The Press-Dispatch
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The Press-Dispatch Sports Wednesday, September 13, 2017 B- 3 PCMS football team drop losses to Jr. Titans The Pike Central Middle School seventh and eighth grade football teams dropped losses to host South Gibson on Thursday, Sept. 7. In the seventh grade con- test, the Jr. Titans defeated Pike Central 40 -0. The Char- gers slipped to 2-1 with the loss. In the eighth grade contest, the Jr. Titans defeated Pike Central 48 -6. The Chargers, who slipped to 1-2, scored its only points on a one-yard touchdown run by Wyatt Fra- sure. "Gibson Southern has in- vested in their program and put the right people in the right places for them to be successful from top to bot- tom," Pike Central head coach Jeremy Howald said. "They are a top-notch football pro- gram. It was a pleasure to go to their house and play them. Our kids learn a lot by going into a community, such as theirs, that have put so much stock into their football pro- gram. They have things going the right way and will be on top for a long time." "It truly was a good expe- rience for our teams, even though we lost the games," Howald added. "For instance, I thought our passing game in seventh grade was pret- ty solid. Playing in the game helped me to see that we have some things to work on. It's all about growing and getting better, and, sometimes losing plays a big role in that." Pike Central will host Heri- tage Hills on Thursday, Sept. 14, with the seventh grade contest kicking off at 6:30 p.m. The Chargers will host North Posey on Thursday, Sept. 21. down pass from senior quar- terback Christian Alvey. Alvey subsequently ran for the two-point conver- sion, cutting Tell City's lead to 16 -8 with 10 :24 left in the second period. The Marksmen answered on their next possession when – following a timeout – Hunt connected with ju- nior splitback Devon Blake on a 58 -yard touchdown pass. Craig's two-point con- version run extended Tell City's lead to 24-8 with 8:57 remaining in the second pe- riod. Then, after Pike Cen- tral turned the ball over on downs at the Marksmen's 28 -yard line with 6:03 left in the first half, Tell City ad- vanced the ball to the Char- gers' 19 -yard line, when – on 4th-and-6 – Hunt hooked up with senior halfback Nick Smith for a touchdown. Pike Central senior line- backer Jake Sisk would in- tercept Hunt's pass on the two-point conversion at- tempt, leaving the Marks- men holding a 30 -8 lead with 2:46 left in the first half. Two plays later, however, Alvey rambled 78 yards for a touchdown, then ran for the two-point conversion, as the Chargers pulled to with- in 30 -16 with 1:48 remaining in the second quarter. Pike Central took the kickoff to start the second half and advanced the line of scrimmage all the way to the Marksmen's 23-yard line before turning the ball over on downs with 6:05 left in the third period. Three plays later, when Hunt kept the ball on a run up the middle on 1st-and-21, Chargers sophomore line- backer Mario Fields stood him up, then stripped the ball away and returned it 23 yards for a touchdown. Alvey was stopped short of the goal line on the two- point conversion attempt, but Pike Central had closed to within 30 -22 with 4:36 left in the third quarter. Tell City, however, would answer on its next posses- sion with an eight-play, 59 -yard drive, capped by a 4-yard touchdown run by ju- nior running back Ty Smith and a point-after kick by se- nior Whitaker Lyons that gave the Marksmen a 37- 22 lead with 43 seconds re- maining in the third period. The Chargers would fight back, however, stringing together a 10 -play, 68 -yard drive that culminated in a 24-yard touchdown run by Fields. Boger then caught a pass from Alvey on the two-point conversion, cut- ting Tell City's lead to 37-30 with 9:35 remaining in the contest. Hampered by a holding penalty on 3rd-and-1 at the Chargers' 42-yard line on their next possession, the Marksmen would punt, giv- ing the ball back to Pike Central – at its own 15 -yard line – with 6:01 left. A fter a holding penalty backed the Chargers up to their own 8 -yard line, soph- omore wide receiver Con- nor O'Neal made a leaping catch of a pass by Alvey to give Pike Central a fresh set of downs at its own 35 -yard line. A one-yard run by Alvey, a seven-yard run by Fields and an eight-yard run by Sisk set up a 1st-and-10 at midfield for the Chargers. Four plays later, howev- er, Pike Central turned the ball over on downs at the Tell City 48 -yard line when Boger was unable