The Press-Dispatch
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B-4 Sports Wednesday, September 18, 2019 The Press-Dispatch "We can't really go over our scouting report, so we will lose a day of practice," he said. "We will watch film and see what adjustments and other things we can fix to get better, but we can't even really practice until tomorrow. You wouldn't expect to have five or six guys out on a 40 -man roster. It makes it hard. It's kind of like when you have group project in class. When one guys misses, even if it's a good excuse, then it affects everyone else, even if it is a noble or just reason to miss or not." The good news is the team will gain experience and will have the same cast of charac- ters next season, with 16 or 17 starters expected to return. "We have to use this time to get better so that we are ready to rock and roll for next year, too," Stephens said. "It is what it is. We have special challeng- es here that we have to over- come and adapt to. That's our task to try to figure out how to do it. But I would also say, that our aspirations are tied to doing more not less. I under- stood when I took this job that not only was there going to be a rebuild, but there are also two consecutive classes that didn't have hardly any boys, and we were going to have to ride out the rough patches." Pike Central wide receiver Connor O'Neal entered the game ninth in the state in re- ceiving yards, according to MaxPreps.com. He will like- ly be moving even further up that list after finishing with 11 receptions for 132 yards and a touchdown. "Connor is a bright spot and he shows up to play and pro- duces every week,"Stephens said. "He is keeping pace with the state leaders in receiving. He is a good, tough kid and we try to think of a lot of ways to get him the ball. It is a big positive to have a weapon like him." Stephens said there were some other players who stood out on film with their hustle and effort. Interior lineman Cody Da- vis plays with a heart and fin- ished the game with eight to- tal tackles. Wide receiver and defensive back Colson Dil- lard had a nice play early in the game. He showed off his speed by chasing down a Tell City player 50 yards to save a potential touchdown. Running back and lineback- er Wyatt Frasure continues to impress the coaching staff with his dedication and desire to improve. "No matter what we ask or what the game plan is, he's 100 percent bought in," Ste- phens said. "I love that about him, and I love what those guys are bringing to the ta- ble. We just have to get more guys doing that." Another bright spot for Pike Central was punter Jag- gar Dent. "We did some different things schematically and per- sonnel-wise with our punt- ing," Stephens said. "We prob- ably had our most effective night punting that we have had all season." Dent finished with three punts for 88 yards. Stephens said he wasn't happy with overall execution of the team and the play of the line on both sides of the ball. "Sometimes it's because of lack of execution, but some- times it's just we physical- ly can't execute what we are after," Stephens said. "There were things to be had. We show we can do it on Tuesday and Wednesday and come Friday, we don't run the right routes or have the right block- ing assignments or look at the correct reads. It may seem like we are running 400 differ- ent plays, but we're really not running that many concepts. We are just doing some smoke and mirrors in the backfield, but you break it down fun- damentally, it's very simple. We're not asking them to re- member a whole lot of stuff. "I don't like the cycle of good effort, poor effort and then finish back with good effort. Regardless of our abil- ity, one of goals going forward has to be to give four quarters of great effort. I don't care if the team is more talented than you or not. Just try your best and stay locked in for four quarters. Let's just see where we are at if we play a game with great physical and mental effort." Breakdowns in the passing game led to turnovers and the Chargers' offensive line was manhandled for the first time this season. "We have to block better," Stephens said. "We have to tackle better. It's not like we didn't hit it before, but even less of our practices are going to be game-plan oriented and more fundamental oriented, and we are just going to try to grow as individual players. It can wear you down if the only litmus test of progress is wins and losses. There have been several times where I have been at a school where we got the win, but we didn't really grow as a team or make much progress. We don't want the wins to be the ultimate view of what success is. We like to get wins, don't get me wrong, but individual growth and growth as a team based off those in- dividual growths is what we are going to focus on going forward." Pike Central will be on the road this week at Forrest Park (2-2). PATH Continued from page 1 HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL Pocket Athletic Conference Standings Overall PAC Team W-L W-L PF PA Heritage Hills 4-0 2-0 164 26 Southridge 4-0 2-0 128 51 Gibson Southern 3-1 3-0 187 64 Tell City 3-1 2-1 98 68 North Posey 1-3 1-2 64 154 Forest Park 2-2 0 -2 70 118 South Spencer 0 -4 0 -3 40 160 Pike Central 0 -4 0 -2 45 197 RESULTS OF SEPTEMBER 13 PAC Games Tell City 48, Pike Central 14 Owensboro Catholic (Ky.) 54, South Spencer 14 Forest Park 26, Tecumseh 0 Heritage Hills 17, Jasper 14 Southridge 37, North Posey 7 Area Games Castle 37, Evansville