Miners have the look of a contender, again
The Linton-Stockton Miner football team achieved a first in school history winning its unprecedented fifth consecutive sectional championship.
Could this be the year the Miners finally get over the semistate hump and make it to Lucas Oil Stadium for the IHSAA State Finals?
The Miners have made five trips to the semistate in the last dozen years - in 2004, 2008 and made three straight semistate appearances from 2011-2013. But they haven't gotten to the State Finals - yet.
So how good is this Linton-Stockton team? It's impossible to say with certainty until the competition gets stiffer. But this team certainly has the look of a State Finals contender.
North Central coach Travis Nolting - whose Thunderbirds fell victim to the Miners this past Friday 74-0 - said, "I told our kids this is what a state-caliber team looks like."
Both Nolting and North Daviess coach Scotty Helms called it the best Linton team they had ever seen.
There was plenty of reason for optimism in August, before the season started. Fifteen starters returned from last year's 11-2 team that lost to eventual Class A state champion North Vermillion in the regional.
And this team may have exceeded even those early expectations.
The schedule was front-loaded with 2A Speedway, 3A Sullivan and North Vermillion in three of the first four weeks.
I'll admit, I wasn't sure the Miners would negotiate that early gauntlet unscathed. Speedway presented a challenging foe to open the season, and a significant upgrade to the schedule. Sullivan was the other team to defeat Linton-Stockton last year.
But they emerged from that four-week stretch undefeated.
The Miners haven't just won. They've been dominant. Their only close game was in Week 4, when the Miners beat North Vermillion 21-7 at Cayuga.
And it's not as if they've feasted on a steady diet of "have-nots."
Linton-Stockton needed a second-half surge to overtake Speedway in the opener. The Sparkplugs led 19-14 at the half. The Miners shut out Speedway in the second half while putting up 21 points for the comeback win.
They looked dominant in avenging last season's loss to Sullivan in a 46-22 win the next week.
Eastern Greene enjoyed its best season in program history with an 8-3 record. But the T-Birds were no match for the Miners, losing 69-7.
The Miners dominated Perry Central as they had done the year before. Perry's two losses came to the two surviving teams - Linton and West Washington, who meet this Friday in the regional.
North Central entered Friday's sectional championship tilt 7-4 and on a postseason roll. The Thunderbirds posted big wins over North Knox and Tecumseh in the first two sectional rounds and were playing their best football of the season. So it's not as if they didn't belong in a sectional championship game.
How have the Miners done it? They hit you with speed. And they hit you physically - and hit you some more. They've worn teams down and imposed their will on opponents.
They wore down Speedway. The Miners were the better-conditioned and tougher team that night. As Sparkplug coach Steve Wray said, "Some of our players were embarrassed with their play and wanted an excuse to get off the field. Linton was in better shape and a tougher team. There was no doubt who the better football team was."
A lot of teams, even at the Class A level have an outstanding running back. Some teams even have two quality ball carriers.
They don't have four. The Miners bring a four-pronged ground attack. And each of the four brings something different to the table.
Fullback Garrett Mason is a bulldozer. Mitch Eberhardt is a big back with the speed to get outside. Wingback Pierce Jackson is one of the toughest players around and deceptively quick. He's equally dangerous running the ball and picking up yards after the catch from quarterback Tyler Meurer's passes. Meurer is simply a blur.
Scouting tip for opposing coaches: Don't kick it anywhere near Meurer.
And they hit teams hard on both sides of the ball.
As impressive as the Miner offensive juggernaut has looked, the defense is even more impressive.
No individual running back has run for 100 yards against Linton-Stockton's defense this season. Tecumseh's Waylon Engelhardt came the closest with 99 yards in a 65-13 loss.
The Miners will face yet another quality running back this Friday. West Washington's Brandon McPheeters ran for 206 yards on 22 carries against Eastern Greene in the Senators' sectional win over the Thunderbirds.
Five sectional titles in a row and eight in the last nine years is quite a run.
Travis David posed the question, just how good was the 2010 Perry Central team who prevented the Miners from a current string of nine consecutive titles?
After Perry's 28-17 win in the sectional, then-Miner coach Steve Weber said, "They're well-coached, strong and fast. They execute what they do well. They're a very good ball club."
In other words, a typical Perry Central team. Big and strong, with an outstanding running back as they seem to have every year. Mikey Wilkerson toted the rock 52 times for 232 yards for the Commodores that night.
Perry finished 9-4 that year. They lost a close one at 3A Corydon Central and lost 28-14 at West Washington. That Senator team beat Indianapolis Scecina in the sectional.
The Miners weren't quite the level they'd been just a couple seasons before when they came up just short against Ritter in the semistate.
It was probably as close to a rebuilding year as we've seen at Linton in that nine-year span.
That was the year of course Linton lost 73-33 to North Daviess - a loss I'm sure no one has forgotten. The Miners also lost to West Vigo for only the second time in a decade.
The freshmen and sophomores on that 2010 team would go on to make three straight. semistate appearances from 2011 through 2013.
Terry Schwinghammer is a sports writer for the Greene County Daily World. He can be reached by telephone at (812) 847-4487, ext. 27. He can also be reached via email at tschwing32@yahoo.com.
Posting a comment requires free registration:
- If you already have an account, follow this link to login
- Otherwise, follow this link to register