Waubonsie Valley wins turnover battle, game

Waubonsie Valley's victory in the turnover battle led to a win on the scoreboard.

The Warriors forced Bartlett into 5 turnovers, including 4 lost fumbles in the second half, en route to a 17-6 triumph over the Hawks on Friday night in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division opener for both teams.

Junior linebacker Tommy Wooten caused two fumbles and recovered another on the night.

"Since we're not that big as a team, we base our defense on pursuit," Wooten said. "We just put our heads down and go after the ball. We practice stripping (the ball) all the time, and that's what we tried to do tonight."

After a scoreless first half both offenses moved the ball on their respective second-half opening drives but were both stalled by lost fumbles. Waubonsie Valley quarterback Tom Kozlow fumbled at midfield, leading to a Bartlett drive into the red zone. However, that drive was stalled on the 10th play when Hawks quarterback AJ Bilyeu fumbled at the Warriors' 9-yard line.

From there Kozlow and the Waubonsie Valley offense finally started clicking. The Warriors drove 67 yards, down to the Hawks' 24-yard line, where Kozlow took a vicious hit on third-and-long.

On the next play Matt Girardot knocked down a 40-yard field goal with 1:32 left in the third quarter to put his team up 3-0.

The Warriors took advantage of a Bartlett miscue on the punt team when the snap sailed over the head of Hawks punter Ryan Brown, who then fell on the ball at his team's 30-yard line. Two plays later, Austin Guido extended the Waubonsie Valley lead with a 23-yard touchdown run, putting his team up 10-0 with 7:25 left in the game.

With 3:35 left Waubonsie Valley's Derek Mickelson recovered Bilyeu's fumble deep in Bartlett territory, leading to Kozlow's 15-yard touchdown run and widening the lead to 17-0.

"We came through in the end," Kozlow said. "We made some adjustments in the second half, the offensive line did a much better job, the receivers ran better routes, and I made better reads. In the end it was a team victory."

The only score of the night for Bartlett came when Bilyeu connected with Zach Karys on a 15-yard touchdown pass as time expired.

"We turned the ball over too much. It seemed like every time we needed a big play, we had a turnover," Bartlett coach Tom Meaney said. "We had our opportunities. As a staff, we're disappointed with the way we played."