Hopewell High School football gets bounce-back win against Central Valley

Hopewell High School football earned what James Armstrong called a “much-needed” victory on Friday night against local rival, Central Valley, 34-6.

The Vikings (3-1) were coming of their lone loss of the season against Propel-Imani last week. Armstrong said that the team needed the loss in order to get better.

“Last week was definitely an eye-opener for us,” Armstrong, a junior, said. “We went into that game with high hopes and then lost a close game. We didn’t play our games. But we’ve been staying locked in and practicing, not thinking that we are better than what we are. We just needed to double-down and play our game.”

And that’s what Hopewell did. 

Armstrong gave the Vikings two touchdowns in the first half on the ground, trotting into the end zone for a 17-yard and 31-yard touchdown, respectively. Central Valley’s lone touchdown came in the first quarter, thanks to a 2-yard touchdown from sophomore running back Ethan Bosco.

From then on, it was the Vikings show at home. Armstrong connected with his classmates Nasir Wade and Avery Bokor for two receiving touchdowns.

Wade then put a bow on the home victory with a 14-yard dash to the end zone.

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Armstrong said the game plan was simple: execute the game plan.

“That was the main goal,” he said. “Our team is very versatile. We have a lot of things that we can do, and it’s just what we pick and choose on executing each game. It was great to come back and get a win after a hard loss last week.”

Mark Lyons, Central Valley (2-2) head coach, simply called the Vikings the “better football team.”

“My hat’s off to them,” Lyons said. “They stress you at several points and when that happens they cuase you to have to do things that you’re not comfortable with. They’re better than us right now.”

Lyons said that keeping the Vikings contained to just 13 points in the first half was a positive.

“But to do that for four quarters, that’s the challenge,” the veteran Central Valley coach said. “They’ve got playmakers. When you make one wrong step, then those playmakers make big plays. That’s what they do.”

Matt Mottes, Hopewell head coach, said that his side never lost confidence despite last week’s result against the Saints. He expected this type of bounce-back performance.

“We’ve always had confidence in ourselves,” Mottes said. “We treat this one like every other game. Anytime you can beat a great program like Central Valley, it doesn’t matter if it’s by one touchdown or 20 points. It always feels good.”

The Vikings only have six senior players on its roster, so it’s no surprise, said Mottes, to see the team rely heavily on Armstrong, Bokor and Wade to do the heavy lifting on offense.

“These kids have been playing together since ‘terps football,” he said. “The first time that they were able to suit up the pads, they were together. They’re always on the same page; it’s almost like they can read each other’s minds.”

Mottes said the game wasn’t perfect though, and ahead of conference play in two weeks, there’s one crucial area that the Vikings need to clean up. 

“Penalties,” he said. “There were some bad mistakes tonight. But I’m glad with the way that they responded. Moving forward, it has to be like that every single week.”

The Vikings will host Western Beaver next Friday, September 27, in the last non-conference matchup of the season. 

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Hopewell High School football gets bounce-back win against Central Valley