BRANDON — The No. 3 Otter Valley Union High School football team coasted past visiting No. 6 BFA-Fairfax, 35-0, in a Division III quarterfinal on Saturday.
The 7-2 Otters, the defending D-III champions, will travel to No. 2 Woodstock (8-1) for a semifinal at 7 p.m. on Friday. The Wasps handled the Otters in Brandon on Sept. 17, 41-14.
No. 1 Windsor (9-0) and No. 4 U-32 (6-3) will meet in the other semifinal this weekend. The Otters lost at Windsor, 55-13, and won at U-32, 26-15.
Since the two setbacks, sophomore Tyler Rowe has established himself as the No. 1 quarterback for the Otters, and they have won five straight and outscored those five opponents by a total of 212-49.
Vs. Fairfax (4-4) on Saturday, Rowe completed 14 of 20 passes for 198 yards and a touchdown to Tyson Cram. Senior back Brent Nickerson paced the attack on the ground with 15 carries for 146 yards, including touchdown runs of 53 and 1 yards. However, Nickerson left the game with an injury early in the third quarter and could miss this week’s game.
Collin Parker and Noah Smith added rushing touchdowns for the Otters, who gained 221 yards on the ground, including 53 yards from Cram, and held the Bullets to 217 yards of total offense in shutting them out. The OV defense also opened the game with a safety. The offense tacked on three first-half scores and added two more TDs in the second half.