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Warricknews - Sports
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Perfection isn’t necessary for win
Posted: Friday, Sep 19, 2008 - 05:33:56 pm EDT
By Nathan Blackford - Warrick Publishing Online
BOONVILLE — The plan for the Boonville High School football team on Friday night was to stop making mistakes and get a win. They got half of it right.
The Pioneers made plenty of mistakes, with penalties, fumbles, trouble with the passing game and more. But they also found a way to overcome all of that and post a 34-12 win over the Titans of Gibson Southern.
“This certainly was not the cleanest game we’ve played this year,” said Boonville coach James Blankenship. “We would have liked to have come out and been really sharp. The score was what it was, but it did not exactly seem like we were setting the world on fire tonight. We’ve still got a lot of room for improvement.”
“When we needed to make plays, we made them,” said junior fullback Kyle Whitten. “We bounced back, and we’re going in the right direction. We persevered through some mistakes, and I think everyone is starting to buy into the team concept.”
Whitten had 13 carries for a team-high 76 yards, including touchdown runs of 10 and two yards. John Goff added 11 rushes for 69 yards, while Andrew Phillips ended with five carries for 45 yards and a score.
In all, Boonville had 281 yards on the ground, while the Titans had just 163. And the game was never really in doubt in the final quarter.
Still, the Pioneers refused to make it easy on themselves. The first snap from scrimmage was a fumble, which quarterback Cam Morris was able to fall on. In that same drive, Boonville was flagged for illegal motion and holding. Yet the drive ended with Whitten’s first touchdown, and Boonville was on its way.
“I felt pretty good after that score,” said Whitten. “It got us fired up a little bit on defense, too, so it was a good thing for us. I have to give a lot of credit to our offensive line, because they pulled on out tonight.”
“I thought our kids ran the ball hard,” said Blankenship. “One of our focuses tonight was powerful running. For the most part, our offensive line did a good job.”
Phillips broke free for a 19-yard score with 4:11 to play in the first period. Ken Lowe’s 54-yard interception return set up a first-and-goal midway through the second quarter, and Logan Saddler scored on the next play with a 6-yard run.
Then, with less than a minute to play in the first half, Morris scored on a three-yard keeper for a 27-0 lead.
In the first half, the Pioneers used six different ball carriers. No one had more than seven touches, and no one had more than 51 yards.
“I don’t know who you key on with us, because we just keep running kids out there,” said Blankenship. “There isn’t one that’s much better than the other ones. They are all pretty good running backs, and when they get the ball they run hard. That’s the kind of kids that we have, and this offense lends itself to multiple running backs.”
“I actually kind of like (having a bunch of running backs),” said Whitten. “There are times when I like getting the ball, but when you can distribute the ball like that it is hard for a defense to key on one guy. That’s why our offense works.”
Boonville kept making things hard on itself, with six penalties in the first half and 10 in the game. The Pioneers also fumbled another snap that Morris had to fall on.
And for a few moments early in the third quarter, it seemed as though Gibson Southern might be able to rally. Quarterback Cory Michel took the first snap of the second half and ran 59 yards to set up a first-and-goal opportunity. On the next play, Michel broke through for a seven-yard touchdown run.
With its lead cut to 27-6, Boonville then failed on a fourth down play from midfield due to a fumbled snap. The Titans had a chance, with 8:59 still to play in the third quarter, to get back into the game.
But they didn’t do it. Instead, Boonville got a defensive stop. Then, the Pioneers put together a long drive that ended with 40.9 seconds to play in the third period when Whitten scored on a two-yard plunge.
“We did seem to get kind of lackadaisical when we were ahead,” said Blankenship. “We had to tell them we had another half to play. We should have finished the game right there with a stop and a score, and we didn’t do that. But we did get things righted.”
“When your number does get called, you need to be able to step up,” said Whitten. “You just do what you have to do.”
Boonville completed just one pass, to tight end Jay Hachmeister, for 22 yards. Both of the other passes from Morris hit off the hands of defensive backs. But the Pioneers were able to do enough on the ground.
Gibson Southern, meanwhile, got only 48 passing yards from Michel, who completed just six of his 16 passes. Michel did run for 109 yards on 10 carries, but was the only Titan ball carrier to have more than 32 yards rushing.
“Our pass defense was much better tonight,” said Blankenship. “We made some plays. We’ve still got to make better tackles, but we did what we had to do.”
Boonville improved to 2-2 with the victory, and will play at home again this week against Hopkins County (Ky.) Central. Gibson Southern fell to 1-3, and is at county rival Princeton this week.
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