Gallery by Heather Belcher
Independence has ran roughshod over its competition this season by historic numbers.
Still, there have been detractors.
Were the Patriots that good, or were those outlandish numbers the product of a weak schedule? Friday night when perennial power Bluefield came to Coal City, Independence had something to show the critics.
Exploding for 30 points in just over 13 minutes in the second half, the No. 3 rated Patriots steamrolled the Beavers 44-16 on Homecoming.
“The kids played hard tonight and I felt like they took the challenge,” Independence head coach John H. Lilly said. “They wanted to play good and they wanted to prove they were a good team. Bluefield is so hard to defend, so I am really proud of our guys.”
It was another frustrating night for veteran Bluefield head coach Fred Simon who saw his team’s playoff hopes take a serious blow with the setback.
“I thought their defense played really good. They are all back from last year,” Simon said “I thought (Independence) played well across the (offensive) line and their defense played well. We had a hard time blocking them. They have a good playoff team. If you pick the top-four teams in the state, they are definitely in the top four.”
Although the offensive numbers at halftime highly favored the home team, Bluefield only trailed 14-8 and started the second half with the ball.
Nevertheless, Independence was far from panic mode.
“The kids felt pretty comfortable. We had two scores called back in the first half. That is our Achilles heel,” Lilly said. “We are good for shooting ourselves in the foot at least four times.”
With a chance to put pressure on the Patriots, Simon did not see the response he had hoped for from his team in the second half.
“I just thought we got outplayed in the second half. We needed to keep our cool and battle a little bit, but we didn’t. So that was a little disappointing,” Simon lamented. “We didn’t battle tonight and they did.”
Independence forced a punt on the opening drive and immediately set the tone for the second half. Two runs from Judah Price tallied 21 yards before Trey Bowers faked the pitch to Price on the next play.
“It was just something I saw,” Bowers said about his big run. “All game the holes had been up the middle, then I just saw the outside open up. I cut it back, ran outside and let my speed do the job.”
Bowers broke through the gaping hole opened by the Indy front line and ran untouched for a 51-yard score on a play that seemed to set the tone for the third quarter.
“Trey is still learning the quarterback position. We have been trying to run him a little more the last two weeks because we feel like we need it,” Lilly said. “We don’t want Judah carrying the ball 40 times. (Trey) made some great cuts. He is still a work in progress, but I thought he handled himself really well tonight.”
A fumble by the Beavers on the next possession gave the ball back to the Patriots at their own 45-yard line.
“We just weren’t hitting the holes right,” Bowers said about the first half issues. “We needed to change a couple of things to start hitting the holes. The line did great in the second half and we executed great.”
Five plays later, Price popped through the line for a 21-yard touchdown burst and a 30-8 advantage.
Playing in a steady rain all night, Independence eventually abandoned its strong passing game and turned to its old school ground-and-pound attack.
“We tried to throw the ball a little bit, but the ball was so wet. They were loading the box, so we tried to make an attempt in the first half,” Lilly explained. “In the second half, we (decided) it was too wet, so we just loaded up on the run and put it in Judah and Trey’s hands to see what we could get.”
Even though Bluefield looked to be knocked out and had struggled all night to move the ball, the Beavers got a brief burst of hope when Caleb Fuller hit Sencere Fields on a 29-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead back to 30-16 with 4:01 left in the third period.
Independence squelched any hope of a comeback on the next drive aided by its offensive line that opened hole after hole.
“They are dawgs, just dawgs,” Price said about his guys up front. “After we started running those misdirections and getting their D-line to go the other way, we were running it down their throats.”
After a big kickoff return by Chandler Johnson that set Indy up at the Bluefield 27-yard line, Price scored on a 2-yard plunge and topped it off with the conversion run.
Price capped the scoring on the next drive with a 13-yard run for his fifth score of the night.
“We challenged them and I think they wanted that challenge. They had been hearing that we hadn’t played anybody, so they were pretty excited about the game,” Lilly said. “We believe in ourselves, but we are still not as good as we can be. I think we have a lot of room to improve. We have got to cut the mistakes and the penalties.”
The game did end on a sour note when a late hit on a Bluefield run, sparked a fracas that took several minutes to get brought under control.
Both coaches agreed that the game would be called at that point to prevent any further incidents.
“Coach Simon is a class act. Bluefield has been the big dog in the southern part of West Virginia for a long time and they will be for a long time,” Lilly said. “It’s good that we got a game like this in and hopefully we can play each other over the next couple of years and have a good game series.”
It was a historic night for Price and Bowers who rushed for 345 yards on 44 combined carries and six scores.
“It was a challenging game. They are hitting me every play and I am hitting them every play. I really like playing teams like that because it is a challenge. I run the ball a lot better with better teams,” Price said. “It’s homecoming and we have dance right after this game, so we are going to have a fun night tonight.”
B: 0 8 0 8 – 16
I: 6 8 24 6 – 44
First quarter
I: Judah Price 18 run (pass failed)
Second quarter
I: Price 3 run (pass failed)
B: Gerrard Wade 75 kick return (Caleb Fuller rush)
I: Safety
Third quarter
I: Trey Bowers 59 run (Price rush)
I: Price 21 run (Bowers rush)
B: Sencere Fields 29 pass from Fuller (Fuller rush)
I: Price 2 run (Price rush)
Fourth quarter
I: Price 13 run (rush failed)
Statistics
Rushing: (B) Wade 8-2, Fuller 12-31, Brandon Fong 1-(-3); (I) Price 31-209-5, Bowers 13-136-1, Tyler Linkswiler 3-12.
Passing: (B) Fuller 8-14-86-1-1; (I) Bowers 3-6-57
Receiving (B) R.J. Hairston 3-30, Fong 2-22, Fields 2-34-1; (I) Cyrus Goodson 2-45, Colten Caron 1-12