Gallery by Tina Laney
Shady Spring – There was probably a sigh of relief in the Shady Spring locker room when Independence running back and Kennedy winner Atticus Goodson graduated in the spring.
Unfortunately for the Tigers there was no reason to truly be relieved.
Independence running back Judah Price turned 16 carries into 242 yards and six rushing touchdowns while also hauling in two passes for 84 yards and another score as the Patriots blanked Shady 68-0 Friday night in Shady Spring.
Coming in Price was aiming for Goodson’s single-game rushing record of 318 yards, set last year in a 50-17 win over the Tigers. He fell short of that but still had a night to remember.
“I wanted to break Atticus’ rushing record because he did it against Shady and I felt like I could do it,” Price laughed. “We talked all week and he said ‘You better do it!’ but I didn’t do it. The coaches were saying all week I could do it but I could’ve had better runs and I’d say some of the penalties called back hurt too.”
Price took up residence in the end zone all evening, adding six two-point conversions to finish with 56 of the 68 Patriots points. And he struck quickly.
Of the Patriots’ nine first-half drives only, none lasted more than five plays with all but one – which ended with the halftime buzzer – ending in scores.
That trend was established early when the Patriots took the opening kick and marched 65 yards in five plays with an eight-yard touchdown run from Price capping the drive. A quick three-and-out by the Shady offense put the ball back in Indy’s hands and the result was nearly the same with a five-play, 63-yard drive ending in a five-yard scoring scamper from Indy QB Trey Bowers.
From there it was all Price.
Indy next six drives all ended with Price touchdowns including runs of  7, 51, 19, 12 and 3 yards with a 50-yard scoring pass from Bowers added for good measure.
Q1 10:08
Price 8 rush (Price run)
Indy 8, Shady 0#wvprepfb pic.twitter.com/r5Eci3pgIR— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 16, 2022
“Atticus was a whole different deal because he was so big but (Price) is quicker,” Shady Spring coach Vince Culicerto said. “They have good speed all around, and he had a lot of green grass to be running to. You’ve got to bottle him up and we never did.”
Price wasn’t the only Indy star to shine on offense as Bowers turned in a stellar performance as well. He completed 9-of-11 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown while also turning three carries into 45 yards and two touchdowns. It was all a part of a complete effort that saw the Patriots work towards a goal of theirs.
“It’s something we’ve really worked hard on,” Independence head coach John H. Lilly said. “We want to be a balanced football team and the more balanced you are the harder it is to defend you. The better we are in the passing game the more yardage we’ll get running the ball so it’s just something we’re trying to work on. We know they’re a young football team but we have to do what we have to in order to make us a better football team.”
For the Tigers there were anything but smiles. They were limited to negative 14 yards of total offense with 27 positive yards coming on the game’s final drive.
“They’re all over the place,” Shady head coach Vince Culicerto said. “They just come at you and they’re all up on the line and they’re just shooting though. If you had time to hold them back you could do stuff but my young line has learned a lesson tonight. We have 10th graders all across it and there will come a time when they’re big guys and maybe they can do the pushing back but we learned a lesson tonight against good team. But we’ve got a lot more to work on.”
For Independence it was the third time in four games the Patriots have shut an opponent out. Through four games they’ve yielded just eight total points, good enough for two points per game allowed almost halfway through the season.
“I think we’ve got some games coming up that will test us,” Lilly said. “We’ve got a three-game stretch that’s going to tell us if we are what we think we may be. But I think we take great pride in our defense. We work very hard on fundamentals and our defensive scheme is pretty simple. When your best players are your hardest workers, you’ve got something good going.”
***
After the game Price shared donuts with his teammates, making good on a promise he made to his offensive linemen in the offseason where he said he’d buy them donuts each time he rushed for over 200 yards.
“I try to bring them to the game now,” Price laughed. “I trust these guys to always get me 200.”
Judah Price makes good on a promise to feed his linemen donuts. He came prepared Friday and had them ready to go. pic.twitter.com/JOHTBolEKf
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) September 17, 2022
Independence improves to 4-0 and will travel to Westside next week while shady drops to 1-3 and will host PikeView.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
Scoring
Q1
I: Price 8 rush (Price run), 10:08
I: Bowers 5 rush (Price run), 7:25
I: Price 7 rush (Conversion fails), 2:21
Q2
I: Price 51 rush (Price run), 11:49
I: Price 50-yard pass from Bowers (Conversion fails), 9:14
I: Price 19 rush (Bowers pass), 7:13
I: Price 12 rush (Price rush), 4:47
I: Price 3 rush (Price rush), 3:02
Q3
I: Bowers 32 rush (Price rush), :04
Individual statistics
Rushing – I: Judah Price 16-242-6, Tyler Linkswiler 4-58, Trey Bowers 3-45-2, Cyrus Goodson 1-34; SS:James Sellards 13-48, Brady Green 5-(minus-49), Adam Richmond 19-(minus-6).
Passing – I: Trey Bowers 9-11-215-1 TD; SS: Tyler Mackey 0-1-0-0-0, Brady Green 2-10-(minus-6)-0-0
Receiving – I: Judah Price 2-84, Colten Caron 3-76, Cyrus Goodson 3-33, Tyler Linkswiler 1-22; SS: James Sellards 2-(minus-6).
