Gallery by Ashley Honaker
Independence has shown a strong ability the last few years to hurt teams through the air and on the ground.
Trailing No. 14 James Monroe 17-14 at halftime Sunday afternoon, the Patriots went back to their old bread and butter – power running.
Junior Sylas Nelson did the heavy lifting over the final two quarters, carrying the ball 22 times for 223 yards and four touchdowns in the second half to guide No. 3 Independence to a 41-23 win over the Mavericks in the opening round of the Class AA state football playoffs at George C. Covey Field.
The Patriots now advance to the quarterfinals where they will host No. 6 Philip Barbour Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m.
“We have always been a tailback-oriented offense. I don’t know why people think we still aren’t,” Independence head coach John H. Lilly said. “The offensive line did good. They are starting to form and get better. We are still really young. I just thought everyone played hard. They are a good football team. Championship caliber football team. I knew coming in this would be a dogfight and a bad draw for us. (James Monroe head coach) John (Mustain) and that crew does a great job.”
Unaccustomed to trailing at halftime in home playoff games, Lilly admitted there were some reservations after the first two quarters of play.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t. I was curious to see how we would handle it,” Lilly said. “Sometimes you have 32 coaches and 45 more coaches as you are walking out the gate. I hope we are not getting spoiled over here. We still have a lot of work to do. I was really proud of how we responded.”
Independence set the tone for the second half by forcing a punt on the first James Monroe series, handing the ball to the offense which struck like lightning.
Taking the ball at midfield, Nelson opened with a six-yard run before he zig-zagged his way through the Maverick defense for a 44-yard touchdown gallop.
The Patriot defense then forced another James Monroe punt on the ensuing drive and Nelson picked up where he left off one drive earlier.
Six runs from the junior tailback were all part of an eight-play, 69-yard drive to give Independence a 27-17 advantage. Nelson accounted for 61 yards and capped the series with a 24-yard scamper.
While the Patriots had some success in the first half on the ground, during the second half, Nelson did the bulk of his damage between the tackles.
“I don’t know if they found something or if the way we played that first half, they just woke up a little bit. I’m not taking anything away from them by any means when I say that,” Mustain said. “We had a heck of a first half. The kids came out and played well. There wasn’t anything in particular that I could see, but they did a heck of a job carrying the ball in the second half, especially.”
Lilly felt like his team just needed to settle down and play its game in the final two quarters.
“I think it was just a lot of calming down. Both teams hadn’t played in almost two weeks. Both teams were really fired up,” Lilly said. “Both of us were not playing gap-sound football. We just told them to hold onto the ball. Drive for five and we will be OK. It wasn’t so much making any adjustments, it was slow down. Everybody was so hyper.”
Over the first two quarters of the battle, the two teams mirrored each other with the difference being a Peyton Gardinier field goal.
Independence sophomore Cole Laxton created the initial fireworks when he returned an interception 60 yards for the first score of the game.
“We had a couple of triggers when they rolled out. Cole Laxton made a great play,” Lilly said. “He is getting better every week and is a solid football player for us.”
James Monroe answered with a 33-yard run from Brock Parker to even the game at 7-7 after one quarter.
Nelson scored his first touchdown of the night on a 9-yard run early in the second quarter before a couple of turnovers prevented the home team from finding the end zone again in the opening half.
Gardinier pushed the Mavericks within four points on the next possession when he drilled a 46-yard field goal to make it 14-10.
“Some of the coaches were saying something about going for a field goal. I looked at him and asked him if he thought he could get it there,” Mustain said. “He said ‘I have the leg for it.’ It just creeped over, but it was a heck of a kick. That has to be a school record I am sure. We are not good at keeping records, but I don’t think anybody has come close to that.”
The scoring drive did come with a heavy price, however, as starting quarterback Layton Dowdy was injured three plays prior to the kick. Dowdy was unable to return to the contest.
