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Haubstadt, IN 105 Years of Quality Meats 812-768-6208 dewigmeats.com Call Us For Your Next Fundraiser! Congratulations on an Amazing Season Titans! 812-386-6580 1198 S. Kiesel Drive, Princeton www.KieselEnt.com Thanks to the Titans football program for a great season! It's time to celebrate! K I N C O R P O R A T E D iesel Enterprises South Gibson Star-Times Titans: 2021 3A State Champions Tuesday, November 30, 2021 D-5 49 16 - GIBSON SOUTHERN SECTIONAL: GAME 1 MT. VERNON OCT. 22, 2021 GAME 10 GS advances over Wildcats in Sectional first round By Andy Heuring SG Star-Times Sports sports@sgstartimes.com It may not have looked like their other wins, but the result was the same; a lopsided win by Gibson Southern over Mt. Vernon to advance to the second round of the sectional. Gibson Southern won 49 -16 and the outcome of the game was really on- ly in question a few minutes, but this win was different. Gibson Southern turned the ball over on downs and was forced to punt in the same game. Something that only happened once this season against PAC teams. "We made some mistakes and it wasn't pretty, but we won and we moved on. In tournament play, that is what you play for. You just keep playing and keep winning no mat- ter what happens," said Titan Coach Nick Hart. The win was a landmark for Hart. It was his 100th win at Gibson South- ern in his 10th season, against only 20 losses. "We have always had great coach- es here helping me. This is more of a program thing," said Hart of the 100 wins. His 100th win was commemo- rated with the obligatory Gatorade ® dousing at the end of the game. They literally had to chase him around the sidelines and probably would not have caught him had assistant Coach Nelson not grabbed him. Gibson Southern's offense again showed it is explosive. They put up 48 points and 458 yards of offense in only 37 plays, for an average of more than 12 yards a play. They did this against a team that was undefeat- ed against everyone except Gibson Southern, a team that had held their opponents other than Gibson South- ern to 17 or less points a game. Brady Allen had his biggest night of the year, completing 13 of 17 for 385 yards and four touchdowns. Both Rory Heltsley, with 153 yards, 1 TD, and Brayden Malone, with 129 yards 1 TD, went over 100 yards. Al- len threw each touchdown to a dif- ferent receiver. In reality, the final score was going to be determined by how many times the Titans would be able to get their hands on the ball. Mt. Vernon domi- nated time of possession as they ran 66 plays and had the ball for 38:31, while the Titans only had the ball for 8:48. The game opened as many Gibson Southern games have this year, with them quickly marching down the field. Allen hit Seth DeLong out of the backfield for a 16 -yard gain. De- Long ran for five yards. Allen then hit a wide-open Heltsley, who caught the ball and raced 46 yards to the two- yard line, before a diving defender tripped him up. But Gibson Southern lost two on first and goal, then Allen was sacked for a three-yard loss. Adrean Luke- man ran it to the two, but an inspired Mt. Vernon defense on fourth down stopped Lukeman. It may be the first time all year he was stopped in a short and goal situation. The Titan defense then came and held Mt. Vernon to a net one yard, forcing a punt from their endzone. Allen hit Lukeman out of the back- field and he raced into the endzone for 40 -yard score. Chris Spear, who was 7 of 7 on extra points made it a 7-0 ball game. When Mt. Vernon's offense came back on the field for their second se- ries, they showed why they were 7-0 against all teams not Gibson South- ern. They put together a 15 -play drive that lasted 6:10 and covered 71 yards for a 36 -yard field goal to make it 7-3 game with 2:59 left in the quarter. Coach Hart said the Wildcat of- fense had a few new wrinkles in it, "mostly formational." Gibson Southern scored quickly again. On the first play of their sec- ond series, Allen hit Heltsley for a 44-yard gain to the one-yard line. On second down, the ball sailed over Allen's head. He recovered it on the 20 -yard line, leaving the Titans fac- ing second and goal from the 20. De- spite shooting themselves in the foot, Gibson Southern made up for it as Al- len hit Brayden Malone in the flats on the right side and he raced down the sideline into the endzone for a 14-3 lead, just 34 seconds after Mt. Ver- non's field goal. The Titans' Tye Whitledge tack- led Brady Hook for a four-yard loss, followed by Ben Luttrell and Jacob Kempf stopping him for no gain on third and 14. The Titans got the ball back at the 10 :21 mark of the second quarter. A face mask penalty on