WYOMING, Ohio - Indian Hill’s Reed Aicholz threw two touchdowns and the defense forced a safety against the undefeated Wyoming Cowboys en route to defeating the Cowboys 19-14 at Wyoming High School on Friday night.
“Biggest win we’ve had here in a long time, I’ll say seven or eight years,” Indian Hill Head Coach Tony Arcuri said. “Just proud of our kids -- they’ve worked so hard, and they deserve every bit of enjoyment they’ll have tonight.”
Indian Hill extended its season-opening winning streak to four, starting the season 4-0 for the first time since 2006.
The Braves got the scoring started six minutes into the first quarter after Cincinnati Hills League-leading passer Reed Aicholz connected with Colin Shaw for a 12-yard touchdown.
After a Wyoming punt, the Braves put together a 79-yard drive, which included a 59-yard Aicholz pass to Nick Heidel and concluded with a eight-yard touchdown pass from Aicholz to his brother, Dawson Aicholz.
The Wyoming defense had only given up 13 points going into the game.
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Wyoming wouldn’t get on the board until the second quarter, when Justin Shields broke free for a 67-yard touchdown run to put the Cowboys within one score. Andrew Marty threw a 28-yard pass to Mason Rogers to tie the score at 14 by halftime.
No touchdowns were scored in the second half, but the Braves took the lead with a 19-yard field goal by Nick Heidel to put the Braves up 17-14.
The strangest series of plays happened in the fourth quarter, beginning when Indian Hill decided to try on 4th-and-3 on the Wyoming five yard line. Reed Aicholz’s pass was incomplete, allowing Wyoming to take over.
After dropping back to pass, Marty was forced by the Indian Hill defense into the end zone. In an attempt to avoid a safety, Marty threw the ball out of bounds for an incomplete pass. After the referees gathered for a short meeting, the play was ruled intentional grounding, giving Indian Hill two more points.
Arcuri said his team knew this was going to be a hard game to win.
“We knew it would be this type of game,” Arcuri said. “The biggest thing we told them was, ‘Handle the high and lows’ because there’s going to be big plays, there’s going to be adversity, and it panned out just the way we thought it would.”
Indian Hill (4-0) will return home next Friday night to take on Mariemont (3-1), while Wyoming (3-1) will stay at home to battle Taylor (2-2).
