London is still perfect in the playoffs, but the Red Raiders had to earn every bit of it Friday night. No. 2 seed London built a 21-0 halftime lead and then held off a furious second-half rally to beat No. 7 Germantown Valley View 27-13 in a Division IV, Region 16 regional quarterfinal at London, according to Press Pros Magazine’s game report. The win sends London (9-2) into the regional semifinals for the second straight week of the OHSAA playoffs, while Valley View’s season ends at 8-4.
London did all of its first-half damage on the ground game — and with the only pass it threw all night. Press Pros Magazine reported that quarterback Colt Hughes found Isaiah Near for a 21-yard touchdown with 2:32 left in the first quarter, a scoring strike set up by Bryston Toronto’s 44-yard run and the only pass London attempted in the game. Near added a 6-yard touchdown run on third-and-goal late in the second quarter, and Dreux Prince scored from 10 yards out with 48.2 seconds left in the half, cashing in a Travion Howard punt return and a 22-yard Hughes run to make it 21-0.
Valley View refused to go quietly. Press Pros Magazine reported that the Spartans drove from their own 2-yard line to the London 5 early in the third quarter before Owen Neal fumbled and Howard recovered for the Red Raiders. Garrett Brewer finally got Valley View on the board with a 6-yard touchdown run late in the third, and a 59-yard halfback pass from Brewer to Isaac Johnson with 5:35 to play cut the lead to 21-13 after the extra point missed.
That is when London’s defense slammed the door. With 2:48 remaining and Valley View driving, Spartans quarterback Brody Gibbs threw on second-and-7 directly to London junior defensive back Carson Lewis, who intercepted the pass at the Valley View 26, according to Press Pros Magazine. Hughes ran 19 yards on the next snap and Toronto scored from 4 yards out to restore the two-score margin. “I think (Gibbs) was trying to throw it over me, but I don’t know what happened. It was right to me, and I had to make it,” Lewis told Press Pros Magazine. “Our defense is unstoppable. We have a bunch of athletic players on our defense. It really is London against the world.”
Near was the game’s workhorse, carrying 11 times for 127 yards and a touchdown while also catching London’s lone, decisive pass, Press Pros Magazine reported. Toronto added 99 yards and the sealing touchdown on 20 carries. Gibbs, meanwhile, recovered from a 33-yard first half to finish 14-of-33 for 227 yards for Valley View, but the interception — and an early three-score hole — proved too much to overcome.
“That’s what playoff football in Ohio is all about,” London coach Kyle Cutler told Press Pros Magazine. “You’ve got to make plays when it’s time to make plays, and we made enough plays tonight.” His players were their own toughest critics: Hughes told Press Pros Magazine that London “definitely didn’t play our best ball” and made too many mistakes on offense, while Near credited the program’s standard, telling Press Pros Magazine, “It comes from discipline, hard work, and faith. We’re going to watch as much film as we can, study as much as we can, and go out and do our thing and play.”
Valley View coach Matt King came away proud of the comeback even in defeat. “(We) had to make a decision and then played really, really hard. I’m really proud of them,” King told Press Pros Magazine. “You’re at this point in the season where you just can’t make mistakes. We had too many penalties in the first half. They had some big plays in the first half.”
The result continues one of the most consistent runs in the Central Buckeye Conference. According to Press Pros Magazine, London has now won at least one playoff game in seven consecutive seasons, and this fall the Red Raiders claimed at least a share of their sixth straight CBC-Kenton Trail championship with 23 consecutive league victories. London’s only losses this season came in the opener against New Albany and at St. Paris Graham in September — the program had not lost a regular-season game since 2022 before this fall, Press Pros Magazine reported.
Valley View, meanwhile, closes another deep November run. The Spartans were making their eighth consecutive playoff appearance, a streak that includes state semifinal trips in 2022 and 2023, according to Press Pros Magazine. Friday’s rally from 21-0 down to within one score in the final minutes showed exactly why the Spartans remain one of southwest Ohio’s most respected Division IV programs, even as their season ended in Madison County.
London was one of several Central Ohio teams to survive Friday’s quarterfinal round. In Columbus, Columbus East rode its kick-return game to a 42-28 win over Sheridan, and in Licking County, Licking Valley stayed unbeaten by holding off Granville 22-15 in a playoff rematch.
What happens next is a first: London hosts No. 3 Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy in a Region 16 semifinal on Friday, Nov. 13 — the first-ever meeting between the two schools, according to Press Pros Magazine. CHCA (10-1) beat Wilmington 38-20 on Friday and has not lost since the second week of the season, while London carries a six-game winning streak into the matchup. The winner advances to the Nov. 20 regional final against the Kenton Ridge-Urbana winner.
Photo: Thomas Cox, CC BY-SA 3.0