The South Gibson Star-Times serves the towns of Haubstadt, Owensville and Fort Branch.
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impressive back behind a massive offensive line, might be able to just shove the ball down Gibson Southern's throats. Gibson Southern's offense picked up a first down on a facemask penalty and then was forced to punt from mid- field. This time Gibson South- ern's defense was able to hold. After allowing three first downs Gabe Br yant tipped away a long pass on third down to stop the Braves' 10 play drive. A bad snap by the Braves long snapper sailed over their punter's head. He scooped it up and was able to get off a punt but it sailed out of bounds for net zero yards. The Titans took over at their own 48-yard line. Boyd promptly ran for 12 yards on first down, then De- long went five. On second down Boyd found Cole McKee for 15 yards and a first down at the Braves 10 yard line. Boyd ran for five yards on the next two plays and into the end zone with 10:45 left in the half for the Titans' first score. A mishandled snap resulted in a failed PAT and the Titans trailed 7-6. A fumble on second down helped the Titan defense get a three-and-out and Gibson Southern got the ball back at the Titan 48. Facing third and two, Boyd ran for eight yards and a first down at the Braves 35-yard line. He then hit McKee for eight and Michael Herrin for 13 yards to get to the Braves 14-yard line with another first down. Boyd then found McKee in the corner of the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown and a 13-6 lead with 7:58 left in the quarter. Boyd showed quickly he is an efficient r unning and passing threat leading the Titan of fense. On the night, he led the Titans in r ushing with 131 yards on 19 carries and completed 23 of 29 pass- es for 179 yards to six dif fer- ent receivers and two touch- downs. Gibson Southern's defense came out and got a big hit by Luke Foster and Ethan Ziliak on first down, stuffing Cottee for a one-yard gain followed by a wild pass, leaving Terre Haute facing third and nine from their 25-yard line. But Terre Haute showed why Hart feared their offense. Braves quarterback threw a simple screen pass to Cottee who caught it with a head of steam and he headed to the left sideline, blowing past the Titan defenders for a 75-yard touchdown to tie the game. A muffed PAT kept the game tied at 13-13 with 7:02 left in the half. Neither team mounted a serious threat the rest of the half. Gibson Southern got the ball to start the second half but couldn't score. On their third possession of the quar- ter they took over at their 30 yard line. They marched 70 yards in 13 plays, culminated by Boyd's one-yard score with 33.9 seconds left in the third quarter for 20-13 lead. The drive featured runs of 11 and 12 yards by Boyd, a 15-yarder by DeLong and an 11-yard run by Roberts and only one pass, an eight-yarder to Zach Butler. Terre Haute got a 37-yard return from Desean Lowe to the Titans' 45-yard line. Four plays later Cottee went around the left side, broke a tackle and then sprinted 34 yards to tie the game at the 11:27 mark of the fourth quarter. "At some point we have got to learn to cover a kickoff. All three of their scores were big plays," said Hart. "For the most part our young secondar y did a pretty good job," said Hart. "That is a good 5A team. They are going to win a lot games this year. It wasn't pret- ty but it was a heck of a win for us," said Hart. Har t said he was not so much worried about the first drive as he was about how his young defense would re- act. "We gave them a short field and we had several opportuni- ties to get off the field, and just didn't. But I was more worried if our young guys would keep playing." They quelled any fears he might have had. They also proved they have grit and heart with the late stop by a tired defense on a warm and humid night, then great ex- ecution to travel 69 yards in 1:24 for the win. B-2 Tuesday, August 23, 2022 South Gibson Star-Times Titans football hosts New Albany on Friday By Andy Heuring Star-Times Sports sports@sgstartimes.com Gibson Southern will host