Bosse 0 Evansville Central 42, Evansville Reitz 0 Evansville Memorial 10, Evansville Mater Dei 3 Evansville North 49, Evansville Harrison 6 North Knox 34, Boonville 20 Mitchell 36, Eastern Greene 20 Paoli 28, Perry Central 6 Mount Vernon 35, Vincennes Lincoln 18 North Daviess 26, Washington 8 North Putnam 42, Sullivan 41, OT Linton-Stockton 38, North Vermillion 20 Mount Carmel (Ill.) 55, Princeton 14 West Washington 46, Springs Valley 0 RESULTS OF SEPTEMBER 14 Area Games Southport 43, Gibson Southern 35 GAMES OF SEPTEMBER 20 PAC Games Springs Valley at Tell City, 6:30 p.m. Pike Central at Forest Park, 6:30 p.m. Southridge at South Spencer, 7:30 p.m. Princeton at Gibson Southern, 8 p.m. Heritage Hills at North Posey, 8 p.m. Area Games West Washington at Paoli, 7 p.m. North Central at North Knox, 7 p.m. Mitchell at Crawford County, 7 p.m. North Daviess at West Vigo, 7 p.m. Jasper at Vincennes Lincoln, 7:30 p.m. Boonville at Linton-Stockton, 8 p.m. Castle at Evansville Central, 8 p.m. Evansville Bosse at Evansville Memorial, 8 p.m. Evansville North at Evansville Mater Dei, 8 p.m. Evansville Reitz at Evansville Harrison, 8 p.m. Mount Vernon at Washington, 8 p.m. Perry Central at Tecumseh, 8 p.m. BOX SCORE TELL CITY 48, PIKE CENTR AL 14 TC PC First Downs 18 10 Rushes-Yards 39 -330 20 -61 Passing 70 161 Comp.-Att.-Int. 3-3-0 13-26 -3 Punt Returns 2-33 0 -0 Kickoff Returns 3-58 8 -107 Punts-Average 0 -0 3-29.3 Fumbles-Lost 0 -0 0 -0 Penalties-Yards 7-76 3-20 Time of Possession 22:44 25:16 TC 7 34 7 0—48 PC 0 0 0 14—14 First Quarter TC — Mitchell Foster 11 run (Hunter Beckort kick), 4:15 Second Quarter TC — Beckort 2 run (Beckort kick), 10 :55 TC — Hunter Sodrel 23 pass from Aden Dodson (Beckort kick), 7:35 TC — Dodson 2 run (Kick blocked), 5:45 TC — Foster 2 run (Beckort kick), 3:18 TC — Shane Braunecker 33 run (Beckort kick), 2:04 Third Quarter TC —Beckort 28 run (Beckort kick), 8:47 Fourth Quarter PC — Connor O'Neal 6 pass from Lars Utterback (2-point failed), 8:50 PC — O'Neal 9 pass from Utterback (O'Neal from Utterback), 0 :25 INDIVIDUAL STATISICS RUSHING—Tell City: Hunter Beckort 11-89, Mitch- ell Foster 7-47, Bren Miller 3-48, Corey Braunecker 3- 51, Shane Braunecker 2-62, Gage Meunier 3-14, Nich- olas McDowell 2-7, Aden Dodson 2-4, Kelby Glenn 2- -2. Pike Central: Wyatt Frasure 13-40, Lars Utterback 4-7, Connor O'Neal 3-14. PASSING—Tell City: Dodson 2-2-47-0, Hunter Sodrel 1-1-23-0. Pike Central: Utterback 13-26 -161-3. RECEIVING—Tell City: Sodrel 1-38, Foster 1-9, Unknown 1-23. Pike Central: O'Neal 11-132, Brandon Goeppner 1-23, Colson Dillard 1-6. TACKLES —Pike Central: Cody Davis 8, Frasure 7, Goeppner 7, O'Neal 5, Dillard 4, Gunnar Earley 3, Isaac Marchino 3, Stephen Krieg 3, Jaggar Dent 2, Levi McCarter 2, Cameron Smith 1, Sam Coleman 1, Connor Furman 1. Pike Central's Jaggar Dent returns a kickoff during the Chargers' loss to Tell City on Friday, Sept. 13 at Weathers Field. The Chargers' Conner Furman attempts to tackle the Marksmen's big, powerful fullback on Friday, Sept. 13 at Weathers Field. Right: Pike Central's Cody Davis tackles Tell City's reserve quarterback in the backfield on Fri- day, Sept. 13 at Weathers Field. Pike Central Middle School football: Overwhelming Titans too much for Chargers By Dennis Marshall Press-Dispatch Sports Editor sports@pressdispatch.net Both of the Pike Central middle school football teams suffered tough losses at Gib- son Southern on Thursday, Sept. 12. The Titans' eighth-grade squad beat the Chargers 42- 12. Pike Central middle school football coach Jorden Froderman said the game was much more competi- tive than the lopsided score indicates. "We lost a couple posses- sions due to special teams mistakes," he said. "We also lost a couple potential scores in empty red-zone trips." Pike Central quarterback Quade Morton was able to connect with wide receiver Julian Gish for a couple of deep balls. Morton finished the game with 147 passing yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 82 yards. Gish had 132 receiving yards with a score. "We got a lot out of Ari McDonald defensively," Fro- derman said. "He showed a lot of leadership out there." McDonald finished with 10 yards receiving and a touchdown. "I'm still super proud of this group for, even though the game was not going the way that they had hoped, they were able to stay to- gether as a team and con- tinue to fight until the very end," Froderman said. "Un- fortunately, we played a team that was equally as talented as we were and we didn't get a lot of the breaks we have gotten in the past. I still believe we have a great team and I know that these boys are going to continue to come out to practice and get better everyday." It was the eighth-grade team's first loss of the sea- son. Their record is now 2-1. Gibson Southern also won the seventh-grade game, 28 - 0, dropping Pike Central to 1-1 this season. "We played a very good Gibson Southern team," Froderman said. "I was very proud of them because some of the mistakes, offensively, we made in their last game were solved. With that be- ing said, we still have a lot in this group that needs to be worked on. These boys show a lot of heart on the field every time they go out to play. They give us every- thing they have in practice and I know if we continue to give our all in practice, we will be able to show how tal- ented they are, but we have things on both sides of the ball that need worked on." Pike Central will host Heritage Hills on Thursday, Sept. 19 at Weathers Field.