The South Gibson Star-Times serves the towns of Haubstadt, Owensville and Fort Branch.
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pion T itans. When the T itans took over after South War ren's field goal, Boyd was chased out of the pocket on second down and found a seam, scampering 10 yards for a first down. On the next play his pass was incomplete, but a late hit on Boyd for roughing the passer give the T itans 15 yards and a first down at the South War- ren 41-yard line. Following an incomplete pass, Boyd was sacked for a 10-yard loss, leaving them facing third and 20. Boyd dropped back and found Devan Roberts, who had slipped out of the backfield, for a 33-yard pass. On the next play Rober ts hit a seam, dar ted left and then cut back right and went to the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown with 2:11 left in the game. Boyd hit Michael Her ren in the end zone for a suc- cessful two-point conver- sion to make it 24-21. The score brought the T itan crowd to life. An en- ergized student section was roaring "We believe! We be- lieve will win this game!" as the T itans kicked of f. Gibson Souther n did an onside kick. "We were kind of caught between the time you do an on-side kick or not. But kicking to them is a scar y thing," said Har t of S. War ren athletes who would be retur ning the kick. South War ren fielded the on-side kick at the 49-yard line. On first down the T itan defense dropped quar ter- back Jared Sells for no gain. He got two yards on second down. Then on third down Sells picked up about five, got hit, spun away from a couple of tacklers and got to a first down, but was hit of f balance and the ball came out. Ethan Ziliak dove on it and Gibson Souther n got the ball back at their 38- yard line. "Football is a funny game. You know we had him stopped shor t of a first down, he gets loose and probably picked up the first down then fumbles and we get it," said T itan Coach Nick Har t. Gibson Souther n took over with 1:54 left, 62 yards from the end zone. Rob- er ts went two yards on first down. Boyd hit Her ren for 10 yards and a first down at the 50. After an incomplete pass on first down Boyd dropped back to pass, saw his guys covered and took of f. He was chased down 31 yards later at the 19. Rober ts picked up a tough three yards. On sec- ond down from the 16, Boyd found a seam and went up the gut untouched into the end zone for a 28-24 lead. It was the first time in the game Gibson Souther n had led. "We had a pass play called to roll out. I saw an opening and thought, 'I'm going to take it,'" said Boyd. The game now fell on the shoulders of the T itan de- fense. They were up to the task. A block-in-the-back call on the kick had S. War ren star ting at their own 41 with 39 seconds left. Button threw an incom- pletion, then connected with Preston Bur ns for 16 yards to the 43 with 26 seconds left. He got a pass of f under pressure that was incomplete, then on second down he hit Conyers, who is signed with Tennessee, but Sean DeLong broke up the pass. On third down with 6.6 seconds left, Ziliak sacked Button to end the game. "He is a great football player. Those are obviously two big plays. T wo of these weeks we have faced some great of fensive tackles. The kid from Ter re Haute South was a Division 1 kid and South War ren's kids are really good. We have sent Ethan to those kids' sides. It is a tough task and he has done a great job on those kids. It's something that doesn't show up in a box score and most people don't notice, but he had done a great job battling against some really good football players," said Har t of Ziliak. A win by Gibson South- er n looked unlikely more than once in the game. South War ren jumped out to a two-score lead early. After kicking of f to Gibson Souther n to star t the game S. War ren stopped the T i- tans after two first downs. Once the Spar tans got the ball back, they quickly moved down the field cover- ing 65 yards in seven plays for a 7-0 lead. After not scor- ing on their second posses- sion it only took one play, a 43-yard pass from Button to Christian Conyers for a 14-0 lead with 55 seconds left in the first quar ter. It looked like a repeat of last year's 42-7 romp was under way. Gibson Souther n was de- termined that wasn't going to happen. A nice retur n of the ensu- ing kickof f to the S. War ren 45 gave them good field po- sition. After two two-yard r uns, Boyd took of f for 27 yards to the 14-yard line. Then on second down he floated a pass over the defense to Sean DeLong who gathered