New Albany beginning at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. New Albany is the defending 5A regional champion. But like Gibson Southern, their roster is vastly different than last year. They lost seven offensive start- ers and more than 6,000 yards of offense. Last year's Bulldogs were a r un-and-gun team that of- ten turned the game into a track meet. Last year they scored 33 or more points in eight of their nine wins. They cranked out more than 400 yards of of fense against the Titans state championship defense including scores of 88 and 44 yards. Those guys are gone, but Ti- tan Coach Nick Hart said they still have dangerous speed. "I don't think they are quite as explosive as they were last year. They had some special players, but they are still an explosive team. It is a game where, on defense, we have to play perfectly. If we make a step in the wrong direction it can lead to a score for them," said Hart. "I like their backs. They are a 'run first' team. Their backs do a really good job of hitting holes and making plays. It helps when you have a kid like they have clearing the way for you," said Hart of Williams Spencer. He is a 6'5" 290 pound lineman who is a 4-star recruit with three or four SEC scholar- ship offers. Spencer transferred into New Albany from Louisville Male. The running backs will be senior Elijah Jennings who ran for 353 yards last season. Others expected to be in the mix are Dakota Johnson and freshmen Jamal Chambers and Kaly Kaiser. Har t said New Albany's defense appears to be bet- ter this year than it was last year. One reason is Spencer in the middle of the defensive line as a r un stopper. "They did a pretty good job on defense against Bloomington South. Some of Bloomington's scores were on a shor t field," New Albany opened the sea- son with a loss to Bloomington South, 34-14. They started off in a 14-0 hole and were never able to get back into the game. Gibson Southern is coming off a 27-20 win over 5A Terre Haute South, that included a 68-yard scoring drive in just 1:24 as they took the lead with 5.8 seconds left. Quarterback Tanner Boyd put up impressive numbers in his varsity debut. He com- pleted 23 of 29 passes for 179 yards passing to six receivers for two touchdowns and ran for 131 yards and two touch- downs. "I thought he played tre- mendously. He did a good job of making decisions the whole night. He would prob- ably like to have that throw back on the interception, but take that away and he was really good making decisions on where to go with the ball," said Har t. Hart said Gibson Southern on defense is going to have stop the big plays to be suc- cessful. Against Terre Haute South, the Titan defense al- lowed two big plays. Josh Cot- tee turned a screen pass into a 75-yard touchdown and a sweep to the left into a 34-yard touchdown. It will be the first home game of the season for the Titans. TITANS Continued from page 1 Friday night at Evansville North. Isaac Waggoner beat Ti- tan number one Landon Kie- sel 6-1, 6-2, Leighton Jef fers won at number two singles over Lucas Church 6-3, 6-2, while Brandon Bledsoe rolled to a 6-0,6-0 win over Noah Kiesel. Jake Decker and Eliott Church, playing at number one doubles, fell 6-2, 6-4 and Jon Kiesel and Grant Wade lost 6-0, 6-1 to Kaden Waggoner and Reis Whit- ney at number two dou- bles. Northeast Dubois wins 4-1 Gibson Southern fell to Northeast Dubois on Satur- day at Evansville North. Eliott Church at number three singles had a big come- back to win the Titans' only point. He lost the first set 6-0 to senior Brock Werner. He then turned things around in the second set, taking it 6-2. Church then pulled out a 7-5 win over Werner in the third set. Grant Wade and Lucas Church at number two sin- gles got off to a good start, winning the first set 6-2, but then dropped the second and third sets 6-2, 6-2. Jake Decker at number one singles lost to Aiden Buechler 6-3, 6-1. Landon Kiesel lost the first set in a tiebreaker to senior Ty Kalb, who then also won the sec- ond set 6-4. John and Noah Kiesel fell 6-4, 6-1 at number one sin- gles to Brayden Beck and Aidan Buechler. Barr-Reeve