Ripley’s Noah Kast (2) carries the ball during a Class AAA playoff game Friday at North Marion. (Photo courtesy of Emily Gallagher)
RACHEL — North Marion will advance to the postseason quarterfinals for the fifth straight year after the No. 8 Class AAA Huskies defeated No. 9 Ripley 47-10 in the playoff opener Friday in Rachel. .
“You always have an obligation to the kids to make sure they have the best season possible, but when it comes to the program, you want to do it right, you want to do it with your class, and then you want to do it consistently.” North Marion coach Darran Hayes talked about his team’s recent playoff success. “I think this speaks volumes about the steps we’ve taken in both directions of consistency and class.”
The win sets up a quarterfinal matchup between today’s No. 2 Princeton and No. 15 Hampshire, with North Marion outscoring the Vikings in total yards, 396-101, by freshman Brian Poindexter. set the pace with 17 of 148 carries. yards and 3 touchdowns.
Misfortune befell both teams on the opening drive, facing pouring rain, cold temperatures, and constant wind.
First, the Huskies lost a fumble on the first snap of the game, and Ripley’s Michael Vaughn recovered deep in NMHS territory.
Just three plays into Ripley’s opening sequence, quarterback Tyson Pruitt lost the game with an injury, forcing Jackson Moore to take over behind center for the remainder of the game.
“It’s something to do with his knee. We don’t know exactly how much. They need to do a lot of tests.” Ripley coach Ryan Simon said of Pruitt’s injury. “From what I saw, conditions weren’t great. He’s our leader. He’s the guy that’s going to take us forward. He’s the coach on the field. Without him, the other guys No offense to the quarterback, but we’re not the same football team.”
With Moore at the helm, the Vikings struck first with the ball inside the NMHS 25, taking a three-point lead with a 27-yard Parker Keller field goal.
After both teams traded punts on the ensuing drive, North Marion took over a short field and scored on Carter Person’s 1-yard run on the first play of the second quarter, followed by Brady Anderson’s PAT to put the Huskies up 7-3. he led. .
With NMHS leading 7-3, each team stalled on short drives and neither offense could gain momentum.
When Keller’s punt was blocked by Noah Hess and North Marion had another chance on a short field, it was the Huskies who broke things off with a big special teams play that shifted all the momentum to the home sideline. .
For the second time in the game, the Huskies found Cole Morris diving into the end zone on fourth down from three yards to go, giving North Marion a 14-3 lead with 4:30 left in the half.
“I thought it was a great play.” Hayes said of the blocked punt that led to the touchdown. “We were able to close out the game with that.”
The Huskies got back on the scoreboard before intermission when Poindexter’s 53-yard run set up a 38-yard TD connection from Toby Michael to Anderson and North Marion entered the locker room with a 20-3 lead. It was.
“I told them I thought it was going to be as hard as I’ve played in terms of being nervous, chasing the ball, chasing, reading the keys at halftime and during the game.” Hayes said. “I thought we played really hard.”
To start the second half, NMHS picked things up right after the game ended, forcing a punt by Ripley and getting into positive territory, capping it off with a 4-yard TD run by Poindexter to put the home team up 26-3 early in the third. did. quarter.
From there, NMHS continued to throttle down, extending the lead to 33-3 with Michael’s 34-yard TD run late in the third.
NMHS scored its second TD of the game at 10:51 of the final period, as Poindexter scored his second TD of the game from 25 yards out to give the Huskies a 40-3 lead and spark a running clock for the rest of the game. It kept rolling four times.
In the fourth quarter, North Marion’s Isaiah Carpenter recovered a kickoff fumble and scored another Poindexter TD run from four yards out, making the score 47-3.
Ripley came on in the second half against North Marion’s reserves, and Cody Lawrence scored on a 68-yard run, and Keller’s PAT cut the lead to 47-10.
This 47-10 mark is the final result that will advance North Marion to the second round of the playoffs.
In addition to Poindexter’s great night, Michael and Morris each found the end zone with 61 and 55 yards on the ground, respectively. Anderson caught two passes from Michael for 52 yards and contributed to the victory.
Defensively, North Marion forced Ripley to punt seven times and held the Vikings to 2.9 yards per play through four quarters.
“They’re really good at disguising their coverage.” Simon said. “I felt like we were able to take advantage of some of those elements. The weather didn’t help us throw the ball either. Not only did we lose our quarterback, but we also had the weather and we became one-dimensional. It’s gone.”
Ripley finished the 2024 season with a 7-4 record, led by Lawrence’s own 71 yards.
“This is my first rodeo, so the seniors will stay in my head for the rest of my life.” Simon said. “They really brought Ripley football back. They love each other and are great to coach.”