Mt. Vernon, when they tackled Malone on the punt return, gave the Titans the ball at the Wildcat 47-yard line. Runs of 18 and 12 yards by De- Long, followed by short passes to Kaden Hurless and Heltsley, set up a seven-yard touchdown run by Al- len for the score. It gave the Titans a 21-3 lead, with 9:13 left in the half. Mt. Vernon threatened to score as Hook took them to the Titan 21 with runs of 11, 1 and 21 yards. Mt. Vernon would get to the 16 -yard line, but on third down, Sloan Cox grabbed Hook at the line of scrim- mage. Then on fourth and five, Cox and Levi Dickerson sacked Mt. Ver- non's quarterback, Nicot Burnett, and Gibson Southern took over on downs. On the third play of the se- ries, Allen hit Malone curling out of the backfield and he went 79 yards to the one-yard line, and Delong took it in on the next play for a 28 -3 lead with 4:12 left in the half. Coach Hart said this and several other long scores came on blitzes by Mt. Vernon. "I understand why they do it, but 18 (Allen) is a pretty good player. If you miss, he is going to make you pay and he did," said Hart. Gibson Southern's defense swarmed Mt. Vernon as Luttrell and Dickerson dropped Burnett for a five-yard loss on first down. Then Lukeman, Whitledge and Maur- er stuffed Burnett for a short gain. Burnett's third-down pass went out- of-bounds, forcing a punt from deep in their own territory. Gibson Southern fumbled the punt, giving Mt. Vernon the ball back. Again the Titans' defense held as Noah Bryant intercepted and got the Titans the ball back at the 34-yard line. But another high snap went over Allen's head and when he tried to dive on it, he missed and Mt. Ver- non recovered the ball at the Titan 19 -yard line with 1:03 left in the half. They pushed it into the endzone with 15 seconds left in the half as River Snodgrass caught a pass from Burnett in the endzone. The PAT clanked off the right upright and the two went into the half with the score 28 -9. "We have got some things to clean up, but at halftime, I had to remind our guys we were up by 19 points. From their body language, you would have thought we were behind," said Hart. He added, it was good ex- perience for the Titans to have some struggles and to have to come out and perform in the second half. Mt. Vernon got the ball to start the second half, but netted only four yards before punting. Gibson Southern appeared to be in trouble on their next possession as Allen was sacked on consecutive plays, leaving them facing third and 20 from their 39 -yard line, but not for long. Allen hit Malone for a 31-yard play for a first down. A fter an eight-yard run by DeLong, Allen noticed the Wildcats lined up with no one covering Hurless. He quickly found him for 25 -yard touch- down pass and a 35 -9 lead. Mt. Vernon threatened again when Hook broke off a 66 -yard run to the 22-yard line before Malone pushed him out-of-bounds. They would get it to the five-yard line, but a motion penalty backed them up five yards. Then Luttrell dropped Hook for a five-yard loss, that left Mt. Vernon looking at third and goal from the 15. The Titan de- fense stopped them at the eight-yard line and took over on downs. Gibson Southern's first punt of the year to a PAC team gave Mt. Vernon the ball back, but Bryant made an over-the-shoulder catch for his sec- ond interception of the night at the Titan 27. Lukeman, on the fourth play of the series, burst through a hole, then bounced off a hit in the second- ary, before accelerating away from defenders for a 58 -yard touchdown and a 42-9 lead. Allen would hit Heltsley for a 45 -yard touchdown on the next se- ries, just for good measure, with 8:27 left in the game. The score brought Gibson Southern's starters on of- fense and defense to the sidelines. Mt. Vernon's starting offense scored on a Hook run of 12 yards to make the final score 49 -16, with 2:15 left in the game. Allen's 385 yards of passing moved him to number seven on the Indi- ana all-time career passing list with 10,171. He passed Carson Blair, of Southwood, who amassed 9,843 in 2017. The next three in front of Al- len are Mike Vlahageorge, of La- fayette Jefferson, at 10,757 in 2003; Clayton Richard, of McCutcheon, 10,777 in 2002; and Michael Lindau- er, of Evansville Memorial, at 10,805 in 2018. The win pushes Gibson Southern's record to 9 -1. Titan Coach Nick Hart has ice cold Gatorade ® dumped on him at the end of the Gibson Southern's first round, 49-16 win over Mt. Vernon. It was Hart's 100th win in his 10th season as head coach of the Titans. He was also presented with a plaque following the game. Ben Luttrell (7) and Sloan Cox (72) tackle Mt. Vernon quarterback Nicot Burnett for no gain during the Titans' 49-16 win.