beats Titans 4-1 Gibson Southern had a rough time with Barr-Reeve on Saturday as they fell 4-1 in tennis. Lucas Church won at number three singles for the Titans' lone team point. Church beat Levi Lester 6-2, 6-3. In other singles matches Jake Decker fell 6-1, 6-2 to Donnie Miller and Landon Kiesel lost a close match to Xavier Meiring 6-4, 7-5. In doubles play, the two- some of Eliott Church and John Kiesel lost 6-2, 6-4 to Ethan Stoll and Isaac Mad- ison. Grant Wade and Noah Kiesel fell 6-4, 6-3 to Kyle Graber and Brody Swartzen- truber. TENNIS Continued from page 1 SCORING SUMMARY First quarter THS Josh Cottee three yard run at 6:15. PAT by Adam Mohamed. GS 0, THS 7 Second quarter GS Tanner Boyd five yard run at 10:45. PAT by Cam Novotny fails. GS 6, THS 7 GS Cole McKee 14-yard pass from Tanner Boyd at 7:58. PAT by Novotny. GS 13, THS 7 THS Josh Cottee 75 yard pass from Brady Wilson at 7:03. PAT by Mohamed fails. GS 13, THS 13 Third quarter GS Tanner Boyd one yard run at 0:33. PAT by Novotny. GS 20, THS 13 Fourth quarter THS Josh Cottee 34-yard run at 11:27. PAT by Mo- hamed. GS 20, THS 20 GS Sean DeLong three yard pass from Boyd at 0:05.8. PAT by Novotny. GS 27, THS 20 INDIVIDUAL STATS Passing GS Tanner Boyd 23 of 29 for 179 yards 2 TDs, 1 INT. THS Brady Wilson 12 of 21 for 167 yards, 1 TD. Rushing GS Tanner Boyd 19 for 131 yards, 2 TDs; Devan Roberts 13 for 69 yards, Sean DeLong 7 for 19 yards. THS Josh Cottee 27 for 130 yards, 2 TDs; Brady Wilson 3 for 10 yards, Desean Lowe 2 for 5 yards, Alex Rose 3 for 4 yards, Zyelar 1 for 2 yards. Receiving GS Sean DeLong 8 for 50 yards, 1TD; Michael Herron 5 for 41 yards, Cole McKee 4 for 41 yards 1TD; Isaac O'Neal 4 for 32 yards, Zach Butler 1 for 8 yards and Devan Roberts 1 for 7 yards. THS Josh Cottee 3 for 123 yards, 1TD; Nas McNeil 5 for 33 yards, Chris Herrin 1 for 9 yards, Desean Lowe 3 for 2 yards. TEAM STATS GS BRV Number of Plays 68 57 Total Offense 398 318 Time of Possession 20:21 26:53 Rushing Attempts–Yards 39–219 36–151 Passing Completions/At- tempts 23/29 12/21 Passing Yards 179 167 Passing Touchdowns–Inter- ceptions 2–1 1–0 Fumbles–Lost 0–0 2–1 Turnovers 1 1 First Downs 27 14 First Downs–Rushing 15 9 First Downs–Passing 9 4 First Downs–Penalties 3 1 Third Down Conv./Attempts 5/10) 8/18 Fourth Down Conv./At- tempts 0/3 0/1 Penalties–Yards 8–75 11–92 Defensive Sacks–Yards 0–0 0–0 Punts–Average 3–40.3 6–27.8 Titan tailback Devan Roberts makes a cut while he looks upfield during the Titans' 27-20 win over Terre Haute South on Friday. He had 69 yards rushing. Titan golfers win inaugural Blessinger Memorial Invitational at Jasper By Andy Heuring Star-Times Sports sports@sgstartimes.com The Lady Titan golfers won the inaugural Tony Blessing- er Invitational on Saturday at Jasper by 11 strokes over the host Wildcats. Three of the Titan golfers placed in the top six. Gibson Southern shot a 351 at the Buf falo Trace Course. Vanessa Schmitt had the low score for the Titans with 81 that was the sec- ond-lowest score in the 10- team meet. Her 81 was high- lighted by a birdie on the par five second hole. Medalist honors for the meet went to Melanie South- ern of Bloomington South with a 77. Madilyn Sperling was two strokes back with an 83 for the Titans. Sperling got hot in the middle of the round making consecutive birdies on hole 10 and 11 on her way to the third-lowest individual score of the day. Haley Hughes shot a 90 which was the sixth best score of the day. Adr yauna Redden rounded out the Titans' team score with a 97 for the 351 to- tal. Katelyn Walker posted a 102 for the Titans. The team scores in the event were: 1) Gibson South- ern 351, 2) Jasper 362, 3) Bloomington South 416, 4) Southridge 423, 5) Brown County 430, 6) Forest Park 433, 7) South Spencer 434, 8) Springs Valley 462, 9) Te- cumseh 475, 10) Nor th Har- rison 510. Gibson Southern's girls golf team won the inaugural Tony Blessinger Invitational on Saturday at Japser. The Lady Titan shot a team 351 to win by 11 strokes over host Jasper. Above are team members Hale Hughes, Madison sperling, Vanessa Schmitt Audr yana Redding and Katelyn Walker.