Vian beat the Yellowjackets for the eighth-straight time dating back to the 2002 season, but it turned out to be more difficult than expected.
“It was a little closer than I expected,” said Vian head coach Brandon Tyler. “We had a great week of practice leading up to the game, but it didn’t carry over to Friday night. We had some penalties and shot ourselves in the foot. It was an ugly win, but we’ll take it.”
Vian was flagged 12 times for 166 yards in the game and led just 7-0 at halftime, thanks to Taylor’s 62-yard touchdown run with 4:22 left in the first quarter.
The Wolverines began to pull away in the second half. Taylor crossed the goal-line on a 7-yard run and Chris Peoples kicked the extra point to make it 14-0 at the 8:03 mark of the third quarter.
The Vian defense then forced Westville to go three-and-out. David Thornton blocked the punt, resulting in a Vian safety.
The Wolverines sealed the win with 8:45 left in the fourth period, when Taylor scored on a 13-yard run and Peoples booted his third extra point of the night.
Taylor led all rushers with 162 yards on 21 carries and Billy Monholland added 28 yards on six attempts.
Freshman Landon Decker stepped in at quarterback for the injured John Jumper and completed 6 of 10 passes for 65 yards. Colby Ross caught three for 23 yards, while Thornton, Tevin Knight, Clint Bartholomew and Taylor all had one reception each.
Defensively, the Wolverines tackled Westville players for a total of 54 yards worth of losses. The Yellowjackets wound up with five yards rushing.
Freshman linebacker Rowdy Simon led Vian with 10.5 tackles and senior defensive end Thornton had another five stops. Both players each had a pair of sacks as well. Monholland made 5.5 tackles and recovered a fumble and Tre Locust was in on 4.5 tackles.
“The defense is really coming around,” said Tyler. “We have a lot of young kids on defense and that’s the promising aspect of it—that they keep getting better and better.”
Vian improved to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in District 2A-8, while Westville slipped to 0-5 in the league.
