By Sean McNamara
RACHEL – The North Marion Huskies raced past the Ripley Vikings on Friday at Roy Michael Field in Rachel, picking up a 47-10 win and moving on to the quarterfinals of the Class AAA playoffs.
In the victory, which sets up a quarterfinal matchup against the winner of today’s game between No. 2 Princeton and No. 15 Hampshire, North Marion outgained the Vikings 396-101 in total yards with freshman Brian Poindexter setting the pace with 17 carries for 148 yards and three touchdowns.
Facing a driving rain, cold temperatures and consistent wind, misfortune struck both teams on their opening drives.
First it was the Huskies, who lost a fumble on their first snap of the game with Ripley’s Michael Vaughn recovering deep in NMHS territory.
Just three plays later on Ripley’s opening sequence, quarterback Tyson Pritt went down with an injury and was lost for the game, forcing Jackson Moore to take over the rest of the way behind center.
“It’s something related to his knee. I’m not exactly sure to what extent. They have to do a bunch of tests,” Ripley coach Ryan Simon said of Pritt’s injury. “It didn’t look good from what I saw. He’s our leader. He’s the guy who gets us going. He’s a coach on the field. Without him, no offense to the other quarterbacks, but we’re just not the same football team.”
With Moore at the helm and the ball inside the NMHS 25, the Vikings struck first, taking a 3-point lead on a 27-yard Parker Keller field goal.
After the teams traded punts on their ensuing drives, North Marion took over on a short field and capitalized on a Karter Parson 1-yard run on the first play of the second quarter, putting the Huskies up, 7-3, after Brady Anderson’s PAT.
With NMHS ahead 7-3, each team had short drives stall, with neither offense gaining much momentum.
It was the Huskies that broke things open with a big special teams play shifting all the momentum to the home sideline as a Keller punt was blocked by Noah Hess, once again setting North Marion up with a short field.
For the second time in the game the Huskies took advantage when Cole Morris plunged into the end zone on fourth down from 3 yards out, giving North Marion a 14-3 lead with 4:30 left before half time.
“I thought that was a huge play,” NM coach Daran Hays said of the blocked punt that set up the touchdown. “We kind of blew the game open with that one.”
The Huskies got on the scoreboard once more before the break when a 53-yard run from Poindexter set up a 38-yard TD connection from Toby Michael to Anderson and North Marion took a 20-3 lead into the locker room.
“I told them at halftime and throughout the game that I thought that was as hard as we’ve played in terms of straining, running after the ball, pursuing and reading keys,” Hays said. “I thought we played really hard.”
To open the second half, NMHS picked up right where it left off, forcing a Ripley punt, taking over in plus territory and capping the drive with a Poindexter 4-yard TD run, putting the home team up 26-3 early in the third quarter.
From there, NMHS kept the throttle down, extending the lead to 33-3 on a 34-yard Michael TD run late in the third.
NMHS kept rolling in the fourth as Poindexter scored his second TD of the game with 10:51 in the final period, this one from 25 yards out to put the Huskies up 40-3 and causing a running clock the rest of the way.
In the fourth quarter, North Marion’s Isaiah Carpenter recovered a fumble on a kickoff, setting up another Poindexter TD run from 4 yards away, bringing the score to 47-3.
Ripley got on the board late against the North Marion reserves when Cody Lawrence scored on a 68-yard run, cutting the deficit to 47-10 after Keller’s PAT.
That 47-10 mark would be the final result as North Marion advances to the second round of the playoffs.
In addition to Poindexter’s big night, Michael and Morris tallied 61 and 55 yards on the ground, respectively with each finding the end zone. Anderson caught a pair of passes from Michael for 52 yards and a score in the win.
Defensively, North Marion forced seven Ripley punts and held the Vikings to 2.9 yards per play over the course of four quarters.
“They disguise their coverage really well,” Simon said. “I felt like we could have taken advantage of some of that stuff. The weather didn’t help either throwing the ball. It made us one-dimensional, not only losing our quarterback, but also the weather.”
Ripley was led by Lawrence’s 71 yards on the ground and concludes the 2024 campaign with a 7-4 record.
NORTH MARION 47 RIPLEY 10
NM;;RIP
First Downs;;18;6
Rushing Yards;;344;85
Passing Yards;;52;23
Total Yards;;396;101
Passing;;2-8-0;4-7-0
Fumbles;;1;3
Fumbles Lost;;1;1
Penalties;;4-35;5-40
Individual Stats
Rushing – NM: Brian Poindexter 17-148 3 TD, Toby Michael 5-61 1 TD, Cole Morris 7-55 1 TD, Karter Parson 8-40 1 TD, Noah Hess 1-32, Blake Edgell 2-8, Isaiah Carpenter 1-8, TEAM 1-(-8). Totals 42-344. RIP: Cody Lawrence 8-71 1 TD, Noah Casto 14-38, Chris Jenkins 1-2, Tyson Pritt 1-(-4), Jackson Moore 2-(-15), TEAM 2-(-7). Total 28-85.
Passing – NM: Toby Michael 2-7-0 52 yards 1 TD, Noah Hess 0-1-0. RIP: Jackson Moore 3-6-0 26, Tyson Pritt 1-1-0 7.
Receiving – NM: Brady Anderson 2-52 1 TD. RIP: Cody Lawrence 1-15, Chris Jenkins 1-7, Carter Neal 1-9, Noah Casto 1-2.
NM;;0;20;13;14;;47
RHS;;3;0;0;7;;10
Scoring Plays
First Quarter
RIP – Parker Keller 27-yard Field Goal
Second Quarter
NM – Karter Parson 1-yard run (Brady Anderson kick)
NM – Cole Morris 3-yard run (Anderson kick)
NM – Brady Anderson 38-yard pass from Toby Michael (run failed)
Third Quarter
NM – Brian Poindexter 4-yard run (kick blocked)
NM – Toby Michael 34-yard run (Anderson kick)
Fourth Quarter
NM – Poindexter 25-yard run (Anderson kick)
NM – Poindexter 4-yard run (Anderson kick)
RIP – Cody Lawrence 68-yard run (Keller kick)
