Deep cuts: Grady Kinsey's legend kept growing against streaking Garaway

SUGARCREEK — Like a rolling ball of razor blades, 5-foot-9, 200-pound Grady Kinsey just kept slicing through the Garaway defense on Friday night.

While he wasn't the only weapon that Indian Valley posed in this clash of Inter-Valley Conference unbeatens, there was no doubt where the ball was headed when the bell tolled.

Kinsey ran for a career-high 330 yards on 39 carries and never left the field on defense, as the Braves left The Hill with a 40-35 win that snapped a four-game losing skid to the Pirates and handed them their first regular-season loss in 36 games.

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The streak is over

Indian Valley now controls its own destiny in the South Division as it faces a road game with unbeaten Ridgewood in Week 8. The visiting Generals handled Sandy Valley, 34-9, in their Week 7 game.

Resilient Garaway gnawed a pair of double-digit deficits down to single scores in the fourth quarter, but Kinsey recovered an onside kick with 54 seconds left to secure the win.

It was only fitting, since it seemed the Braves' wrecking ball did most everything else. He had touchdown runs of 75 and 39 yards in the second quarter, then carried seven times in a 13-play scoring drive that chewed up just less than six minutes to start the second half.

"He is just a tremendous football player," IV coach Matt Lancaster said. "He's just a great young man, too. He's got a 4.3 GPA and does everything right off the field. He works so daggone hard. He deserved that tonight."

Afterward, the Braves enjoyed a well-earned celebration with their fellow students. The seniors could finally lay their heads to rest knowing they had their elusive win against the Pirates.

The seniors had never done it, even as they had enjoyed more than a modicum amount of success in that span, including last year's Division IV, Region 15 semifinal trip. They did so on Friday by shaking off a 7-0 deficit less than a minute into the game, and an ensuing turnover after Cooper Getz recovered a Kinsey fumble at the Pirates' 11-yard line.

From that point it was a fight well into the fourth quarter, one in which the Braves salted away with a 12-play, 59-yard scoring drive that used upwards of nine minutes and built a 40-28 lead with 2:42 left. Kinsey three times had runs to earn first downs in that span.

"You're used to losing to Garaway but we've broken streaks before," Kinsey said afterward. "We lost to Dover like 14, 15 times in a row. We know this team is special and we can overcome adversity. We can make things happen."

Pirates went down swinging

Garaway (6-1), with three games decided by less than a touchdown, fell one game back in the division. Its chase for a home playoff game in Division V, Region 17 remains a strong possibility, however.

The Pirates cut a 13-point deficit after three quarters to to 34-28 after Brady Geibel found bruising Braden Raber for a 40-yard catch-and-run through traffic. Geibel then engineered another scoring drive after Kinsey's final score, completing 5 of 6 passes to four different receivers before diving in from the Braves' 6. The PAT made it 40-35 with 55 seconds left.

With only two timeouts left, it forced an onside kick that Kinsey sniffed out. Garaway coach Jason Wallick was hardly down about the loss, even as his team's impressive streak ended on its home field.

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Quite the contrary.

After coming back from a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit at West Muskingum in Week 2, then nipping Youngstown Mooney, 14-13, a week later, the Pirate luck in close games finally blew away in the wind.

But Wallick learned plenty about his much-improved team, which has Tuscarawas Valley and Sandy Valley on the road before a Week 10 showdown with rival Ridgewood on The Hill to end the regular season.

Double home games in the playoffs could be on the line.

"What a game," Wallick said. "That was a fun game. I feel way better about this than I did (after wins) against (previous opponents). ... It's almost a relief, really. Winning 36 in a row and to beat them four times in a row, everything is going to end at some point."

Geibel focused on the future

The 6-4, 200-pound Geibel passed for 106 yards in the fourth quarter alone on a night where only an interception on a miscommunication during the second quarter was his only blemish. He also hit Jace Wallick with a 59-yard scoring strike on the game's third play and hit a toe-tapping Bronson Speedy for a 3-yard TD in the second.

The Braves' ground game proved to be too much in the end, but Geibel liked the fight his team displayed in a playoff-type environment.

"You can look at it and say, 'Man it sucks,'" Geibel said. "And yes, it does suck. But failure is always good. We are going to grow together and we've got a long season ahead of us. We've still got some pretty big goals. We're looking forward to competing."

He appreciated his team's defense for what he considered "a great effort against a really good football team."

"We're getting better and that is the bright side of it," Geibel added. "We're going to have a deep run. We have a goal to win a state championship."

sblackbu@gannett.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Deep cuts: Grady Kinsey's legend kept growing against streaking Garaway