Northview steamrolls Sullivan to stay unbeaten | Brazil Times
With 2:20 left in the first quarter of Friday night’s high school football game, after Northview had taken a lead on an earlier touchdown, Sullivan go-to wide receiver Paul Ridgway leapt into the air to snag a 25-yard touchdown pass, and in doing so, tied the game at one score apiece.
It was setting up to be a back-and-forth affair between two of the top contenders for the Western Indiana Conference crown.
But Northview had other thoughts.
The host Knights scored 42 unanswered points – 28 of those came in the second half – to walk away with a convincing 49-7 win to remain unbeaten.
“The first half was pretty even. They came out with a good game plan on both sides of the ball. It took us a few series to get our stuff together, but after we gave up the long touchdown pass, our guys bounced right back and didn’t let that turn into anything else,” said Northview head coach Mark Raetz. “Towards the end of the first half, we felt like they were wearing down. We thought that if we came out of the second half strong, we could put the game away.”
Ridgway’s touchdown grab from Sullivan quarterback Maddox Grise put a capper on a pair of strong drives to open the warm evening in Brazil.
Grise was 4-for-6 for 77 yards and a score at the end of the first quarter.
The rest of the game, Northview held the sophomore signal caller to 6-for-17 for 50 yards and an interception. The Knights also contained the rushing attack, holding the Golden Arrow backs to nine yards over the final three quarters of action.
So, what changed?
“They came out with a very good game plan. There was some stuff they were doing with their cadence and their clapping that caused us to jump. They were trying to get us to show our stunts and where we were coming from. Once our defensive line got a hang of that, we were able to execute a lot better,” said Raetz.
Northview also made some adjustments on the offensive side of the ball.
Against Vincennes Lincoln last week, Raetz didn’t like the pass protection from his group up front. That forced the play calling to be run-heavy.
On Friday against Sullivan, it still tilted more run than pass (62 percent run and 38 percent pass), which has been a Northview staple since Raetz took over the program in 2013, but it was more of a balanced attack. The 14-year head coach said that was a positive sign.
“It was much more balanced tonight,” said Raetz. “We have to take what they’re giving us. Tonight, we were better in the passing game and with our pass protection. Cooper did a good job of getting the ball out pretty quick. He also did a nice job of buying some time with the scramble drill.”
Northview showed its confidence in the passing game midway through the second quarter.
With the offense knocking on the door of the red zone, quarterback Cooper Schimmel launched a pass into the middle of the end zone. It was intercepted by Ridgway, who broke in front of the intended receiver and ran it back nearly 25 yards.
As Schimmel jogged off the field after doing his best to make a play-ending tackle, Raetz tapped the junior signal caller on the helmet and told him to shake it off.
Raetz hadn’t lost any trust in Schimmel.
And that was proven true on the first play of the next possession when they dialed up a deep shot to Gibson Schimmel, who was making his season debut after missing the first two weeks with a shoulder injury, down the left sideline.
The older of the Schimmel brothers wasn’t able to haul in the pass, but it served as a reminder that, even though interceptions might be thrown over the course of the season, the Knights fully trust the offense to push the ball down the field.
“They were loading it up to stop the run game. We were getting a lot of man-on-man looks on the perimeter, and we feel very good about our receivers and Cooper throwing the ball to them. We felt like some of the underneath stuff would work better, but we still wanted to take a few shots downfield. Hopefully, we’ll connect on one of those sooner than later,” Raetz said.
Schimmel responded by completing 12 of his 16 passes for a career-high 266 yards and two touchdowns – a 21-yard throw to Jake Raetz in the first quarter and a 47-yard throw to Bryer McCluskey in the third quarter – while running back DeMarius McLawyer followed up his five-touchdown performance against the Alices with three more scores and 138 rushing yards.
Northview now turns the page to West Vigo.
The Knights will head to West Terre Haute next Friday after another week of practice. What that will look like with another round of near-100-degree temperatures in the forecast remains to be seen, but Raetz credited his team for the way they handled the change in schedule this week – practices were held before school and film sessions were held after school – and expects them to do the same if it’s needed.
“We practiced at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because of the heat. We could see some of that again next week. It was kind of a good change up. A lot of our players said they liked it because by 4 o’clock in the afternoon, we were basically done for the day. I don’t know if they’d like it all of the time, but it was kind of a nice change,” said Raetz. “It showed our kids are flexible and are able to adjust and then come out and perform.”
—
Northview 49, Sullivan 7
Sullivan 7 0 0 0 — 7
Northview 7 14 14 14 — 49
Nv — McLawyer 1 run (Whitman kick), 4:56 1Q
S — Ridgway 25 pass from Grise (Stewart kick), 1Q
Nv — C.Schimmel 64 run (Whitman kick), 8:17 2Q
Nv — Raetz 21 pass from C.Schimmel (Whitman kick), 4:19 2Q
Nv — McLawyer 10 run (Whitman kick), 5:08 3Q
Nv — McCluskey 47 pass from C.Schimmel (Whitman kick), 2:24 3Q
Nv — McLawyer 41 run (Whitman kick), 11:50 4Q
Nv — Stewart 10 run (Whitman kick), 5:17 4Q
S Nv
First downs 7 9
Rushes-yards 26-46 26-214
Passing 127 244
Comp-Att-Int 10-26-2 12-16-1
Return yards 90 48
Punts-avg. 4-33.5 1-36.0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 7-50 7-70
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Sullivan, French 17-35, Grise 2-2, Simmons 1-7, Sappington 1-4, Bedwell 1-1, Boone 1-(-5), Sapp 1-3, Fagg 2-(-1). Northview, C.Schimmel 3-46, McLawyer 17-138, Raetz 2-17, Stewart 3-10, Killion 1-3.
Passing — Sullivan, Grise 10-23-1 127, Sapp 0-3-0 0. Northview, C.Schimmel 12-16-2 244.
Receiving — Sullivan, Freels 4-16, Ridgway 5-108, Simmons 1-3. Northview, Raetz 3-49, K.Bell 2-76, McCluskey 2-69, G.Schimmel 5-52, Leslie 1-10.
Next — Northview (3-0) visits West Vigo and Sullivan (2-1) visits Linton Friday.