it in at the three and went into the end zone. Cam Novotny's PAT made it 14-7 with 10:27 left in the half. The T itans got anoth- er strong defensive stand, forcing S. War ren into a four th-and-four from the T itan 33 yard line. Button went to Conyers, but Mason Scheller, Brock Fauquher and Beau Rose swarmed him for a two-yard loss on the play to get the ball back and prevent another Spar- tan score. Gibson Souther n took ad- vantage. Boyd hit Michael Her ren for a 25-yard gain and first down at the S. War- ren 40. Boyd's five-yard r un was sandwiched by two in- completions forcing a four and five. Boyd hit Isaac O'Neal for eight yards and a first down at the 27. On the next play Rober ts found a seam and broke free for a touchdown, getting the score to 14-13. The PAT was blocked leaving the T itans trailing by one point with 5:34 left in the quar ter. It would stay that way until the four th quar ter. The second half was a defensive str uggle for both teams, but early in the four th, S. War ren pulled away as Sales broke loose for a 44-yard r un to make it 21-13 with 11:41 left in the game. At 3:13 the T itans held on third down to force a field goal, which Eli McIn- tosh hit, making it 24-13, setting up the T itans' come- back heroics. "Unbelievable job by our kids. That is a heck of a football team. You know defending 5A champs, they have played really well this year, to get down 14-0 and come back. We hadn't done much. We were str uggling to get outs and str uggling to move the ball. We found a way to win the ball game at the end," said Har t. A week earlier, Har t said of his defense against Washington, "I saw enough mistakes to last me a life- time." A week later he was prais- ing their ef for ts. "I thought our defense was phenome- nal the entire night. They (S. War ren) have a lot of dudes. You are just picking your poison. They put you in a bind because they are good up front. So are we going to give help on (num- ber) two (Conyers) or are we going to tr y and stop the r un?" said Har t. "It thought a big thing for us, when we star ted getting stops on defense, our D-line was huge. Controlling the line and stopping the r un, that allowed us to give some help to guys in the back- field," said Har t. Har t also praised Rob- er ts' improvement and play at tailback. "Devan is phenomenal. He did a great job, made some huge plays for us. It is tough to r un against them. He did a great job of not getting fr ustrated. He just kept going at it and made some great plays." Har t also praised Sean DeLong who had to play both ways after an inju- r y in the defensive back- field. "Sean was huge. He had to play both ways the whole game for us," said Har t. "I told them that is the caliber of team you have to beat late in the 3A playof fs. I told them last year this is the best team you are going to see all year," said Har t of South War ren. "That could be the case this year. But it doesn't' mean we are there yet. They (South War ren) are a big-time team, and we have some big games coming. We need to just sit back and know we did something great tonight. But we still need to get better," said Har t. TEAM STATISTICS SW GS Total Offense 338 303 Number of Plays 55 56 Yards per Play 6.1 5.4 Passing 236 124 Completions - Attempts 16 - 26 21-11 Yards per Pass 14.8 11.3 Touchdowns - Interceptions 1-0 1-0 Rushing 102 179 Rushing Attempts 29 35 Yards per Rush 3.5 5.1 Receiving 236 124 Receiving Completions 16 11 Yards per Catch 14.8 11.3 Penalties - Yards 14 - 130 25-4 Turnovers 1 0 Fumbles - Lost 1-1 0 - 0 Interceptions Thrown 0 0 Punting Attempts - Average Distance 4 - 25.3 6 - 27.2 Defensive Sacks - Yards 0 - 0 0 - 0 Time of Possession Downs 24:32 22:36 First Downs 12 18 First Downs - Rushing 4 10 First Downs - Passing 8 6 First Downs - Penalties 0 2 Third Down Conv. /Attempts 4/14 4/14 Fourth Down Conv. /Attempts 1/3 1/3 B-4 Tuesday, September 13, 2022 South Gibson Star-Times Titan defensive lineman Ethan Ziliak chases down South Warren's quarterback Br yce Button with just seconds left to end the game. MIRACLE Continued from page 1 Titan tailbakck Sean DeLong heads upfield with the help of Devan Roberts' (26) block during the Titans 28-24 win over South Warren. Titan slotback Sean DeLong pulls in a pass near the three-yard line from Tanner Boyd. DeLong was wide open and turned the pass into a touchdown. Titan quarterback Tanner Boyd throws his arms up in celebration as he runs into to the end zone with the winning touchdown with just 43 seconds left in the game against South Warren.