By Tim Langevin

Sports Writer

The Sidney-Piqua rivalry is known as the “battle for the battered helmet” and it was the Indians doing the battering again by a score of 34-14 Friday at Sidney Memorial Stadium in Greater Western Ohio Conference North Division football action.

Sidney looked in command the first half with their ball control rushing offense, grinding to a 14-7 lead, but then came the second half meltdown.

Sidney coach Dan Cairns didn’t have much to say except, “They made the plays and we didn’t. They killed us on third downs. Their quarterback (Cole Selsor) played a great game.”

The Jackets jumped out to an early 7-0 lead on their opening drive, covering 50 yards on nine plays. The drive was set up by Jack Foy’s 58-yard kickoff return.

The Indians responded with a 15-play drive on their first possession that covered 56 yards to knot the score 7-7 with 1:30 left in the quarter. It was evident that Selsor was the weapon behind Piqua’s spread offense. The senior quarterback completed 5-of-6 passes for 39 yards and ran for 10 yards, including the 1-yard TD run.

In the second quarter on Piqua’s second possession of the game, Selsor stepped it up a notch, marching the Indians to the Sidney two-yard line before a fumble recovered by the Jackets’ RJ Heins thwarted the drive.

Piqua covered 83 yards and Selsor accounted for 80 of those yards passing and running.

The Jackets took over after the fumble in the endzone from their 20-yard line. Fourteen plays later, quarterback Alex Lochard dumped a pass over the middle to TJ Golden from 10 yards out to take a 14-7 lead with :51 seconds left until half.

Sidney converted 3-of-3 third downs on the drive and it was Foy running for 18 yards, Golden rambling for 37 yards, and Josh Topp adding five yards.

Sidney looked to have the momentum after Grady Hoellrich recovered the onside kick at mid-field. But the Piqua defense held and Sidney was forced to punt to end the half.

The third quarter belonged to Piqua as Selsor and the offense erupted for 20 points and eventually outscored the Jackets 27-0 in the second half.

It was Selsor’s passing and running that had the Sidney defense needing Alka-Seltzer.

He passed for 306 yards and rushed for 87 yards. Selsor had plenty of time to survey the field due to his front line protection. It was evident by the fact that Piqua converted 11-of-12 third downs and 1-of-2 fourth downs.

The Sidney running attack was held to 220 yards, eight below their season average. However, feature back Jack Foy left the game in the third quarter and never returned due to a hand injury. The junior RB finished the evening with 56 yards on 11 carries to push his season total to 772 yards.

Sophomore fullback Golden responded for the Jackets with 101 yards on 19 carries and a 10-yard receiving TD. He has 418 yards on the season with four touchdowns.

Lochard completed 6-of-16 passes for 89 yards and one TD.

Sidney drops to 3-5 on the season and coach Cairns is 0-4 against Piqua and coach Nees.

Piqua snapped a two-game losing streak and improves to 5-3 with an outside playoff chance.

Sidney hosts Vandalia Friday and Piqua hosts Troy.

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