By Andy Amey
TERRE HAUTE — It was the threat of lightning that caused the high school football game between Terre Haute North and visiting Castle to go well into the night Friday, but the offensive units of both teams — particularly the Patriots — brought the thunder.
More than 45 minutes of weather delays at halftime gave North plenty of time for the naming ceremony of its field — it’s now Gene Shike Field at Carl S. Riddle Stadium — and the Patriots did their part to make the evening a complete one by leading all the way and winning 32-13.
Chris O’Leary, who suffered an injury at Castle last season that cost him more than half his football season and all of his basketball campaign, got revenge in the sweetest possible fashion Friday, passing for 333 yards and rushing for 83 more, including a tone-setting 70-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage.
North’s highly touted freshmen were big contributors too; one of them, receiver Sydney Moore, was the key to the Patriots’ second offensive drive with three catches, including a fourth-down grab at the 5-yard line while being upended by a Castle defender. O’Leary scored again on the next play.
That made the score 14-0 after less than nine minutes had been played, but Castle’s first drive — a methodical march downfield using a no-huddle offense behind an impenetrable offensive line — had looked threatening before the Knights ran out of downs.
Castle was back in the game immediately, driving 63 yards in 11 plays with 148-pound tailback Logan Hayford scoring from 4 yards out on the first play of the second quarter. After the Knights forced the first punt of the game, they scored again, quarterback Schyler Cooper’s 48-yard run setting up a 1-yard plunge by Hayford. Although a bobbled snap cost Castle its extra-point attempt, the visitors were back within 14-13 with 9:11 left in the first half.
The next series probably demonstrated what kind of team the Patriots are going to be all season. After a mental error on the kickoff return left North pinned at its 5-yard line, did the Patriots pound their way out of trouble with their running game? Not exactly.
Facing a huge momentum shift and in the shadow of their goal posts, the Patriots came out instead in an empty backfield, and O’Leary’s 50-yard catch-and-run pass to Daniel Gabbard got them out of trouble. That play started a 95-yard, nine-play scoring drive with another of the freshmen, Brother Scank, plucking a touchdown pass away from a pair of Castle defenders at the goal line.
A big sack by linebacker Michael Mace helped stop the Knights on their last drive before halftime, but the visitors got the second-half kickoff and marched inside the Patriot 20.
A fumble recovery by Shawn Walker stopped the threat, however, and three plays later — on third and 11 — O’Leary found Ben King with a screen pass and King found a crease through the Castle defense for an 83-yard scoring play.
Another fumble recovery, this by Shawn Riggs, stopped Castle on its next possession and late in the third quarter the Patriots mounted a 74-yard drive — the big play a 20-yard reception by Chad Holler — capped by a 10-yard, fourth-down pass from O’Leary to Gabbard.
Castle had one more drive, stopped when a receiver slipped down well short of first-down yardage at North’s 10-yard line, and then had to be one-dimensional the rest of the way.
The second-half defensive improvement, coach Chris Barrett said afterward, came as a result of simplification.
“Probably what helped us most was that we gave [the defense] a call and stayed with it, instead of trying to change things against [Castle’s] no-huddle,” Barrett said. “And the guys had a great halftime. That long half really helped, and they came out jacked up.
“I’m so proud of these guys it’s unbelievable,” Barrett added. “[The Knights are] a good football team, well coached. We made a lot of mistakes, but when you’re making plays you can make up for those mistakes.”
“The tide of the game turned last year when [O’Leary] went down,” coach Doug Hurt of the Knights said. “We knew we had our work cut out for us.”
Terre Haute North 32,
Castle 13
Castle 0 13 0 0 — 13
Terre Haute North 14 6 12 0 — 32
THN — Chris O’Leary 70 run (Cam Grim kick), 11:36 1st
THN — O’Leary 5 run (Grim kick), 3:30 1st
C — Logan Hayford 4 run (Cameron Steenburg kick), 11:54 2nd
C — Hayford 1 run (run failed), 9:11 2nd
THN — Brother Scank 20 pass from O’Leary (kick blocked), 5:21 2nd
THN — Ben King 83 pass from O’Leary (kick blocked), 7:44 3rd
THN — Daniel Gabbard 10 pass from O’Leary (pass failed), 0:22 3rd
C THN
First downs 22 18
Rushes-yards 35-189 28-128
Passing yards 221 333
Comp-Att-Int 22-36-0 19-29-1
Return yards 0 0
Punts-avg 2-37.5 2-19
Fumbles-lost 2-2 2-0
Penalties-yards 5-50 5-46
Individual statistics
Rushing: Castle — Hayford 24-138, Schyler Cooper 11-51. North — O’Leary 13-83, Gabbard 4-18, King 10-18, Steven Belleu 1-9.
Passing: Castle — Cooper 22-36-0, 221 yards. North — O’Leary 19-29-1, 333.
Receiving: Castle — Drew Ison 8-112, Hayford 7-60, E.J. Tatum 3-18, Jeff Bell 2-15, Trey Smith 1-13, Kurt Evans 1-3. North — Gabbard 8-103, King 4-91, Sydney Moore 3-45, Aaron Allen 2-54, Scank 1-20, Chad Holler 1-20.
Next: North (1-0) plays Terre Haute South next Friday in Memorial Stadium. Castle (0-1) has its home opener that night against New Albany.
