By Anthony Mock
MaxPreps.com
Cardinal Ritter got up early on three-time defending Class A state champion Sheridan and never trailed in a thrilling game that set the tone for a fantastic series of state championship games.
The Raiders claimed their third title overall and first under third-year head coach Ty Hunt. The 34-27 win was a sweet one for Ritter, who lost to Sheridan in the state finals in Hunt’s inaugural season.
Ritter struck quickly, scoring three times in the first quarter. Quarterback Ross Hendrickson accounted for two of the touchdowns, throwing a 20-yard strike to senior wide receiver Tyrone Walker and a two-yard pass to John Shockley. Shockley ran in the third touchdown from three yards out.
Sheridan was resilient, however. Down 27-13 in the second quarter, the Blackhawks cut the lead to seven before the half as running back Ty Perkins threw a 23-yard pass to quarterback Nick Zachery. After a scoreless third quarter by both sides, Perkins scrambled eight yards to tie the game at 27.
It looked as though Sheridan was on the verge of a stunning comeback until Zachery, who tallied 214 yards rushing on the day, fumbled with 5:12 left in the game. The Cardinals recovered on their own 25 and proceeded to take the 4:32 off the clock with a 13-play drive that ended with Hendrickson lunging in for a four-yard touchdown plunge with 40 seconds left in the game.
Hendrickson broke the Class A state championship records for completions and passing yards in a game, previously held by former Raider quarterback Nick Purichia.
Hendrickson completed 29-of-47 pass attempts for 423 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He also ran for 84 yards and a score on 16 carries.
Walker, the state’s leader in receiving yards and touchdowns, had 11 catches for 183 yards and one score. Shockley tallied seven receptions for 132 yards and three total touchdowns, two receiving.
Ritter may make the jump to 2A next year, an interesting prospect considering that the Raiders handed 2A state champion Heritage Christian its only loss of the season in week nine.
5A: Center Grove Comeback Upends Carmel (VIDEO: At The Game – Brian Hanson)
The week 2 match-up of Carmel and Center Grove, then-Nos. 1 and 2 in the state, was an epic that the Greyhounds walked away from with a 33-32 victory. For the first three quarters of the state championship game, it looked like a completely different Center Grove team.
The Trojans trailed by 19 points in the fourth quarter, so when quarterback Jordan Luallen ran in a five-yard touchdown, it merely seemed like a delay of the inevitable.
When he found receiver/kicker Mike Wood for a two-yard touchdown, it looked as though the Trojans were trying to make the imminent loss a respectable one. At that point, the score was 33-28 with just over three minutes left in the game.
Inexplicably, the Trojans recovered an on-side kick, their second in a row, and the momentum that had been Carmel’s jumped ship to the opposite sideline. The Greyhound defense could do little more than watch as, on their 27th consecutive play, Trojan running back Luke Swift strolled into the end zone from five yards out with 50 seconds remaining.
“We always believed and our players continued to work together,” Center Grove head coach Eric Moore said. “There are a lot of breaks that went our way, but I think that we made them go our way.”
It certainly seemed that there was a bit of destiny swirling around the windless atmosphere of Lucas Oil Stadium in the fourth quarter. The Trojans know all too well the feeling of building a double-digit lead only to see it crumble in a few minutes of ensuing chaos. It had happened to them at the hands of Carmel only a couple of months previous.
“It was never about revenge,” Moore said. “It was about playing our kind of football. Both of us were different teams (at the state finals) than we were the first time around and we only wanted to make sure that this (game) had a different outcome.”
Luallen showed his poise as a quarterback in the fourth quarter. Though the Trojans usually run the Wing-T offense, which primarily features running plays, Center Grove spent nearly all of its last eight minutes in the shotgun. Luallen ended up going 13-of-20 passing for 167 yards and one touchdown. He also added two scores on the ground and converted a two-point conversion. Running back Tanner Riley carried the ball 12 times for 65 yards and a score and caught four passes for 87 yards.
Carmel senior quarterback Morgan Newton had a stellar game, going 12-of-19 passing for 79 yards and a touchdown while contributing 211 yards and two scores on the ground.
Though it is the last time that the two quarterbacks will meet in high school, the possibility of a future face-off is high. Newton will be playing at Kentucky next year and Luallen will be at Georgia Tech. Both are in different conferences, but the prospect of an early-season battle between the two is something that Indiana football fans will be hoping for over the next few seasons.
2A: Heritage Christian Emerges in Defensive Battle
Heritage Christian has among the most prolific offensive attacks in the state, utilizing intricate plays to free up a slew of tall, talented wide receivers. Likewise, Lewis-Cass boasted a potent rushing attack that averaged over 295 yards per game through 14 contests. The offensive stars for both teams, though, had to take a backseat to their respective defenses, as the Eagles clawed their way to a 17-14 victory.
