Trenton Kruse rushed for 184 yards — 148 of them coming in the second half — and Liberty Center knocked off Valley View 14-10 in a Division V state semifinal at Sidney’s Memorial Stadium.
“Any expectation that we set for these kids all season long — they met it,” second-year Spartans coach Matt King said. “These seniors, I’m super proud of them. They faced some adversity. They’ve had three head coaches in their career. Look what they finished with — back-to-back regional champions and state semifinal appearances.”
The Spartans (13-2) lost to Ironton 35-21 after leading at halftime in the 2022 state semifinals. That was King’s first season at the helm.
Valley View’s 16 graduating seniors went 37-13 the last four seasons, which includes the two regional championships.
“They just never quit. They control their emotions, and they’ve done everything that we asked of them,” King said. “I’m just super proud of them.”
Both teams punted a combined five times in a defensive first half. Valley View lost a fumble, but Liberty Center wasn’t able to capitalize on it.
The only points scored in the first 24 minutes was on Brayden Bell’s 22-yard field goal with 14 seconds left before halftime that gave Valley View a 3-0 lead.
“Defense stepped up and played well,” King said. “Offense was struggling a little bit, and we thought, ‘Hey, if they don’t score, they can’t win.’ It’s a pretty simple game.”
Kruse took over in the second half for Liberty Center, the state’s second-ranked team.
“I don’t know that I would have ever predicted this at the beginning of the season,” Liberty Center coach Casey Mohler said. “These guys put so much time and effort into it. They love it so much, they love each other. They’ve earned this for sure.”
Liberty Center (15-0) opened the second half with an eight-play, 80-yard drive that was capped off on a Kruse 2-yard TD plunge to give the Tigers a 7-3 lead.
“We were just playing on guts,” Mohler said. “That was a very good defense that we were struggling with. They were doing some things that prevented us from getting the ball to some guys. Fourth downs were not pretty for us tonight, but again, our defense picked us up.”
Valley View’s Micah Valenti returned the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a score, and the Spartans regained the lead at 10-7 with 8:02 showing on the third-quarter clock.
“We put a lot of time and effort into our special teams — as coaches and players,” King said. “We coach it, and we put it on the board. We practice it, and we talk about it. We know that it takes all three phases. That gave us a really nice boost. We just couldn’t get the rest of it going.”
Valley View stopped Liberty Center on a fourth-and-2 run to get the ball back at its own 17 the next drive. But Spartans senior quarterback Caden Henson lost the ball on a sack, and the Tigers regained possession at the 1.
Landon Amstutz found the end zone the next play to put Liberty Center on top 14-10 with 4:49 to go in the third.
The Tigers took a decent chunk of time off the clock in the fourth quarter and made a couple defensive stops down the stretch to close it out.
Henson, the Southwestern Buckeye League’s Offensive Player of the Year, threw for 186 yards on 14 of 25 passing. He was held to minus-17 yards on the ground.
“That kid is a dynamic athlete,” Mohler said of Henson. “Our defense did a great job of bottling him up, putting pressure on him and obviously stopping his run game.”
King said while the season-ending defeat stings, he’s proud of the way his program continued to get better as the year went on.
“The guys are great,” King said. “They’ve worked really hard — from start to finish. I hope colleges come looking at some of these guys. They can play at the next level. They’re really good football players, and they’re great kids.
“My coaching staff is incredible,” King added. “The community support is incredible for all that they’ve done for us.”
Liberty Center will face Perry (15-0) in the state final on Saturday, Dec. 2, at 3 p.m. at Canton’s Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. Perry beat Harvest Prep 22-8 in the other state semifinal on Friday.
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