By E. Shawn Aylsworth
Managing Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – If Sheridan’s Nick Zachery was the one-man band that nearly single-handedly carried the Class A Blackhawks to their ninth football state championship Nov. 23, then quarterback counterpart Paul McIntosh certainly was his weekend co-star in bringing Evansville Reitz its first crown the following day at the RCA Dome.
McIntosh, the Ball-State-bound 6’2” senior, threw for three touchdowns and ran for another in the first half of the second-ranked Panthers’ Class 4A championship battle with No. 6 Lowell. His strong-armed and limber-legged effort over the game’s first 19 minutes ****** the life out of the 2005 4A state champion Red Devils as Reitz capped a perfect 15-0 season by rolling to a 33-14 victory.
“As far as I’m concerned, Paul McIntosh is Mr. Football – anyone who can’t figure that out is just not very smart,” said seventh-year Reitz coach John Hart. “He’s one of the best football players in the state of Indiana in a long time … the best since James Banks (Ben Davis’ 2001 Mr. Football, also a quarterback).”
Based on McIntosh’s amazing performance on four of Reitz’ first five possessions, it would be hard to argue that assessment.
• Drive No. 1: After a three-and-out possession by Lowell to start the game, McIntosh goes 2 of 4 for 25 yards passing and carried four times for 28 yards in leading Reitz on an 11-play drive that covers 61 yards in only 3:36. His seven-yard run on a bootleg to the right gives the Panthers an early 7-0 lead following senior Houston Hobbs’ extra-point kick.
• Drive No. 2: Following a missed 29-yard field goal by Lowell senior David Lang, McIntosh orchestrates an 80-yard drive over 15 plays and just 3:58. The 200-pounder goes 3 for 5 passing for 23 yards and carries three times for 15 yards, including a touchdown form one yard out on a fake-option keeper off right tackle. Hobbs’ PAT makes it 14-0 with 14 seconds left in the first quarter.
• Drive No. 3: Reitz goes three and out, one of only two such occurrences the entire game.
• Drive No. 4: After Hobbs, who doubles as a defensive back, picks off a pass by Lowell junior QB Kurt Monix, McIntosh leads the Panthers on a five-play, 64-yard drive that eats all of 73 seconds off the clock. He hits on his only pass – a perfectly thrown, left-to-right crossing pattern to sophomore Jeff Hudson – for 13 yards and carries twice for 36 yards, the latter a 21-yard scamper around right end that features not one … not two …but three separate jukes of Red Devil defenders. Hobbs’ PAT is blocked, but Reitz is rolling at 20-0 barely five minutes into the second quarter.
• Drive No. 5: Following Hobbs’ second pick of Monix and a subsequent 18-yard return to the Lowell 25, it’s easy pickins for McIntosh – a three-yard pass rifled to senior Ryan Williams while backpedaling 12 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and a gorgeous 22-yard floater to junior Ryan McIntosh that his brother dives for in the front left corner of the end zone. A two-point conversion pass is botched, but the Panthers now hold a commanding 26-0 lead with 4:57 to go before halftime.
Getting the concept here? That’s 8 for 12 through the air for 86 yards and one score, and nine carries for 79 yards and three TDs on the ground. Oh, and P-Mac engineered four touchdown drives that covered 227 yards of offense in just 9:32.
“I really thought on offense we were diversified, and that gave them some problems,” Hart said in the weekend’s largest understatement.
Said 17th-year Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy, whose Red Devils posted one of the all-time state finals shockers two years ago in upsetting Roncalli, 28-27, in the 4A championship game:
“They definitely came to play today – they were in a whole different gear than us. We were up against it today and didn’t have any answers for it.”
It’s quite possible the NOBODY could have had answers for Paul McIntosh on this special day. Remember, this is the guy who rushed for 157 yards and five touchdowns in the first half of Reitz’s improbable 61-60 regional victory two weeks ago over No. 5 Columbus East. (That Herculean effort ended with 232 yards rushing and six touchdowns on the ground and another 219 yards and a TD through the air.)
Yikes!
