Davis flips the script
Back from injury, junior RB a workhorse as Valparaiso reverses lopsided regularseason loss in regional win vs. Merrillville
Valparaiso’s Travis Davis was overcome by the emotion of the moment Friday night.
The junior running back didn’t play in the Vikings’ lopsided loss to Merrillville during the regular season. This time was different. Much, much different.
“Oh, my God,” he said. “I don’t have many words. We came in, we weren’t the team picked to be on top. … Oh, my God. That’s all I got.
“I’m really speechless. I’m just mind-blown right now.”
Davis, who missed five straight games with a broken right shin, had a full workload in his second game back, rushing for 103 yards on 25 carries as Valparaiso upended the Pirates 15-14 in a Class 5A regional championship game.
“To be able to run the ball like I did, it’s great,” Davis said. “To be able to block like we did, it’s great.
“I did think I was going to be out for the season, considering it was a broken bone. But he told me I didn’t need surgery because it broke perfectly in half.”
Valparaiso (9-3), which lost 37-10 to Merrillville (9-3) on Sept. 30, won its fourth regional title in five seasons and denied the Pirates their fourth straight. The Vikings next will travel to Fort Wayne Snider (11-1) for a semistate championship game.
Having Davis back on the field will help them. After suffering the injury against Chesterton on Sept. 16, he returned against the Trojans in the sectional final on Nov. 4, gaining 14 yards on five carries. He was a workhorse on Friday.
“He played tremendously,” Valparaiso coach Bill Marshall. “But if you know Travis like I know him, he’s not going to be happy with his performance. I know he’s only going to get better next week.”
Valparaiso quarterback Justin Clark threw for 59 yards and two touchdowns, first an 11-yarder to Ian Wilson and then a 25-yarder to Scotty Bradney with 6:48 left in the third quarter, and ran for 42 yards.
Missouri recruit Phillip Roche had four catches for 118 yards for
Merrillville, including a 45-yard TD from quarterback Jaylen Thomas, who threw for 157 yards. Colorado State recruit Justin Marshall had four catches for 35 yards and rushed for 9 yards and a TD on nine carries.
Valparaiso largely contained Merrillville’s offense and got fourth-quarter interceptions from Tyres Morris and Tyler VerSchure, which sealed the outcome.
“Our defensive scheme was beautiful,” VerSchure said. “Shoutout to (defensive coordinator Sam) Bernardi for that. We just came with a tenacity. We knew that they were going to try to throw the ball on us. They had athletes, and we just matched up against them and did our jobs.
“Everyone did their job. We played four full quarters for one
of the first times all year. It was great.”
Trailing 15-14, Merrillville threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-4 from its 25-yard line with 3:03 left in the game. But the
Pirates stopped Valparaiso on fourth-and-1 from the 16 with 2:22 remaining.
VerSchure came up with his interception with 1:26 left, and Valparaiso ran out the clock.
“The credit goes to our kids, just the resiliency on both sides of the ball,” Marshall said. “There were
no heads — we were down here, we needed 1 yard and we didn’t get it. But the defense picked us right back up. It’s been that yo-yo back and forth all year long.
“There are no standout players on this team. It’s basically no names, no faces, no names on the back. It’s just the Valpo program.”