Gallery by Heather Belcher
Offensive styles come and and go, but success on the gridiron always boils down to the trenches.
Friday night at George Covey Field in Coal City, Independence owned the trenches and owned the game against the visitors from Oak Hill.
Spending the majority of the night in the Red Devils’ backfield on defense and using some explosive plays on offense, the Patriots rolled to a 40-0 win.
“Oak Hill is a good football team. They have good size and speed, but our kids stepped up. They knew we had a challenge game from a triple-A school with almost 900 more students than we do,” Independence head coach John H. Lilly said. “They took it serious and I was really pleased with how we prepared all week.”
After frustrating Nicholas County with its defense last Friday, Oak Hill picked up where it left off by stopping the high octane Patriots on both of their first two possessions.
However, the first of two big plays on the night by Chandler Johnson gave Independence a golden opportunity to score and the Patriots took full advantage.
An interception by Johnson gave Indy the ball at the Oak Hill 40-yard line. Eight plays later, Judah Price raced to the end zone from six yards out, but fumbled just before the goal line. Brady Grimmett dove on the ball in the end zone to save the touchdown for the Patriots.
Tyler Linkswiler cashed in the conversion run for an 8-0 lead with no time left on the first quarter clock.
Although the Patriots took a quarter to find their groove on offense, the defense was relentless from the opening snap.
“We have six guys that play on the defensive line that we can rotate in. That helps us be fresh and we have a good linebacker corps,” Lilly said.
After the third Oak Hill punt in four possessions, Independence quarterback Trey Bowers and Johnson hooked up for a back-breaker early in the second quarter.
With Johnson loose down the hash marks, Bowers couldn’t believe his eyes.
“At first I fumbled the snap because I saw him so wide open,” Bowers said, smiling. “I just threw it up and he made a good play to get us down close.”
The big tight end rambled 86 yards before he was pushed out at the three-yard line. Price finished off the drive with a three-yard touchdown run to give the home team a 16-0 lead.
Before the halftime horn sounded, Independence added another score when Bowers did another one of his Patrick Mahomes imitations and scored from 13 yards out.
“That is my type of quarterback play and I have done that in the backyard all my life. That is just how I play quarterback,” Bowers said.
Leading 24-0 at the break, the Patriots offesnive line continued to grind on the smaller Red Devils going 56 yards in 10 plays to open the second half. Linkswiler capped the drive with a one-yard scoring burst.
“Our offensive line is deep and everyone knows we are deep. That is a strength of our team. We have about eight guys that can play and we had one major contributor that was not there tonight with Covid type symptoms,” Lilly said. “I am really proud of them, They battled hard and beat a good football team.”
Bowers was quick to compliment the big guys up front as well.
“I have been telling everyone that we have the best line in the state in double-A. I don’t know, it may be triple-A too after tonight,” Bowers said.
The final score of the night came when Independence was backed up deep in its own territory facing second-and-33 following a pair of penalties.
Bowers hit Caron in perfect stride who beat the defender for an 85-yard touchdown pass.
“We practice that a lot. It’s just chemistry,” Bowers said. “Me and Caron have basically had the same touchdown pass the last two games. Hopefully we can keep that going.”
Losing the battle in the trenches led to some frustrations for Oak Hill who now heads home to battle Princeton next week.
“They were bigger, stronger, faster and better coached. They beat us in every aspect of the game. I am pretty sure they won the coin toss,” Oak Hill head coach David Moneypenny said. “I am sure some individual kids did some good things tonight, but we got beat up pretty good.”
Independence heads on the road for the first time this year when it travels to Poca Friday.
“We have to keep up the hard work in practice and execute. That is basically all there is to it,” Bowers said.
OH: 0 0 0 0 – 0
I: 8 16 16 0 – 40
First quarter
I: Brady Grimmett fumble recovery (Tyler Linkswiler run)
Second quarter
I: Judah Price 3 run (Price run)
I: Trey Bowers 13 run (Linkswiler pass from Caron)
Third quarter
I: Linkswiler 1 run (Derrick Hypes pass from Bowers)
I: Caron 85 pass from Bowers (Bowers run)
Rushing: (OH) Omar Lewis 3-1, Alex Colaiseno 5 (-24), Alex Baxter 6-8, J.D. Mauritz 5-7, Ethan Vargo-Thomas 2 (-4), Trent Rider 2 (-3). (I) Price 19-123-1, Bowers 8-58-1
Passing: (OH) Colaiseno 7-12-28-1-0; (I) Bowers 10-19-257-1-2
Receiving: (OH) Rider 3-20, Braylon Thomas 2-8, Baxter 2-10; (I) Cyrus Goodson 5-29, Caron 2-120-2, Price 2-22, Johnson 1-86.
