Gallery by Heather BelcherĀ
Coal City – There was a question whether North Marion, the second Marion County Independence hosted this postseason, would fare any better than the last – Fairmont Senior.
The answer was a loud, resounding no.
By halftime of the semifinal matchup between the Huskies and Patriots, the Independence faithful were closing their Amazon apps and booking hotels in Wheeling.
Judah Price broke Albert “Big Sleepy” Glenn’s 100-year old single-season scoring record of 359 points Friday, helping the Patriots down North Marion 58-19 in Coal City.
The win sends Independence to the Class AA title game at Wheeling Island Stadium for the second consecutive season where it will face the winner of Saturday’s Herbert Hoover-Frankfort matchup on Friday, Dec. 2.
With 19 seniors playing their final game in Coal City, the hosts put on a familiar show for those that watched them take the program from a playoff hopeful to a playoff power.
“Words can’t express how hard they work and how blue collar they are,” Independence head coach John H. Lilly said. “I know people get tired of me saying it but their No. 1 trait is being unselfish. They’re just as happy for Judah as they are for Cyrus as they are for Trey. Everybody in that locker room genuinely cares for each other and the coaches are the same way. I’ve got three head coaches that have been in semifinals or state championships and it ain’t me. It’s us. I’m real proud of all of them and our coaches.”
Facing a third-and-11 from their own 40 on their opening drive, the Patriots converted on a 13-yard pass from Trey Bowers to Colten Caron and never looked back. Five plays and 47 yards later Price plunged into the end zone and converted on the two-point attempt to give the hosts a lead they never relinquished.
The Huskies had a spark early when their following drive was extended after a muffed punt but a penalty and a high snap that was recovered by the Indy linebacker Jordan Harvey set the Patriots up at the North Marion 31.
Six plays later the visitors were nearly thrown a lifesaver, forcing a fourth-and-7 but Bowers again found Caron for a 14-yard conversion and three players later Price made it a 14-0 game.
Afterwards it became the Cyrus Goodson show.
The senior receiver returned a punt 62 yards for a touchdown, threw a 65-yard touchdown pass, caught a 55-yard touchdown pass and intercepted a pass – all in the second quarter.
The touchdown pass came on a trick play in which Goodson chucked it deep to Price who adjusted and raced to the end zone, breaking Glenn’s 100-year record.
Q2 6:52
There it is Judah Price has scored 364 points on the season, breaking the all-time single-season scoring record. He broke a 100-year old record
Pass from Cyrus GoodsonIndy 30, North Marion 6 pic.twitter.com/S1MpWRdjfa
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) November 26, 2022
“It’s been in for about two weeks now,” Goodson said of the play. “I never thought in a million years we were going to run it but we did and Coach Hypes actually, I always throw with my gloves on and it’s bad but he told me to take my gloves off and I handed them to him. I don’t think it was the prettiest spiral anybody’s ever thrown but it got the job done. I don’t know why we called it but it was a good play call.”
“As soon as I ran I was so open and was like ‘Oh my God!'” Price, who split out as a wing on the play, said. “Cyrus, he said he threw it as hard as he could and he threw a duck. All I heard in the air was ‘Quack! Quack! Quack!’ and I was like ‘Ah, no!’ then the defensive back kept closing in and I caught it. I thought he was just going to tackle me but he went for the ball and I ran as hard as I could cause I knew that was for the record.”
North Marion attempted to claw back into the game by rolling the dice, striking gold when quarterback Casey Minor bolted 34 yards on fourth-and-3 for a score that made it 22-6 but the pass to Price and the touchdown reception by Goodson expanded the lead to 30 points at 36-6.
Trey Bowers piled on with a 17-yard scoring run with 3:03 left in the half, connecting with senior Jordan Harvey on the ensuing conversion to make it a 44-6 game.
Harvey, primarily a linebacker, was so fond of the end zone he made a return trip before the break as Colton Miller strip sacked Minor in the waning seconds of the half and Harvey scooped the ball, racing 46 yards to make it a 52-6 game at the intermission.
Q2 :3.4
Harvey 46-yard fumble recover following a Colton Miller strip sack (Price run)Indy 52, North Marion 6#wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/vZa98oKf7t
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) November 26, 2022
The turnover came on a sprint-out, a staple of North Marion’s offense all night that yielded little success. The Huskies were 4 of 14 passing for 45 yards with an interception, the fifth interception for the Indy defense this postseason.
“They’re really athletic and they were able to play a lot of (Cover) 0,” North Marion head coach Daran Hayes said. “They were able to get us into some third-and-longs where they’re playing quarters and you can’t really run past them so you’ve got to settle for the underneath stuff, which you know, when you’re down 35 it’s hard to explain to a high school kid check downs are there and you need to take the easy stuff. We want to score 20 points on one play and they just don’t make a play like that.”
Price finished with 87 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries. The 87 yards were a season-low for the senior who didn’t take any offensive snaps in the second half or late in the first. Still, he settled for breaking a record older than the school he attends, pushing his season points total to 366 with one game to play.
“It’s so surreal and crazy,” Price said. “I would’ve never thought, ever that I would broken a record that’s 100 years old. I bet Big Sleepy would’ve thought the same. I bet he went out of high school thinking nobody was ever going to break that because that was a national record before. It’s crazy to me. It’ll hit me at some point but it’s crazy right now.”
“Leave no doubt,” Lilly said of Price’s season. “I know there’s a lot of kids that deserve the Kennedy Award but let me tell you what, for 100 years no one’s done it. Everybody said we did it against teams that wasn’t any good but we did it against three of the top powerhouse programs in the state of West Virginia. He deserves it so give him the trophy.”
Tyler Linkswiler led Indy with 161 yards rushing and a touchdown while Price accumulated 153 scrimmage yards.
Independence improves to 12-0, the first 12-win season in program history.
Final
Independence 58, North Marion 19Gatorade bath for John. H Lilly as Indy heads back to Wheeling for the Class AA title game pic.twitter.com/f3WaDCWAyF
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) November 26, 2022
NM: 0 6 0 13 – 19
I: 14 38 6 0 – 58
Individual Statistics
Rushing – NM: Casey Minro 18-57-2, Parker Kincell 6-37, Gavan Lemley 7-12, Isaiah Sigley 1-5-1, Tyler Curry 1-2; I: Tyler Linkswiler 12-161-1, Judah Price 14-87-2, Trey Bowers 9-23-1, Josh Monroe 3-4, Silas Nelson 2-4, Taylor Dove 2-3, Cyrus Goodson 1-2
Passing – NM: Minor 4-14-45-0 TD-1 INT; I: Trey Bowers 5-7-92-1 TD-1 INT, Cyrus Goodson 1-2-66-1 TD, Josh Monroe 0-1-0-0-0
Receiving – NM: Landon Frey 2-32, Brock Martin 1-13, Parker Kincell 1-0; I: Judah Price 1-66-1, Cyrus Goodson 2-57-1, Colten Caron 3-35