to catch a pass from Alvey on 4th- and-8 with 2:23 remaining. Following runs of 8 yards and 1 yard by Craig, Hunt picked up a first down with a four-yard run to the Char- gers' 39 -yard line, then took a knee to run out the clock. "There's plays that kids left out on the field tonight, so what we've got to do is, we've got to find a way to make those plays the next time," Mattingly said. "Foot- ball doesn't care. It's going to come right back at you again, and it doesn't care that you had a bad game last week or something un- fortunate happened to you. There's going to be a situa- tion right back in your face the next week ... so you've either got to grow or, you know, get off the field. And we've got kids that will go." "I do want to say this – we played hard through the whole game," Matting- ly added. "We did not play great. We did not play smart. We did not play sound. But we played hard the whole game. So I'm proud of that. Now we've got to find a way to play smart, to play sound, and play like we're supposed to, and we'll be okay. I'm re- al proud of them for playing hard." Craig led Tell City in rush- ing with 97 yards on 16 car- ries while Hunt gained 86 yards on 16 carries as the Marksmen totaled 268 rush- ing yards as a team. Hunt also completed three of six pass attempts for 88 yards. "Defensively, we've got to start tackling people," Mattingly said. "There's some kids playing hard out there on defense, but we've just got to become better at tackling." Alvey paced the Chargers with 184 yards rushing on 15 carries while completing four of 10 pass attempts for 77 yards. Fields, after being rele- gated to the bench after be- ing flagged for an unsports- manlike penalty during the second quarter, returned to the field in the second half, during which he rushed for 53 yards and one touchdown on five carries, giving him 64 yards on seven carries for the game. "Mario had a great sec- ond half," Mattingly said. "We kept him out some in the first half, but he's a great young man and he was out here with his teammates. He loves the game. He loves this team." Pike Central will travel to Forest Park on Friday, Sept. 15, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m., Eastern time. The Rangers are 2-2 overall and 0 -2 in the Pocket Athletic Conference – with wins over Perry Central (35 -0) and Te- cumseh (40 -14) and losses to Gibson Southern (62-0) and Southridge (47-7). Last season, the Chargers defeated Forest Park 38 -20. Mattingly described For- est Park as "a good team." "Like I told the kids there at the end, every game for the rest of the year's go- ing to be an absolute war like this," Mattingly said. "I mean, you're going to come down to a one-score game where there's big plays be- ing made and big plays be- ing blown and it's just going to come down to who's going to fight longer, who's going to fight harder." "We've got a couple of big games coming up and they're going to be abso- lute battles," Mattingly add- ed. "We play hard like this – and we had a shot to win this one – we'll have a shot to win them all at the end." HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL Pocket Athletic Conference Standings PAC Overall Team W-L W-L PF PA Gibson Southern 3-0 4-0 210 41 Heritage Hills 2-0 3-1 146 68 Southridge 2-0 3-1 119 65 North Posey 1-2 2-2 132 140 South Spencer 1-2 1-3 45 159 Tell City 1-2 2-2 63 95 Forest Park 0 -2 2-2 82 133 Pike Central 0 -2 1-3 65 133 Results of September 8 PAC Games Tell City 37, Pike Central 30 Gibson Southern 28, Henderson County (Ky.) 20 Jasper 36, Heritage Hills 14 Southridge 34, North Posey 14 Owensboro (Ky.) Catholic 55, South Spencer 14 Forest Park 40, Tecumseh 14 Area Games Castle 40, Evansville Bosse 21 Eastern Greene 48, Mitchell 18 Evansville Harrison 17, Evansville North 14 Evansville Memorial 37, Evansville Mater Dei 14 Evansville Reitz 28, Evansville Central 21 Harrisburg (Ill.) 21, Boonville 14 Linton-Stockton 54, North Vermillion 18 North Central (Farmersburg) 24, North Decatur 20 North Knox 43, Wood Memorial 22 Princeton 30, Mount Carmel (Ill.) 27 Sullivan 47, North Putnam 27 Vincennes Lincoln 56, Mount Vernon (Posey) 0 Washington 76, North Daviess 7 West Washington 20, Springs Valley 6 Games of September 15 PAC Games Pike Central at Forest Park, 7 p.m. Heritage Hills at North Posey Princeton at Gibson Southern Southridge at South Spencer Tell City at Boonville Area Games Breese Mater Dei (Ill.) at Mount Carmel (Ill.) Dugger Union at Rock Creek Academy Evansville Bosse at Evansville Memorial Evansville