Duncan leads way; Vikes run over Slicers

LAPORTE — Records can be deceiving.

Turns out Valparaiso’s 0-2 was probably much better than LaPorte’s 2-0.

The Vikings were hammered last week at Carmel by 49 points and they lost at home in Week 1 to Penn by 11. Both teams are ranked in the top five in the state polls.

Friday, it was Valparaiso doing the hammering, crushing the Slicers 47-14.

LaPorte had beaten two Class 4A teams — South Bend Clay and New Prairie.

Chances are, the Slicers haven’t seen a running back as fast and elusive as Bryon Duncan.

Duncan didn’t touch the ball in the first quarter. He made the most of his carries when he did have it in the second and third quarters. He finished with 235 yards rushing on just five carries. Three of them were touchdown runs — the shortest of which was 48 yards.

It was an incredible night of production.

Duncan was just happy to get the win under his belt.

“It felt amazing,” he said. “We had a good week of practice. The coaches were really on us. It shows what you can do when you practice well.”

Valparaiso scored first when Angelo Madrigal intercepted an Ian Price pass at the 32 and ran it to the Slicers 11. Andrew Kittridge finished off the drive two plays later when he caught a 4-yard pass from Paul Andrie with 9:25 left in the first quarter.

Kittridge did it again almost six minutes later when he capped a three-play 86-yard drive with a 17-yard run. Andrie set up the score with long completions of 36 and 33 yards to Marcus Allen and Ryan Nix.

It took Valparaiso just one play to score on its next drive. Duncan turned the corner on a pitch out from Andrie and motored in from 64 yards with 6:09 left in the first half.

Their next score, set up by a 40-yard run from Duncan, took just two plays. Kittridge finished off the drive with a 13-yard pass from Andrie.

Duncan scored twice in the third quarter on runs of 80 and 48 yards. That put the game out of reach and it gave the Vikings a chance to rest their starters.

“He’s an athlete,” Hoffman said of Duncan. “Get him out in the open field and he can make a lot of guys miss.”

Valparaiso finished with 292 yards rushing — most of it coming in three quarters when the starters were in.

Valparaiso coach Mark Hoffman said he watched film from the Carmel loss and his team missed out on two touchdowns because the receivers stopped blocking downfield.

They worked hard on that and it showed.

The Vikings’ final score of the game came when backup quarterback David Hittinger found Michael Rastovic for a 40-yard pass with 5:50 left.

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