Posted on 28 November 2008 by .
By E. Shawn Aylsworth
Managing Editor
INDIANAPOLIS – The remaining four Indiana football state championship games have quite a ways to go to come close to equaling the weekend’s epic opener.
In an absolutely captivating 1 vs. 2 Class A finals battle Nov. 28 at gorgeous Lucas Oil Stadium, junior quarterback Ross Hendrickson was 23 of 33 for 338 yards and three touchdowns … IN THE FIRST HALF … as top-ranked Indianapolis Ritter denied No. 2 Sheridan a fourth straight small-school crown with a 34-27 victory.
The 5’11”, 180-pound Hendrickson (29 of 47 for 423 yards with those three TDs and one interception for the game) combined with 6’0”, 175-pound senior wide receiver Tyrone Walker (11 catches for 183 yards and one touchdown) to steal the show from Sheridan QB Nick Zachery.
The 6’1”, 202-pound Indiana University-bound senior gave it everything he had in attempting to lead the Blackhawks to a record-tying fourth straight state title and what would have been a new state record 10th championship for any school (Sheridan remains tied with Indianapolis Chatard at nine). But his fantastic finale – 26 carries for 214 yards, one reception for 23 yards and a TD, and the lone pick-off of Hendrickson – fell just shy.
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“My hat’s off to our guys – they kept believin’,” said Ritter coach Ty Hunt, now 38-6 with two championship game appearances in three years at the westside parochial school. “I told them the ball was going to bounce our way, it did, and we’re state champs.
“This was a great ball game – it was a great ball game last time we played Sheridan (in an almost identically scored 34-28 Blackhawks’ 2006 championship victory).”
In a contest that saw two punts the entire game – one by each team – the action in the opening half was alarmingly entertaining.
“It was a great first half, and we just kept trading touchdowns,” Zachery said. “We knew it would be a fight to the end.”
That it was. Where to start?
Ritter (15-0) eeded only 1:45 to go 75 yards in seven plays to take an early 7-0 lead. Hendrickson was magnificent in going 6 for 6 on the drive, the only run being his own eight-yard on the series’ only third down. The drive began with an 18-yard pass to 5’9”, 160-pound wideout Glen Lee and ended with 16- and 20-yard passes to Walker – BOTH of the latter spectacular one-handed grabs.
Hendrickson’ final pass was lofted perfectly to the right side of the end zone, and senior Brock Spack’s extra-point kick cemented a scintillating opening drive.
Sheridan (13-2) answered in similar fashion, running seven times for 54 yards on an eight-play, 67-yard drive that culminated in 3:12 with senior running back Brett Hume’s four-yard run off left tackle. (All the 5’11”, 190-pound Hume would do on this afternoon is lead the Blackhawks in tackles with 10, including nine solos, and win the coveted Mental Attitude Award.)
Hendrickson once again assumed the controls, hitting 6 of 7 passes for 68 yards on a nine-play, 78-yard drive that consumed one less second than the Raiders’ initial march. The key play was a 40-yard toss to Walker, who merely badly beat three defenders on a deep pattern down the left sideline.
“They work hard in practice, and that’s what made the difference tonight,” Hunt said. “They stayed after dark the other night going over and over the routes.”
Hendrickson hit senior wideout John Shockley on a two-yard pass on 1st and goal, but Spack’s kick was blocked by 5’8”, 130-pound Sheridan freshman Eric Price. That left Ritter with a 13-7 advantage and still 5:07 on the first-quarter-clock.
Time for a little trickeration! Spack smacked the ensuing kickoff onside, and the ball hopped into 6-foot, 165-pound senior Kendall Moore’s paws off the third bounce at the Sheridan 40
This time, Ritter needed almost two minutes (1:56, to be exact) to go six plays as Shockley lurched across the goal line on second effort to score from three yards out. (The 6’3”, 175-pounder substituted for Hendrickson on the scoring play after the starting QB was drilled in the back by helmet-leading 5’11”, 253-pound Sheridan senior defensive lineman Travis Paddack after clearly being down on a two-yard gain on 1st and goal from the 5.)
A two-point conversion pass from Shockley to 6’1”, 220-pound sophomore Angelo Guerra was dropped, however, so the Raiders had to be satisfied with a 19-7 lead at 3:08. The key play on this drive was a 16-yard pass from Hendrickson to Walker on 3rd and 4, the former benefitting as he did all game from a notable lack of a pass rush from Sheridan.
But Sheridan, the three-time defending Class A state champion, refused to panic. With Zachery leading the way with a 31-yard jaunt to the left on a fake-dive play, Sheridan motored 71 yards in nine plays and 3:56 to make it a one-possession game on the third play of the second quarter.