North at Evansville Mater Dei Evansville Reitz at Evansville Harrison Indianapolis Ritter at Linton-Stockton Jasper at Vincennes Lincoln Mitchell at Crawford County Mount Vernon (Posey) at Washington North Central (Farmersburg) at North Knox North Daviess at West Vigo Perry Central at Tecumseh South Vermillion at Sullivan Springs Valley at Trinity Lutheran Wood Memorial at Eastern Greene Game of Saturday, Sept. 16 Area Game Castle vs. Evansville Central at Lucas Oil Stadium BOX SCORE At Pike Central Tell City 16 14 7 0 – 37 Pike Central 0 16 6 8 – 30 First Quarter Tell City – Dustin Hunt, 9, run (Hunt run), 6:58. Tell City – Hunt, 3, run ( Joe Craig run), 3:28. Second Quarter Pike Central – Clint Boger, 32, pass from Christian Alvey (Alvey run), 10 :24. Tell City – Devon Blake, 58, pass from Hunt (Craig run), 8:57. Tell City – Nick Smith, 19, pass from Hunt (Ty Smith run), 2:46. Pike Central – Alvey, 78, run (Alvey run), 1:48. Third Quarter Pike Central – Mario Fields, 23, fumble return (run failed), 4:36. Tell City – Smith, 4, run ( Whitaker Lyons kick), 0 :43. Fourth Quarter Pike Central – Fields, 24, run (Boger pass from Al- vey), 9:35. Team Statistics Tell City Pike Central First Downs .......................15 ........................... 12 Rushing Yds .....................268 ......................... 295 Rush-Att. ............................48 ........................... 36 Passing Yds .......................88 ........................... 77 Pass-Att...............................6 ............................ 10 Pass-Comp. ........................3 ............................. 4 Pass-Int. ..............................0 ............................. 0 Total Offense-Yds .............88 ........................... 77 Fumbles-Lost ................... 1-1 ...........................2-1 Punts-Avg. ..................... 1-36.0 ......................0 -0.0 Penalties ..........................6 -60 ........................ 4-45 Individual Statistics Rushing: Tell City – Joe Craig 16 -97, Dustin Hunt 16 -86, Ty Smith 7-36, Trey Mucker 8 -27, Devon Blake 1-22. Pike Central – Christian Alvey 15 -184, Mario Fields 7-64, Clint Boger 6 -20, Jake Sisk 5 -17, Connor O'Neal 3-10. Passing: Tell City – Dustin Hunt 3-6 -0 88. Pike Central – Christian Alvey 4-10 -0 77. Receiving: Tell City – Devon Blake 1-58, Nick Smith 1-19, Bryon Reid 1-11. Pike Central – Connor O'Neal 2-28, Clint Boger 1-15, Judah Leathco 1-17. MAC'S HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING 812-789-3065 104 E Center St, Winslow • macshtgac@hotmail.com T H I S F E A T U R E I S S P O N S O R E D B Y : BREANNA COWAN has played Soccer at Pike Central for four years. She was the recipient of the Hustle Award. Breanna's favorite class is Language Arts. She is a member of National Honor Society and Key Club. She also enjoys drawing and reading. Breanna is the daughter of Tonia and Brian Cowan, of Petersburg. KYSON WESTERN has played Soccer at Pike Central for four years, and also participates in Basket- ball. He was named to the All-PAC team twice, All-Dis- trict, and was a three-time Sectional championship team member. His favorite class is Peer Tutoring. Kyson is the son of Chad and Heather Western, of Pe- tersburg. PIKE CENTRAL OF THE WEEK Mac's Heating and Air Conditioning recognizes the Pike Central seniors who are involved in athletics. LOSS Continued from page 1 Pike Central High School sophomore running back Mario Fields (5) looks to get around the corner during varsity football action against visiting Tell City on Friday, Sept. 8. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School se- nior Clint Boger prepares to catch a kickoff during varsity football action against visiting Tell City on Friday, Sept. 8. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School sophomore defensive back Connor O'Neal (3) and sophomore lineback- er Ian Allen (25) tackle Tell City senior running back Joe Craig (25) during varsity football action on Friday, Sept. 8. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central High School senior defensive lineman Tyler Vickers (65) tries to tackle Tell City junior running back Trey Mucker (2) as Chargers senior de- fensive lineman Jake Sisk (44) closes in during varsity football action on Fri- day, Sept. 8. Ed Cahill photo Pike Central Middle School's Kendrick Sorgius (right) tries to make the tackle on South Gibson's Triston Boyd (6) during seventh grade football ac- tion on Thursday, Sept. 7. The host Jr. Titans won the contest, 40-0. Ed Cahill photo