The Press-Dispatch
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B-4 Sports Wednesday, September 25, 2019 The Press-Dispatch Pike Central Middle School football: 8th graders crush Heritage Hills, 7th-grade comes up short By Dennis Marshall Press-Dispatch Sports Editor sports@pressdispatch.net The Pike Central eighth- grade football team had its most impressive showing of the season with its 42-24 conquest of Heritage Hills on Thursday, Sept. 19. The game was close early, with the Chargers battling through some tough breaks. "They showed a lot of mental toughness coming off their first loss," Pike Central coach Jorden Fro- derman said. "The guys could have not came to work this week, but we had a good week of practice and it showed on Thursday. We were able to pull away in the second half because of stellar performances from Quade Morton, Julian Gish and Arri McDonald, and we were able to seal the victo- ry behind some tough run- ning by Skylar Shelton and our offensive line getting the job done." Morton finished the game with 171 passing yards, with three touchdowns and 89 rushing yards with anoth- er score. Gish had 171 re- ceiving yards and three touchdowns, and McDon- ald ran for 73 yards and two touchdowns. Sheldon add- ed another 59 yards on the ground. Things didn't go nearly as well for the seventh-grade team, but Froderman said he felt the team played its best game of the season, de- spite the loss. "Unfortunately, some ear- ly mistakes didn't help in their game," he said. "This was by far the best showing that we have seen from this group. Offensively, we were able to get some good things going. I am seeing a lot of de- velopment from this group. They are taking coaching really well and that is start- ing to show in their perfor- mance in game." Matthew Meadows had 91 receiving yards and 14 pass- ing yards, Ari O'Neal had 50 passing yards, Brenton Fry- rear had 31 receiving yards, Cole Nossett had 40 pass- ing yards and Mann had 60 yards receiving. The middle school foot- ball teams will host North Posey on Thursday, Sept. 26, at 6:30 p.m. the effort. I was happy that they played with their ears pinned back a little more, and with some aggression. Everything starts with ef- fort. I was really happy to see that and hopefully it's a sign of things to come." Chargers' running back and linebacker Wyatt Fra- sure seemed to be in on ev- ery tackle. He finished the game with 12 total tackles. Center Al Evans came in at nose tackle on defense and did some good things. "[Evans] usually doesn't play defense," Stephens said. "He's our biggest guy and we had to have him out there." Stephens said he was al- so proud of Adon Sanchez. "I don't know if he has ev- er played football before," he said. "He came in and filled one of the guard spots due to an injury. For the most part, he held up very well. I was really happy with how he stepped up and went from being a developmental player to a varsity contribu- tor. I'm excited about what he showed and put on film. There are still some mis- takes, but he's another guy, depth-wise, that we feel like we can trust now." Forest Park coach Ross Fuhs offered Stephens some words of encourage- ment during their post-game handshake. "It's always nice to hear what we are doing and put- ting on tape is good stuff," Stephens said. "We're just in a tough situation. [Fuhs] has been there before where he didn't have but 20 players on his team. He told us to just keep doing things the right way and we will get there. That's where we are at. We are going to do the best that we can do, hang in there and just keep trying to improve every week." Pike Central (0 -5) will host South Spencer (0 -5) Friday, Sept. 27 at Weath- ers Field. PREVIEW Continued from page 1 CLASH Continued from page 1 HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL Pocket Athletic Conference Standings PAC Overall Team W-L W-L PF PA Heritage Hills 3-0 5 -0 213 26 Gibson Southern 3-0 4-1 247 73 Southridge 3-0 5 -0 184 65 Tell City 2-1 4-1 139 74 Forest Park 1-2 3-2 112 118 North Posey 1-3 1-4 64 203 Pike Central 0 -3 0 -5 45 239 South Spencer 0 -4 0 -5 54 216 RESULTS FROM