Hume rumbled up the middle from a yard out on 2nd and goal, but senior Austin King’s kick for the point after was blocked. That made the score 19-13 with just over 11 minutes to go before this track meet could take a halftime break.
The next series ended in a controversial call at the goal line, and most folks in attendance thought it to be an incorrect one. A 67-yard pass from Hendrickson – back in the game after jacking up the Raider faithful with a helmet pump on his way to the sidelines following a three-minute injury timeout – to Shockley that saw Zachery save a touchdown from his defensive back position on the Sheridan 2.
On 3rd and goal from the 2, Hendrickson went off left tackle and reached the 1 as he was tackled, and his knee appeared to be down when he reached the ball toward the goal and it was knocked free by Sheridan. Hume snagged the ball and advanced it 11 yards to the Blackhawks’ 14 as the crowd waited for a whistle that never came.
But Sheridan could not take advantage of the apparent gift, going three-and-out after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty created third and long. Zachery’s punt went for 36 yards, and Ritter took over with yet another short field at the Sheridan 45 with 7:45 left in the half.
The Raiders needed but four plays and 1:16 to score. The final play was a 33-yard pass to Shockley off a gorgeous double fake by Hendrickson, whose pass found the big receiver at the 8 and allowed Shockley to waltz in for the touchdown, and a two-point shovel pass from Hendrickson to 5’11”, 170-pound sophomore Michael Timko that was ruled a rushing attempt pushed Ritter’s lead to 27-13.
Sheridan responded once more, moving 65 yards in eight plays over 3:45 to cut the lead to 27-20. The critical play on this drive came on 4th and 3 from the Ritter 23 when 6’4”, 187-pound senior running back Ty Perkins lined up in the shotgun formation at quarterback and nailed Zachery, who had lined up split left and ran a post pattern, on a 23-yard scoring strike.
King’s PAT made the score 27-20 with 2:36 to go before intermission – plenty of time for Ritter to so some more damage. But after reaching the Sheridan 17 the drive stalled, and Spack’s 35-yard field goal attempt was wide right.
Mercifully, the scoreboard got a rest when Zachery’s 55-yard heave down the middle of the field found no receivers on the half’s last play. A first half that took more than 90 minutes to complete ended with 47 points and 564 yards of combined offense.
A summary of the defensively challenged first 24 minutes:
• Hendrickson’s aforementioned 23 of 33/338 yards/3 TDs thang (he also ran 16 times for 84 yards – that’s 507 yards of offense BY HIMSELF, folks – and scored the game’s winning touchdown)
• A pair of Ritter ball retrievers well over 100 yards receiving: Shockley (six catches for 128 yards) and Walker (eight catches for 122 yards)
• Zachery well on his way to another 200-plus rushing effort (14 carries for 108 yards)
• 73 plays (44 for Ritter, 29 by Sheridan)
• A total of 27 first downs (17 by Ritter, 10 for Sheridan)
It came as somewhat of a shock, then, when neither team scored a single point in the third quarter.
“Both teams in the first half had to adjust to each other’s speed,” said 43rd-year Sheridan coach Larry “Bud” Wright. “Both teams got settled in in the second half, and that’s why there was less scoring.”
Perhaps. But it took a pair of defensive stands inside each team’s 10-yard line to keep the scoreboard from further screaming in the third period.
A 40-yard Zachery run on his patented fake-and-go-left maneuver got the ball down to the Ritter 17, and two more Zachery runs pushed the ball to the Raiders’ 9. But Hume was stuffed on a third-down rush off left tackle, and 5”11”, 186-pound senior RB Carlton Summe’s pitch right was stopped by 5’10”, 190-pound Ritter junior linebacker Carlos DeLuna (a game-high 19 tackles, including a dozen solos) at the 8.
Ritter then went on the game’s longest drive, taking 13 plays and more than five minutes to reach the Sheridan 9. (The clock-consuming drive featured a crazy 33-yard pass from Hendrickson to Walker on 3rd and 30 in which the QB rolled right and looked like he was throwing the ball away out-of-bounds but, instead, Walker leapt up between three defenders and snagged the pass.)
But a two-yard run preceded two poorly thrown balls by Hendrickson and another pass that was deflected, so Sheridan took over at its own 9 with 2:54 left in the third.
Thing appeared to be going swimmingly for the Blackhawks as they chewed up chunks of yardage on the ground – a 21-yard fake-middle-go-right by Zachery netted 21 yards on the second play to move Sheridan out of the shadows of its own goal posts – and six straight Zachery carries moved the ball down to a 2nd and 5 at the Raiders’ 23.
