Vincennes —
Tre Stephens did not gain 1,200 yards rushing Friday night, although he was on pace to do so after Terre Haute South’s first two offensive series in a high school football game at Vincennes’ Inman Field.
But had the visiting Braves continued to pound the ball on the ground, Stephens might have in a 41-8 win over Vincennes Lincoln that was just what the doctor ordered.
South scored on its first four possessions, Stephens getting two touchdowns and all of his 168 yards for the game before the first quarter ended. The Braves also had an opportunity to work on their aerial game after that, Danny Etling passing for 236 yards and three touchdowns in a 470-yard offensive performance almost equally split between rushing and passing.
And except for the penalties, the damage would have been a lot worse.
“It felt good to get a win,” coach Mark Raetz said afterward. “I’m happy for our players more than anything.”
A heartbreaking loss a week earlier, a game in which the Braves were never behind until after time had run out, could easily have weighed on the minds of the players during the week and made Friday’s nonconference game a struggle. But once South scored twice on its first five running plays, Stephens racking up 112 yards in his first three carries, it seemed obvious that the Braves were staying in the moment.
“We had a good week of practice and the kids had good attitudes this week,” Raetz said. “We approached it as getting better each day and getting better tonight, and I think we accomplished that.”
“We had a good week of practice and we faced adversity,” Stephens said.
“We bounced back,” added Kevin Bracken, who ran for one score and caught two of the touchdown passes. “We looked adversity right in the eye and beat it. We had a good week of practice and it paid off.”
South established control immediately behind its offensive line and its running game. “I’ve got to thank the offensive line and the wide receivers for blocking,” Stephens said after the game. “They just hand me the ball and I do what I do.
“[Controlling the ball offensively] is always what we want to do as an offense,” Stephens added. “We took care of business and stayed with the fundamentals.”
But South had also run the ball well a week ago. The passing game, almost certainly a necessity as the season progresses, didn’t have that much work then.
“We wanted to work on our passing game some,” Raetz agreed. “We need to be balanced and throw the ball at times [against conference teams coming up].”
“Our passing pays off,” said Bracken, who had 132 receiving yards. “We had a good game plan this week.”
After Stephens’ second touchdown made it 21-0, the Braves got a score on a 61-yard pass-and-run play to Bracken for the only score in the second quarter. And after South’s defense forced a three-and-out series to start the third quarter, Etling threw a 40-yard bomb to a wide-open Bracken on South’s first play of the third quarter.
For the game Etling was 10 for 13 for 236 yards.
South cleared its bench in the fourth quarter, after a pop pass from Etling to Logan Buske went for a 31-yard score on the first play of the final period.
Vincennes finally scored with three minutes left.
Terre Haute South 41, Vincennes Lincoln 8
Terre Haute South 21 7 6 7 — 41
Vincennes Lincoln 0 0 0 8 — 8
THS — Kevin Bracken 5 run (Tyler King kick), 11:03 1st
THS — Tre Stephens 60 run (King kick), 9:36 1st
THS — Stephens 39 run (King kick), 2:07 1st
THS — Bracken 61 pass from Danny Etling (King kick), 8:50 2nd
THS — Bracken 40 pass from Etling (kick blocked), 10:07 3rd
THS — Logan Buske 31 pass from Etling (King kick), 11:54 4th
VL — Brendon Hardin 5 run (Jake Stone pass from Gunnar Hutchison), 3:10 4th
THS VL
First downs 15 7
Rushes-yards 26-234 28-72
Passing yards 236 52
Comp-Att-Int 10-13-0 7-16-1
Return yards 30 2
Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-1
Punts-avg 2-40.5 5-33
Penalties-yards 8-83 1-10
Individual statistics
Rushing: South — Stephens 7-168, Tyler Evans 12-50, Leon Hill 1-14, Bracken 2-2, Dylan Banks 1-1, Tony Bishop 3-minus 1. Vincennes — Patrick Toole 15-36, Hardin 7-14, Jake Beaman 3-10, Hutchison 2-9, Pek Thang 1-3.
Passing: South — Etling 10-13-0, 236 yards. Vincennes — Hutchison 7-16-1, 52.
Receiving: South — Bracken 4-132, Buske 3-61, Jeremiah Argudin 1-25, Antoine Burks 1-11, Banks 1-7. Vincennes — Jordan Daniels 2-34, Stone 2-15, Hardin 1-8, Toole 1-minus 5.
Next — South (1-2) plays next Friday at Carmel. Vincennes Lincoln (1-2) has a home game that night against Mt. Vernon (Posey).
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