CANTON — The biggest crowd of state championship weekend roared into the night watching one of the better games one would ever want to see.
Indian Valley and Sandusky Perkins played a thrill-ride 22-22 first half that rolled into an historic 37-36 Braves win.
Attendance was 7,350 in Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, substantially more than for Friday night’s Division I game, which drew just short of 5,000.
Junior Grady Kinsey ran up a storm for Indian Valley. Michigan State-bound senior Braylon Collier made electrifying catches for Perkins.
Collier, a swift 6-foot senior, caught touchdown passes of 54, 70 and 53 yards to lead Perkins to a 36-29 lead after three quarters.
Kinsey’s fifth touchdown and his own 2-point conversion run gave Indian Valley a 37-36 lead midway through the fourth quarter.
On fourth-and-3 from the 9, Collier dropped a pass that would have been good for a first down, with 4:16 left.
Both schools brought large, fired-up followings, but Indian Valley’s share was larger and louder.
The last of seven games in state championship week was in stark contrast to the opening game (Division II), when Avon beat Cincinnati Anderson on a snow-covered field in a 23-degree chill. Saturday night’s game unfolded under clear skies with the temperature in the mid-30s.
The Braves had plenty of support from people outside the school district hoping to see the first state playoff football championship by a Tuscarawas County school in the 53 years of the tournament.
Perkins chased Kinsey with tackling machine/scholar Mikey Young, a linebacker headed for Harvard.
The Pirates were complete strangers, facing no one within an hour’s drive of Gnaddenhutten in a 9-1 regular season before beating Upper Sandusky, Vermilion, Napoleon, Ontario and Glenville in the playoffs.
Perkins is about a 150-mile drive from Indian Valley.
The Pirates attacked Indian Valley with a quarterback (junior Sam Schweinforth) who had passed for 2,632 yards and 35 TDs and a running back (senior Isaac Bunts) who had run for 2,316 yards.
Indian Valley spent the last month proving it is legit after facing just three teams with winning records (Dover, Garaway, Ridgewood) in the regular season. The proof was plenty convincing with five postseason wins by a combined 208-79 score.
Perkins drove to the 15 off the opening kick but faced a first-and-35 after two penalties. Ryker Williams threw a touchdown pass to Blake Parker on the next play.
Indian Valley answered with touchdown drives of 57 and 45 yards, featuring carries by Grady Kinsey and keeps by QB Ryker Williams. A circus escape by Williams and a 2-point pass to Jaxon Burcher left the Braves with a 14-7 lead.
Perkins answered two straight touchdowns by Indian Valey with a 54-yard catch and run by the 6-foot Collier, who caught the ball in stride at the 25 and made an outside move to break free.
It was 14-14 with 5:29 left in the first half.
The tension never let up, and neither did Indian Valley’s crowd.
Here’s a look at some of the key things to know about the game:
Grady Kinsey is only a junior. Too soon to call him one of the best football players in Tuscarawas County history? Probably not. He was a monster force for a team that won the first state tournament football championship in county history. Kinsey made a phenomenal night — 36 carries, 247 yards, five touchdowns — look workmanlike. He patiently looked for openings, surged with great power every time it was needed, made tacklers miss, and made other tacklers sorry. Kinsey has battled through injuries, giving opponents a chance at slowing him down somewhat. He was full go on Oct. 4, when he ran 39 times for 330 yards in a 40-35 win over IVC power Garaway, a Division VI state semifinalist in 2023. He seemed just fine Saturday while running 16 times for 128 yards in the first half. Beating Garaway was a ton of fun. This was a ton of fun squared.
The “big play” kept happening over and over, chunk runs by Grady Kinsey, helped by quarterback Ryker Williams, who ran 15 times for 113 yards. Those two were the focal point of drive after drive. The Braves never punted. They rolled up 355 rushing yards on 55 carries, as they gained 409 yards of total offense. Perkins’ big play came when the game was tied 22-22 when 6-foot-2 junior Blake Parker, covered tightly by Indian Valley sophomore Carsen Hostetler, fought his way to a catch on the right side of the end zone. It was a huge swing because the Braves were on the verge of getting the ball back if they could make a fourth-and-9 stop. Instead, senior quarterback Sam Schweinfurth lofted a throw that forced Parker to jump alongside Hostetler. He caught the ball and landed hard for a 27-yard TD. Perkins had the ball after opening the second half by recovering an onside kick.
