FRENCH LICK — The seventh-ranked Perry Central Commodores were odds-on favorites to capture the Sectional 40 crown after knocking off Linton last week and they left nothing to chance Friday night at Death Valley.

With the newly-opened casino as the backdrop, the Commodores rolled to a 21-0 halftime lead before dealing the Springs Valley Blackhawks a season-ending 41-0 setback.

“We’ve got to give Perry Central a lot of credit,” Valley coach Mark Hammond said. “They’ve just got a heck of a ballclub right now and their size really kind of overpowered us. We managed to hang with them and hang with them, but what it boiled down to was we just couldn’t get anything going offensively and they just wore us down and that was pretty much it.”

The Hawks entered the contest knowing they’d have to stop junior Bo Gibson, who ran for 188 yards and three touchdowns in the Commodores’ 38-7 win over Valley on Oct. 6. But with a full house on the visiting sideline, Gibson stole the show once again, racking up 286 yards on 27 carries, while scoring the first five touchdowns.

“The Gibson kid is a big part of their offense and he’s a good back,” Hammond said. “He wore us down, but the biggest thing I think, was their size. That’s what hurt us the most.” With junior Joey Piper, who comes in at 6-foot-1, 350 pounds, solidifying the offensive line, and little brother Robbie, a 6-3, 375-pound sophomore, anchoring the defensive front, the Commodores had their way with the Hawks up front.

Valley’s defense held on the opening possession, but the ...

The Hawks recorded one first down in the opening period, on a 12-yard run by senior Brant Crowder, and with his club trailing 14-0 early in the second, Hammond decided to gamble. Junior quarterback Dustin Land ran a sneak to convert on fourth down from the Hawks’ own 28-yard line, but Valley saw its nine-play drive stall out at the 45 and the Commodores quickly answered. Coulten Hauser hooked up with Landon Neukam on a 36-yard pass play before Gibson went over from a yard out to make it 21-0 with 2:53 to play in the first half.

“We got down a couple touchdowns and I felt for us to have success, we had to make plays like that,” Hammond said. “I felt like we could attack the left side and we kept attacking and attacking, but we just couldn’t make that one big play we needed. The last few games we’d been making that big play early to get everybody going and tonight we just couldn’t do it. But our kids gave everything they had tonight and you can’t ask for anything more than that.”

Land’s lone pass of the first quarter was picked off by Nick Rockwell, and the senior defensive back intercepted the Hawks’ second pass late in the half to help preserve the shutout.

Perry’s offense picked up where it left off in the second half as Gibson slipped a tackle at the line-of-scrimmage and outran the defense for a 62-yard score with 9:26 to play in the third quarter. The junior tailback added an 84-yard touchdown late in the period and the Commodores’ second team capped the scoring in the fourth when freshman T.J. Hall rambled in from 23-yards out with 4:55 left.

“This is a hard night for all of us in the Valley program,” Hammond said. “We really felt like we had a great shot tonight, but we’re going in the right direction and hopefully we’ll see some more good things in the future.

“I’m proud of our kids. We lose eight great seniors and I just hope the younger kids can learn by their example. We’ve got this program going in the right direction if they’ll just take off from where these seniors are leaving this season.”

Crowder and Luke Allstott each finished with 32 yards rushing for the Hawks, who managed a mere 84 yards of offense on the night as they finished the season with a 7-4 record.

“Right now it hurts, but I think we’ll look back on this as a positive season for us and a successful season,” Hammond said. “It takes steps to get the program going and it’s my third year and we’ve increased our wins every year and if we keep improving we should be in great shape.”