By Jeff Washburn
Lafayette Journal and Courier
ZIONSVILLE â�?��?? Zionsville’s shell-shocked football team
delivered an early knockout punch Aug. 25 at Eagles Field on its way to a
convincing 30-7 Hoosier Crossroads Conference victory against McCutcheon.
Having been manhandled 42-7 last week at Lafayette Jefferson,
Zionsville was eager to make amends ���?? especially senior quarterback Tyler
Reimer. Reimer completed 15 of 22 passes for 276 yards and a pair of touchdowns
against the Mavericks (1-1).
On Zionsville’s first possession, Reimer converted a 3rd-and-7
with a 13-yard completion and a 3rd-and-21 with a 39-yard quarterback draw.
When Ryan Preuss capped the 90-yard, 10-play drive with a three-yard touchdown
run, the Eagles were on their way.
The Mavericks knew it.
“It’s tough when you have a team pinned,”
McCutcheon quarterback/defensive end Cody Bearden said. “We’ve got them
third and long, and they run a quarterback draw for 39 yards. We just couldn’t
match their emotion coming into the game.
“They were ready to play. They had been beaten badly
last week, and they weren’t going to let that happen again. We couldn’t play
with them in the first half.”
At halftime, Zionsville led 21-0 and had outgained
McCutcheon, 274-93. The Eagles averaged 9.8 yards each time they snapped the
ball.
Reimer threw a 13-yard TD pass to Collin Maher with 4.9
seconds remaining in the second quarter to essentially put the game out of
reach.
McCutcheon trailed 30-0 when Bearden scored on a two-yard
run with 3:55 remaining in the third quarter. Keaton Bell rushed 18 times for
100 yards to lead the McCutcheon attack, but the Mavericks never captured the
momentum.
“They were ready,” Bearden said. “They
definitely were not going to let that (42-7 loss) happen again. We did some
good things, but we didn’t do enough good things. We would start marching, and
then a small mistake would set us back.”
That’s exactly what McCutcheon coach Kevin O’Shea saw.
“On that first drive, twice on third down, they
converted real long situations,” O’Shea said. “We let them out.
Reimer made a great play on that 39-yard run. We had him wrapped up, and he
broke it.
“What it all came down to tonight was that they made
the plays to win, and we didn’t.”
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