By Andy Amey
ZIONSVILLE — Visiting Terre Haute South found its offense in the fourth quarter of a Class 5A Sectional 6 first-round high school football game Friday night at Zionsville, almost in time to steal a win from the host Eagles.
But after yielding two touchdown passes in a six-minute span, Zionsville kept the ball offensively for the last two minutes and 35 seconds of the game, ending the contest on South’s 2-yard line and hanging on for a 17-14 win.
The first three quarters of the game were a rerun for South fans. The Braves played stubbornly and hard on defense but got little help from their offensive unit, and it was 17-0 heading into the final 12 minutes.
But South played that last quarter with a strong wind at its back, and used that to help revive a sometimes-dormant passing attack that nearly spoiled Zionsville’s first postseason game in Class 5A.
First South stopped the Eagles on downs on the second play of the fourth quarter, and marched 74 yards in seven plays. Bryn Schwartz had two completions to Kevin Bracken and one to P.J. Montgomery for first downs — those three doubled South’s total for the game at that point — and then found Mitchell Dagnon for a 30-yard touchdown strike with 8:30 left in the game.
Zionsville kept the ball for more than four minutes but suffered its only turnover, a fumble recovered by Dustin Galenski at South’s 34. When the Eagles were penalized while unpiling from the scrum, the Braves had the ball near midfield.
This time it took the Braves six plays to go 51 yards, Schwartz scrambling for a first down on a fourth-down play that succeeded by mere inches. Then he found Dagnon again, this time from 29 yards out, and added a 2-point conversion pass to Bracken.
But the Braves couldn’t recover their onside kickoff, and never had the ball again.
“Zionsville is a good football team,” coach Mark Raetz said afterward. “They are physical, they executed well, and they don’t make mistakes.
“We spotted them 17 points, so our surge in the fourth quarter was a little bit too late.”
South had the wind in the first quarter too, but that mostly benefitted punter Logan Buske. After the Eagles drove 71 yards to a touchdown on the first possession of the game — Brandt Kidwell breaking a tackle at the line of scrimmage to go the final 33 yards — the Braves couldn’t pick up a first down on either of their first-quarter possessions.
Zionsville enjoyed a short field when the Braves were punting into the wind in the second quarter and marched 55 yards in 10 plays, scoring on a quarterback sneak with 3:31 left before halftime. South responded with its first two first downs, but then an interception led to a Zionsville field goal in the final seconds of the half that proved to be decisive.
South’s defense, led Friday by senior outside linebacker Cody Bell, kept the Eagles off the scoreboard in the second half, once stopping the Eagles on a drive that started at South’s 28 after Buske had to punt from his own end zone into the wind.
“This meant more than the North-South game. This was the game that was most important to me because there was always the possibility that it could be my last game,” a teary-eyed Bell said after the game, “so I gave it everything I got. I had a couple ankle injuries [carried off the field by teammates on one occasion], but I knew I had to keep on going.”
“I’m really proud of the way the team never quit, never stopped believing they could win, and just about pulled it off,” said Raetz.
A 2-8 final record was a game worse than the 2008 season for South, but Raetz said he could see improvement nonetheless.
“Of course we’d like to win more games,” he said, “but I really feel we were better this year than last year, and have continued to get better as a team every year.”
“This is my third year on the varsity, and I’ve never seen as good a defense as we had this year,” said Bell. “Every player, no matter how big or how small, was always ready to do what they could.
“Our record doesn’t mean anything at all to me,” Bell continued, “because this is the year I loved the most. I enjoyed everything, being with these guys, these coaches ... these coaches have made me a better person.”
“I just wish we had one more week,” said Raetz.
Zionsville 17, Terre Haute South 14
Terre Haute South 0 0 0 14 — 14
Zionsville 7 10 0 0 — 17
Z — Brandt Kidwell 33 run (Daniel Wilson kick), 7:20 1Q
Z — Chris Roberts 2 run (Wilson kick), 3:31 2Q
Z — Wilson 37 FG, 0:01.9 2Q
THS — Mitchell Dagnon 30 pass from Bryn Schwartz (pass failed), 8:30 4Q
THS — M.Dagnon 29 pass from Schwartz (Kevin Bracken pass from Schwartz), 2:37 4Q
THS Z
First downs 10 21
Rushes-yards 23-38 53-297
Passing yards 129 53
Comp-Att-Int 9-15-1 6-15-0
Return yards 0 24
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1
Punts-avg 5-37.2 3-30.3
Penalties-yards 4-26 5-57
Individual statistics
Rushing — South: Tyler Evans 10-29, P.J. Montgomery 3-6, Schwartz 10-3. Zionsville: Alex Woodard 24-143, Kidwell 20-135, Roberts 5-15, Blake Lueders 3-4, Josh Valentine 1-0.
Passing — South: Schwartz 9-15-1, 129 yards. Zionsville: Roberts 6-15-0, 53.
Receiving — South: Bracken 4-45, M.Dagnon 2-59, Jeremiah Argudin 1-10, Montgomery 1-10, Evans 1-5. Zionsville: Logan Aven 2-19, Shane Mikesky 2-17, Cole Tharp 2-17.
Next — Zionsville (8-2) has a home game next Friday against Brownsburg. South finished 2-8.
