Tippecanoe makes big plays late to win MVL title over Xenia 35-21

XENIA — A battle of undefeated, state ranked teams playing for a conference championship lived up to expectations.

Check out photos from the Week 10 matchup between Tippecanoe and Xenia.

Multiple defensive stands and big plays on offense over the course of a four quarters battle saw Tippecanoe and Xenia play to the best of their abilities.

When it came down to the little things in the most important moments, they seemingly all favored one team making the most of those opportunities: Tipp.

The Red Devils completed an undefeated regular season and handed Xenia its first loss of the year, beating the Buccaneers 35-21 on Friday at Doug Adams Stadium to win an outright Miami Valley League championship.

“When you play good football teams, it’s the little things that work themselves into being bigger things,” Xenia head coach Maurice Harden said. “That’s a good football we played and when you face good programs, you can’t make mistakes. And unfortunately we made one too many tonight.”

Two moments defined the battle and both occurred near the end of each half. One was a fumble and the other a fourth down stop.

With the score deadlocked at seven and both team’s defenses gaining the upper hand, Tippecanoe’s produced the only turnover for either team with just over two minutes left until the break. A pass to Trimonde Henry ended with the ball being punched away from him from behind as Ethan Couch returned it to Xenia’s 20. Three plays later, Larkin Thomas ran in for a 10-yard touchdown that gave Tipp its first lead of the game.

After Tipp regained a 28-21 in the fourth quarter following Xenia twice tying the score, the Red Devils did what almost no one this season has been able to say. They stopped Deaunte White.

Getting the ball with just over seven minutes remaining, Xenia converted a pair of third down plays to get to Tipp’s 38. But first and second down runs by White were stuffed at the line of scrimmage. Following an incompletion, Xenia ran a screen pass to White on 4th and 10 who only had Max Deckard of Tipp separating him from a potential first down. White avoided Deckard’s tackle, but he was slowed just enough for other defenders to get in position to bring him down a yard short of the line to gain with 2:13 left to play.

“I’ll tell ya he’s a load,” Tipp head coach Matt Burgbacher said of White. “He is a great running back. …. We preach swarm to the ball, and he was a lot bigger than we are and our kids did a great job of it.”

Xenia still had a chance to get another defensive stop, but Xavier Melton bursted around the edge for a 66-yard gain to Xenia’s 3 and the Red Devils put the exclamation point on its victory three plays later.

“They capitalized on a couple of plays and made it difficult for us offensively,” Harden said. “I thought we did well, but there were moments where we could have finished. … They took advantage of the opportunity and we didn’t.”

Tippecanoe completed its first undefeated regular season in 11 years to win its first ever outright MVL title. Thomas was held to his second lowest passing total of the season at 170 yards, but had a 33-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Herndon late in the third quarter and extended several plays with his feet to keep drives alive. Melton had 182 yards on 19 carries, with 121 coming on two big runs.

White had his worst yards per carry average of the season at 4.1, rushing for 135 yards on 33 carries. He still scored all three touchdowns for Xenia to reach 30 for the season and extend his school record. His longest carry was only 12 yards though as Tipp converged on him at every opportunity.

“We did get used to what they were doing and our kids responded well,” Burgbacher said.

Gavin McManus completed 20 of 27 passes for 225 yards, nine of which went to Shawn Fishwick for a game-high 122 yards.

Xenia finishes week 10 with at least nine wins for the third time in six seasons, but were understandably disappointed not to have gone unbeaten for what would have been the second time in school history.

“As I told my team at the end of the game, I said this game does not define us,” Harden said. “We finished the regular season with nine wins and there’s a lot of people who have to turn in their stuff after week 10 and we still got more opportunities to go play and take our season as far as we can go. We went 9-1 and that’s one heck of an accomplishment.”

Xenia got off to as ideal a start it could have hoped for after its defense forced Tipp to punt on its opening possession and the offense marched its way down the field afterward. Fishwick and Henry caught several gains for first down early in the drive before Xenia rode White the remainder of the way, letting him pick up a fourth and two opportunity and later scoring on a two-yard run to put the Buccaneers up 7-0.

Tipp responded on the ensuing possession when Thomas scrambled and threw a long pass to Will Thomas for 32 yards. Melton pushed his way forward on the next three carries to even the score late in the first quarter.

Xenia came out of halftime charged and scored on in 10 plays going 81 yards to knot the score at 14. After Xenia fell behind by seven again, another 80-yard drive spanning into the fourth quarter was set up by a long completion to Henry that White finished off from the one.

Tipp on the next possession twice converted third and short and it led to Melton eventually breaking free on a 55-yard run that proved to be the winning score.

Both teams are heading to the playoffs. Tipp will be the No. 1-seed in Region 12, and Xenia is likely to finish in the top-4 of Region 8 and could play up to two games at home.

Both teams will officially learn about their respective first round opponents on Sunday when the OHSAA releases its final computer rankings and pairings.

A loss on this night will be viewed as better than one happening next week when it could end its season. That doesn’t make it easier for the Buccaneers to accept the feeling that it battled for a league championship almost as well as it could have expected but was outdueled by a near flawless performance from a great Tippecanoe team.

“We’re going to use this game as a stepping stone for our kids to understand that you can’t make mistakes when you’re playing a really good football team,” Harden said. “All the small things that we talk about, they matter in these big time games.”

See all of the Week 10 scores for Greene County teams.

Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.