SEPTEMBER 20 PAC Games Forest Park 42, Pike Central 0 Southridge 56, South Spencer 14 Tell City 41, Springs Valley 6 Gibson Southern 60, Princeton 9 Heritage Hills 49, North Posey 0 Area Games West Washington 34, Paoli 30 North Knox 54, North Central 0 Mitchell 54, Crawford County 0 Evansville Central 38, Castle 7 Evansville Memorial 24, Evansville Bosse 14 Evansville Mater Dei 45, Evansville North 27 Evansville Reitz 49, Evansville Harrison 6 West Vigo 7, North Daviess 6 Jasper 35, Vincennes Lincoln 19 Linton-Stockton 27, Boonville 16 Mount Vernon 48, Washington 2 Perry Central 40, Tecumseh 0 GAMES ON SEPTEMBER 27 PAC Games Tell City at Southridge, 6:30 p.m. South Spencer at Pike Central 7:30 p.m. Forest Park at North Posey, 7:30 p.m. Gibson Southern at Heritage Hills, 8 p.m. Area Games Crawford County at Springs Valley, 7 p.m. North Daviess at Linton-Stockton, 7 p.m. Vincennes Lincoln at North Knox, 7 p.m. Madison at Mitchell, 7 p.m. Cloverdale at Brown County, 7 p.m. Paolo at North Decatur, 7:30 p.m. Southside HomeSchool at Tecumseh, 7:30 p.m. Eastern Greene at Perry Central, 8 p.m. Evansville Central at Evansville Harrison, 8 p.m. Evansville Mater Dei at Castle, 8 p.m. Evansville Memorial at Evansville Reitz, 8 p.m. Evansville North at Evansville Bosse, 8 p.m. Mount Vernon at Boonville, 8 p.m. Princeton at Jasper, 8 p.m. Indianapolis Attucks at Washington, 8 p.m. BOX SCORE FOREST PARK 42, PIKE CENTRAL 0 PC 0 0 0 0—0 FP 21 14 7 0—42 First Quarter FP — Jake Begle 43 run (Abby Eckert kick), 10:15 FP — Drew Day 8 run (Eckert kick), 5:30 FP — Jared Schipp 29 interception return (Eckert kick), 4:01 Second Quarter FP — Day 5 run (Eckert kick), 7:05 FP — Cole Mohr 17 run (Eckert kick), 5:17 Third Quarter FP — Garrett Berg 41 interception return (Eckert kick), 10:26 PC FP First Downs 9 16 Rushes-Yards 17-38 37-247 Passing 67 0 Comp.-Att.-Int. 9-28-3 0 -2-0 Punts-Avg. 3-17.33 2-35 Fumbles-Lost 0 -0 1-0 Penalties 8-68 6 -51 Time of Possession 23:44 24:16 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING—Pike Central: Wyatt Frasure 11-47, Lars Utterback 4- -7, Connor O'Neal 1-0, Colson Dillard 1- -2. Forest Park: Drew Day 13-66, Cole Mohr 8-70, Jake Begle 3-70, Daniel Eckert 3-15, Trey Toby 2-17, Aiden Midkiff 2-6, Henry Hagedorn 2- -3, Austin Hoppenjans 1-5, Tyler Tretter 1-0. PASSING—Pike Central: Utterback 9-28-67-3. For- est Park: Cooper Uebellhor 0 -2-0 -0. RECEIVING—Pike Central: O'Neal 5 -26, Frasure 2-27, Dillard 1-4, Stephen Kreig 1-10. TACKLES —Pike Central: Frasure 12, O'Neal 7, Kreig 7, Cody Davis 5, Levi McCarter 4, Jaggar Dent 2, Gunnar Early 2, Isaac Marchino 2, Dillard 1, Bran- don Goeppner 1, Noah McFarland 1. Pike Central wide receiver Connor O'Neal breaks a tackle against Forest Park on Friday, Sept. 20 at Weather Field. Pike Central quarterback Lars Utterback at- tempts to scramble for a gain against Forest Park on Friday, Sept. 20 at Weathers Field. The Chargers' Wyatt Frasure makes a big hit against Forest Park at Weathers Field. Pike Central's Arri McDonald tips a pass at the line of scrimmage against Heritage Hills on Thursday, Sept. 19. Pike Central's Julian Gish scores a touchdown after catching a deep pass during the Chargers' 42-24 win over the Heritage Hills Patriots. A Pike Central defender makes a stop in the backfield during the Chargers' 42-24 win over Heritage Hills on Thursday, Sept. 19 at Weath- ers Field. Pike Central eighth-grade quarterback Quade Morton rolls out during the team's 42-24 victory over Heritage Hills on Thursday, Sept. 19. our chances and our ability to go and execute. I think the team that can take care of the ball has a really good opportunity to come out on top. I wouldn't say we are favored, but this will prob- ably be our last, best oppor- tunity for getting a win this season. We want to make sure we are doing every- thing we can to take ad- vantage of it and be com- petitive. "We are continuing to fo- cus on individual improve- ment. We still have to clean up some blocking and tack- ling issues, but I think if we clean those things up, we will put ourselves in a good position to get the win. It will be a good, fun game."