The first half did not go Heritage Christian’s way, as the Eagles tallied just 86 yards of total offense trailed 7-3. Quarterback Jackson Kirtley could only be held in check for so long, and it took only two plays for him to sling a 31-yard pass to receiver Morgan Cook, which set-up an eight yard strike to running back Austin Olvey. On their next possession, the Eagles drove 65 yards in just under two-and-a-half minutes, reaching the end zone ona 10-yard pass from Kirtley to Cook.
Cass responded with its own aerial attack, cutting the Eagle lead to three after quarterback Damon Foreman completed a 21-yard pass to Kyle Moore. Heritage Christian received the next possession with about 4:30 left in the game. The Eagles went three-and-out, but the defense held its ground, as it had all game, and sealed the Eagles’ first state championship.
Kirtley finished the game 18-of-27 passing for 218 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Cook caught seven passes for 150 yards.
The Eagles made for among the most interesting stories of the year. The team garnered its first winning record only two years ago. The Heritage Christian football program has only been in existence for seven seasons and is believed to boast the shortest span from inception to championship in Indiana history.
3A: Bellmont Rides Wave of Firsts
Sitting about a half hour south of Fort Wayne, Bellmont has watched its northern neighbor turn out numerous state championships and contenders in several classes. The Braves have been battling on the gridiron for almost 40 years, yet had never won so much as a sectional championship in all that time.
This season, however, all of the years of waiting paid off as Bellmont tore through the postseason and finished its historic season with a 28-14 win over Evansville Memorial.
“To get there was great for our community and school,” head coach Toney Bergman said. “It was a good opportunity to show what good football, and good athletics in general, is all about.”
Bellmont had only one previous state champion in all of its athletic programs combined, so the Braves went into the state title game knowing what kind of rare opportunity they had. They jumped on their opponents early, scoring a touchdown in each of the first two quarters and building a 14-0 lead at the half.
Memorial responded on its opening drive of the third quarter with an 18-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Grant Gribbins to Bryce Leuken. It was too much of Bellmont running back Nick Hall that did Memorial in, as he caught and ran-in a pair of third quarter touchdowns that ultimately put the game away.
Bergman proved to his team, as well as the community at large, how far discipline and teamwork could take them. While other teams in the state finals have superstar players and much-ballyhooed collegiate recruits, the Braves had no real interest about their players from any big name schools. Even their best player, defensive tackle Billy Baker, has received little recognition. Baker went into the game boasting a team-leading 75 tackles (37 for a loss), 10 sacks and five forced fumbles.
For his credit, Bergman never believed in the idea of the star player and always backed his team’s unified approach to each game.
“I knew that we had a good sectional, and if we could get out of there, it meant that we were playing some good football,” Bergman said. “The only way that we could have done what we did was to play as a team. I didn’t think that we had the athletes to compete with some of these other teams as individuals, so I knew that it would take a team effort to get past any of them. We really focused on each team individually and how much better we were going to have to play (than the week before) to beat them.”
Hall was the offensive leader for the Braves, tallying 75 yards on 10 carries, catching three passes for 95 yards, and scoring all four touchdowns. Fellow running back Trent Busse had 91 yards on 18 carries.
Defensively, Bellmont recorded three sacks and forced three fumbles while committing only one turnover and allowing no sack of their own.
4A: Cathedral Wins Seventh Title
Cathedral has had its share of highlight-reel offensive plays this season, but it had been the Irish defense that has propelled its team past its toughest opponents. Saturday’s state finals match-up was no exception, as Cathedral came out on top of a 10-7 slugfest with Fort Wayne Dwenger.
The Irish managed just 131 yards of offense in the game, 51 of which came on their opening drive. The drive netted a field goal, but the lead did not last long. Dwenger recovered a fumble at the Cathedral 40-yard line towards the end of the second quarter and quarterback Trevor Yerrick threw a screen pass to Robby Kines that went for a 14-yard touchdown.
Another mistake in the third quarter would lead to the game’s last score, though this time it was a Yerrick interception that gave Cathedral the ball on Dwenger’s 28-yard line. Running back Nick Najem got into the end zone from ten yards out, giving the Irish the final lead of the game.
Dwenger had an opportunity at the end of the game after Cathedral went three-and-out and got the ball back on its own 22-yard line with 1:33 remaining in the fourth quarter.
On fourth down, Yerrick avoided a sack and heaved the ball downfield to Kines, who was behind the defense. Irish defensive back Allen Richardson, who had blocked a field goal earlier in the game, caught up with the pass and knocked it to the ground with 1:09 left, giving Cathedral – the winningest team in Indiana history – its seventh state title.