35-23. The Indians killed as much clock as they could between plays, but late in the game he ran into a crowd then suddenly was free and scored on a 40-yard run.
“That was a miracle,” he said. “I just did a random spin and I was free. I didn’t even mean to spin. It just happened.”
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