Ruh-Roh Alert! As Zachery was getting another first down on a six-yard run, a gaggle of Ritter tacklers led by 6’3”, 195-pound senior defensive end Erick Gray poked the ball free. Gray recovered at the Ritter 15, and the Raiders were in business at their own 15 with 9:16 left to play.
Ruh-Roh Alert, Part Deaux! On the ensuing drive’s second play, Hendrickson’s pass was once again tipped. Zachery hauled it in and returned the pick 25 yards, setting Sheridan up prettily at the Ritter 12.
Perkins took a pitch left and dove to paydirt just inside the left pylon, and King’s PAT tied the game at 27-all with 6:59 remaining.
When Ritter succumbed to its only three-and-out and junior Matt Hession’s punt traveled only 17 yards, the crowd sensed that perhaps this was to be Sheridan’s day after all. With 5:53 to go and a first down on the Ritter 40, the Blackhawks were poised to tie Warren Central (2003-06) with four straight state titles and add to Wright’s record nine state championships …
… were it not for Ruh-Roh Alert in 3-D. After a six-yard run by Hume, Zachery was victimized by fumbleitis once again when 5’11”, 185-pound senior linebacker Austin Greenan poked the ball loose after a seven-yard gain and Moore pounced on the loose ball at the Ritter 25.
The clock read 5:12, and Ritter – which overcame an 11-point deficit in the last half of the fourth quarter in last week’s 30-26 semistate win at fifth-ranked Linton – knew what to do.
Riding the wave of four double-digits gains (three of them coming on the ground), the Raiders took 13 plays to cover that precious real estate in 4:32. Hendrickson went off right guard on 1st and goal and, on second effort, tallied on a four-yard run.
“There at the end with that drive, I told Ross we were going to keep the ball in his hands and that we just had to get it done,” Hunt said. “Our ‘06 team had a lot of heart – this group has a lot of heart and then some.”
Spack’s point-after kick made it 34-27, and the entire stadium knew that run-based Sheridan would need a helluva kickoff return.
It didn’t happen, and fans were left to wonder why Zachery served as only a decoy on the play.
Summe gathered in Spack’s kick at the Sheridan 9, ran two yards, then lobbed the ball to the left and across the field. Senior Corey Hamersley grabbed it and moved 11 yards to the 20, but the 5’9”, 165-pounder was dropped there as only 30 seconds remained in the game.
A Zachery incompletion, 10-yard holding penalty, and three-yard pass from Zachery to Perkins made it 2nd and 17 from the Sheridan 13, and the Blackhawk’s last remote hope virtually ended when Perkins’ bomb down the right sideline was dropped at the Ritter 45 by Zachery, who dropped to his knees with his head in his hands.
Although Sheridan still had a timeout left, Zachery surely would have been tackled immediately had he made the reception. The game ended when the same pass play fell incomplete as the clock expired.
“We had two opportunities there at the end to go ahead, but they ended with fumbles,” Zachery said. “Ritter is a great team and played a great game.”
All told, at least 11 state finals records for Class A were set in the game. The teams combined for 899 yards of offense on 130 plays. The red zone was punctured 11 times, with seven touchdowns resulting.
The ending was bitter for Sheridan fans, who not only were denied a 10th state title in 11 tries but also were forced to say good-bye to Zachery, a four-year starter at quarterback and one of the state’s all-time greats.
“He’s had a great career – he is a player that has meant a lot to the program,” said Wright, the state’s all-time winningest active coach himself with 351 victories against 146 defeats. “When he was an eighth-grader, when we came off the field in a regional loss against Seeger he said, ‘Coach, it won’t happen again’ – and it just about didn’t.
“It hurts now, but they’ll look back and be proud of the way they’ve played and it won’t hurt as bad. These kids have done a heck of a job for four years, and I am very proud of what they have accomplished. Ritter has a good football team and we do, too – they just came out on top.”
Sheridan’s Hume named Mental Attitude Award winner
Following the game, the IHSAA Executive Committee named Sheridan’s Brent Hume as the winner of the Phil N. Eskew Mental Attitude Award. 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 who helped initiate the state tournament in 1973. Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance presented a $1,000 scholarship to Sheridan High School in Hume’s name.
Hume played both ways for the Blackhawks as running back and linebacker and also has lettered in wrestling and track. The son of Perry and Cheri Hume of Sheridan is the eighth Sheridan football player to win the award and second in three years, following 2006 recipient Taylor Scott.
Hume has been vice-president of his class for four years, a four-year member of the student council, and a three-year member of the National Honor Society. The Spanish Club president also participates in a peer-tutoring program, reading to third-grade students in the Sheridan school system.
Academically, Hume ranks second in his class with a 4.03 GPA on a 4.0 scale. He is undecided on his college choice but would like to major in biology with an eye toward optometry.
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