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Miners face Sullivan; T-Birds, Bulldogs hit the road
Week two of the high school football season finds all three area squads hitting the road Friday night.
Union (Dugger) will be looking for a 2-0 start when they travel to Riverton Parke. Eastern Greene will be playing its second consecutive Southwest Seven Conference game at North Knox and Linton-Stockton will resume its longtime rivalry at Sullivan against the Golden Arrows. Kickoff at Bicknell will be 7:30 p.m. with the other two games scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Linton-Stockton (1-0) at Sullivan (0-1) -- One of the oldest football series in Indiana will continue at Sportland Field. The Miners have dominated the series of late, winning 6 of 7 and 10 of the past 14 meetings, but still trail in the overall standings 50-39-1. The teams started playing back in 1904.
Linton-Stockton owns three consecutive victories over the Golden Arrows, who opened the season with a 57-7 loss at Southridge.
"They're Sullivan and we're Linton," said Linton-Stockton coach Steve Weber. "You don't need to know anything but that.
"I have a lot of respect for their coach and their program. I expect it to be another hard fought game."
Evan Magni, who accounted for 188 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns (three rushing), said the Miners will have no problems getting prepared for Sullivan.
"It is a big game," said Magni, a junior. "It is the biggest game on our schedule every year.
"We always look forward to the challenge of playing Sullivan."
The Miners rolled up almost 400 yards of total offense in a 34-16 win at Eastern Greene a week ago. Quarterback Keith Cunningham threw for 120 and one touchdown and no interceptions in the victory over the Thunderbirds.
Cunningham, Mickey Tosti and Magni combined for rush for over 210 yards. Tosti also had a 6-yard touchdown run.
"I was very happy with the way our first team executed on offense," said Weber. "But our biggest concern at this point is developing depth.
"We started strong against Eastern, but you could see us bog down as we started to substitute."
He said he also was pleased with the first-team defense, which only allowed one TD and less than 60 yards of total offense in three quarters. Caleb Wainman had an interception for the Miners against EGHS.
Trent Olson is in his second season in charge of the Golden Arrows, who finished 7-3 a year ago. The 1993 Sullivan graduate coached four seasons previously at North Central, where his teams went 17-24.
The Golden Arrows only amassed 89 yards from scrimmage while allowing Southridge 457 yards.
Gene Bradford rushed 12 times for 42 yards, including a 3-yard touchdown run.
Quarterbacks Tyler Cox and Vance Bedwell combined to complete 2 of 7 passes for 12 yards and two interceptions.
"We've got to improve on everything," Olson told the Sullivan Daily Times. "Not one thing is really good.
"We've got to get better and improve."
The Miners also won three in a row from 2001-03 and 1997-99. Linton-Stockton has not won four straight against SHS since 1978-81.
Union (Dugger) (1-0) at Riverton Parke (1-0) -- The Union (Dugger) Bulldogs will be looking to open the season with two consecutive wins when they hit the road Friday night at Riverton Parke. The Bulldogs are coming off an impressive 48-8 drumming of Southwest Seven Conference foe North Central in week one.
The Panthers, led by Vincennes Lincoln alum Hank Lopez, also enter the contest 1-0 as they knocked off Attica 18-15.
The Panthers are 6-3 against the Bulldogs in the series, but Union (Dugger) prevailed in their meeting last season 14-0. Todd Gambill's squad will also be looking to buck a trend from last season where the team did not play well away from their friendly confines. The team did not record a win on the road last season (0-6).
"We are hoping for a different outcome on the road this season," said Gambill. "We have a senior dominated team this year and hopefully they will step up and show leadership not only on the field but also on the bus trip there and getting mentally prepared for the game."
The Bulldogs enter the game a little banged up, but Gambill said he expects everyone to be ready Friday.
"We have had about a half dozen or so kids out of practice this week due to illness or being a little banged up," Gambill said. "But we have two more practices left before the game so we are hoping to have everyone back and have two good days in."
Union (Dugger) chewed up 448 yards on the ground last week against the Thunderbirds, and Gambill said that this week in practice they have been working on more of a balanced attack on the offense.
"We have concentrated on the passing game a little more this week in case they bring eight men in the box to try and stop the run," Gambill said. "If we can get B.J. (Howard) to throw the high percentage passes and along with our running game, it should open up the opportunities for some bigger plays down field."
Howard completed 3 of 8 passes last week for 40 yards and one interception. The senior was more elusive with his legs as he had a game-high 164 yards on the ground and found pay dirt four times.
Gambill said that he expects the Panthers to run a similar offense that North Central ran last week.
"They tried throwing the ball a lot more last week, than what they did last season against us," Gambill said of the Panther offense. "They still have a good ground game, but we don't feel they are nearly as effective with the run as they were last season."
Last week against North Central, the Bulldogs shut down the run but was a little vulnerable to the pass.
"We have to get better pressure on the quarterback this week," Gambill said of his defense. "We pretty much dominated up front, but we need to cause more pressure in the backfield and also have to tackle better in the open field."
Gambill said a key factor will be causing turnovers and not giving up the big plays and making the Panthers work for their drives, not giving them a short field to work with.
Although the Bulldogs lit up the scoreboard last week, Gambill mentioned that a low scoring game like last season against the Panthers will benefit his team more.
"We would want the game to be lowing scoring for us to be successful. We definitely do not want to get in a shoot-out with them."
The victory by the Bulldogs at Dugger last year snapped a six-game Panther winning streak in the series, which started in 1987.
Eastern Greene (0-1, 0-1) at North Knox (1-0, 0-0) -- The Thunderbirds coming off of a 34-16 loss at home against Linton-Stockton last week, spoiling the coaching debut of Luke Dean, while North Knox defeated Pike Central 33-7 to begin the season.
The T-Birds, who are still without senior two-way starter Jonathan Davis (leg contusion), will be meeting the Warriors for the sixth time since they started a varsity program in 2003. North Knox has a 5-0 mark against EGHS, including a 56-14 victory last August.
"It will be another tough game for us," said Eastern Greene senior running back Miguel Olvera. "North Knox handled us pretty easily last year and we know they expect to have another good team this year.
"We battled right down to the end against Linton. It will take that same kind of effort against North Knox."
The Warriors will be gunning for a third winning season in the past four years. They were 6-4 last year, 4-7 in 2006 and 7-3 in 2005, all under coach Shawn McDowell, who has 18-14 mark as he begins his fourth season at North Knox.
His Warriors rushed 43 times for 337 yards in the victory over Pike Central. Derek Chambers had touchdown runs of 38, 46 and 8 yards as part of 125-yard performance. He carried the ball just nine times.
Ryan Bolenbaugh rushed nine times for 62 yards, including a 5-yard score.
Quarterback Dylan Caballero had a 32-yard fumble return for a score. He only passed five times, completing two for 26 yards.
Olvera had 48 yards rushing on 17 carries. Tanner Bailey had 53 yards on five carries. He also caught a 44-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Zach Ingram.
Gunnar Porter completed 4 of 10 passes for 58 yards with one interception. Junior varsity quarterback Miles Hutchison had a 12-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
"We have to continue to work hard and try to get better each week," said Olvera.