“Of course it did, but Ryan Mann is a pretty good replacement. I thought Ryan came in and played well.,” Mustain said when asked about the impact of the injury. “It hurt me from the standpoint that it is Layton. That boy has been playing for me for four years now and pretty much started for me for four years. I hate to see him get hurt. It would have been nice to have him out there the whole game.”
Independence appeared to be on its way to another first half score when Nelson had his only stumble of the night, fumbling the ball inside the red zone, which was scooped up by Kadyn Hines.
James Monroe was unable to move the ball, but turned in a huge defensive play following a punt.
Senior Bannon Goodman picked off a screen pass and rumbled 45 yards for the go-ahead touchdown just before halftime.
“He did a good job on that. I was worried about him returning it (all the way), but he made move over here and got in there,” Mustain said, smiling. “Bannon has played well for us the last couple of years. He is a senior that we are losing and a kid we hate to see go.”
Lilly liked the play call and gave credit to Goodman for an athletic play.
“We worked on that (play) a lot. If we had got it off, it was going to be a good play. The kid made a great play,” Lilly said. “I didn’t think he had that kind of vertical jump. He should be playing basketball because he got hops on that one. If he hadn’t got hops, it was going to be a touchdown. Sometimes kids on both teams make plays.”
Holding the 10-point second-half lead, the Independence defense forced another punt and the Mavericks had no answers for Nelson down the stretch.
A 30-yard burst from Nelson early in the fourth quarter pushed the lead to 34-17, finishing off a 56-yard drive.
The Monroe County boys never quit and pulled within 11 on a short run from Mann before Nelson put the game on ice with five-yard touchdown run.
“I told them after game that I thought they played hard the entire night,” Mustain said. “I felt like they knew we were here. We started 0-2 and they could have laid down. We ran into a buzz saw at Petersburg, they could have laid down and didn’t.”
“I think the effort they have shown the last two games is what I have been looking for out of the them all year,” Mustain went on to say. “As a coach, the two things you want is for kids to play hard and you want to see them better. I really feel like we got there.”
The Independence junior ran the ball 39 times for a total of 338 yards and five touchdowns.
“Honestly, I think we came in being a little more concerned about the pass because they do pass well. I don’t know if anybody underestimated their running ability,” Mustain said. “There are just a lot of things that we have to get better at from the linebacker position and up front too. That No. 12 is a load and a good runner.”
Standing in the way of another semifinal berth for the Coal City kids is an 8-3 Colts team that will provide a tough challenge for the Patriots.
“We watched them (play) yesterday and we know them,” Lilly said. “We have gone to 7-on-7 and been in camps with them. They are huge across the front, so that might be a big mismatch with them. For now, we are just going to enjoy this one.”
JM: 7 10 0 6 – 23
I: 7 7 13 14 – 41
First quarter
I: Laxton 60 INT (Micah Cuthbert kick)
JM: Brock Parker 33 run (Gardinier kick)
Second quarter
I: Nelson 9 run (Cuthbert kick)
JM: Gardinier 46 FG
JM: Goodman 45 INT (Gardinier kick)
Third quarter
I: Nelson 44 run (rush failed)
I: Nelson 24 run (Cuthbert kick)
Fourth quarter
I: Nelson 30 run (Cuthbert kick)
JM: Mann 2 run (kick blocked)
I: Nelson 5 run (Cuthbert kick)
Stats
Rushing: (JM) Dowdy 6-42, Parker 20-152-1, Ben Comer 1-3, Mann 11-21-1; (I) Nelson 39-338-5, Green 2-(-10), Christian Linksweiler 1-0, Dalton Adkins 2-6.
Passing: (JM) Dowdy 3-9-1-19-0, Mann 3-9-0-20-0; (I) Green 8-18-1-90-0
Receiving: (JM) Mann 1-1, Hines 2-27, Comer 3-12, Wilson Boggess 1-(-3); (I) Linskweiler 2-11, Brady Rose 1-7, Adkins 5-72