Lowell (13-2) did manage to get on the board before halftime, and the Red Devils did it in state-record fashion – ironically breaking a mark that was set against them two years ago on this same field. On 3rd and 8 from the Lowell 23, Monix headed left before flipping the ball to senior wide receiver Eric Roadruck, who was headed around right end.
The 5’10”, 149-pounder pulled up, however, and lofted a perfect pass to senior wideout T.J. Lukasik, who gathered in the throw and rambled some 50 yards down the right sideline for the score. Lang’s extra point made it 26-7, and that’s how the teams would enter their respective locker rooms at intermission.
A telltale sign of this one-sided affair? Lowell’s two leading tacklers at the half – Lukasik (eight solos, one assist) and senior Lukas Palmer (10 solos, one assist) – are defensive backs.
“We didn’t do much in the first half,” Kennedy said. “With the right combination of things, the game could still have been a win.”
That combination clearly would have to exclude apples as the pre-game meal. Paul and Ryan McIntosh have a baby brother on the team as well (freshman QB Matthew), so the Red Devils can certainly be excused for having nightmares about problems with their PCs for awhile.
One Lowell player who lived his own bad dream on this day was standout running back Brandon Grubbe. The 5’10”, 168-pound sophomore entered the 4A final with 276 carries for 1,666 yards and 21 touchdowns, and he had five carries for nine yards on Lowell’s first two possessions.
But his day ended on the final play of the first quarter when, on a gruesome tackle by Reitz senior defensive back Lucas White, Grubbe broke his left arm in two places.
“I’m sure it took some of the wind out of our sails, but we have other football players,” Kennedy said. “We made our adjustments and didn’t make plays.”
The Reitz defense had a lot to do with that. The Panthers held Lowell to just six first downs in the game and only 77 yards on the ground. Monix, meanwhile, struggled on just 6-of-14 accuracy for 46 yards with the two INTs.
“I thought our defense played well and really stepped it up and played great team football,” said Hart, whose Panthers were eliminated at the regional level the past two years in 5A before moving down to 4A this season. “Other than the trick play and a dropped punt, we shut them out.
“A little piece of this win goes with everyone who has played football at Reitz. We have had several mythical state championships – now we can say we’ve just got a state championship.”
Each team added a score in the second half to get to the final tally.
Reitz took the opening kickoff and went 70 yards in 15 plays, taking a relatively tortoise-like 4:57 to find the end zone. Paul McIntosh carried five times for 16 yards and was 2 of 4 passing, including an eight-yard scoring strike to Hudson. Hobbs’ final PAT gave the Panthers a 33-7 lead a tick over five minutes into the third quarter.
Lowell took advantage of a muffed punt by Hudson to acquire its second touchdown near the end f the third period. It took the Red Devils four plays to go 14 yards, with Lukasik making a diving six-yard catch from Monix on 4th and 2.
Reitz’s Kissel named mental attitude award winner
Following the contest, Evansville Reitz’s Zak Kissel was named the winner of the Phil N. Eskew Mental Attitude Award in Class 4A football by members of the IHSAA Executive Committee. Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate partner, presented a $1,000 scholarship to F.J. Reitz High School in the name of Kissel.
He is the second student-athlete from Reitz to earn an IHSAA mental attitude award (Bob Stephenson, 3A football in 1977). The son of Rick and Jody Kissel of Evansville intends to study engineering at either Purdue University or Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
Kissel maintains a 3.8 GPA, ranks 40th in his senior class of 317 students, and is a member of the National Honor Society. He gives back to the community through several volunteering efforts, mission trips, and church activities.
Athletically, Kissel is a three-year varsity letterwinner in football and has been an Academic All-City honoree each of those three years. He also has played basketball for the Panthers, earning two varsity letters in the sport and being selected the team’s mental attitude award winner the last two years.
The award is presented annually to a senior participant in the state finals who was nominated by his principal and coach and has demonstrated excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership, and athletic ability. It is named in honor of the IHSAA’s third commissioner, who served the association from 1962-76 and helped initiate the state tournament in 1973.
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