Much was made of the Independence football team coming into this season.
With a stable of skill players led by all-state running back Atticus Goodson it was easy for the Patriots to force their opponents to pick their poison.
Quarterback Logan Phalin has just made the passing dose, if chosen, more lethal.
In his first full year as a starter the senior passer has opened up the Indy offense, something none more apparent than last week when he threw six touchdowns and ran for another in wins over Westside and Summers County last week. In total he completed nine of his 14 passing attempts for 171 yards, playing in only the first half of each game.
For his efforts, Phalin has been named the Week 6 Lootpress Players of the Week by the Lootpress sportswriters. The award is sponsored by Bodyworks and the Law Offices of Brandon Steele.
Princeton’s Dominick Collins was the winner of the fan vote, compiling 46 percent of the votes.
“I just tried to get the ball to these guys and really they just make me look good,” Phalin said. “When I get it to them they go to work so it’s real easy for me.”
Despite this being his first full year as the starter, Phalin isn’t flying completely blind. Last season when his predecessor Isaiah Duncan was in quarantine, he got valuable reps filling in. It served as a springboard for a season in which Phalin and the Patriots are experiencing the program’s highest level of success in years, coming it at No. 3 in Class AA.
“Last year when our starting quarterback got quarantined, I basically had the whole offense,” Phalin said. “It gave me a lot of experience. It just helped me get the timing down with all of these guys and it really just helped me and everyone else a lot. They were able to get used to me and I was able to get used to them.”
Despite his success, Phalin acknowledges that having the amount of talent around him makes things easier.
“I think the easiest part of my job is when I turn around and hand the ball off to Atticus,” Phalin chuckled. “These guys are great though. We went to the field almost every day last year – me and all my receivers. Even some of the guys that (the media) doesn’t even see, they probably helped us the most because that’s who we practiced against. We just got better. With Cyrus (Goodson), Judah (Price) and Trey (Bowers) to throw to, it’s just easy.”