Indian Keaton Fisher (19) hauls in a touchdown pass from quarterback Chris Davis. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
Getting back to a winning record is a big accomplishment for the the Indians who head to the Division II playoffs leaning on running back Debo Knisley and young quarterback Chris Davis.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
Sidney, OH — On a night full big plays, Piqua made the most — and the last.
Veteran columnist Marcus Hartman writes the OHSAA, Ohio State, and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
That’s why the Indians were the ones hoisting the Battered Helmet in triumph on 30-0 Field at Sidney Memorial Stadium on Friday night after improving to 6-4.
Their 28-20 win came much harder than might be expected against a team that entered 1-8, but that was no surprise to Bill Nees.
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The veteran Piqua head coach knows rivalry games can be like that, especially with the Yellow Jackets having beaten West Carrollton 31-28 last week.
“Anytime you win, you come in the next week with a lot of confidence in the things you’re doing, and we’ve been seeing them on film, and they do good things, and they got good schemes. Players playing hard,” Nees said. “So we went into the game and the biggest thing I told our guys is, there’s no time frame on this. Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s supposed to be this amount to this amount at the end of the first quarter or the second quarter. I said, ‘Don’t let them put the pressure on you. You go up there and play football.’”
Quarterback Chris Davis lets one fly.
That the Indians did, as they have been for the past month since ending September with a loss to Xenia.
Piqua entered the game at Sidney already having clinched a spot in the Division II, Region 8 playoffs, but the Indians had an outside shot at getting a home game in the first round and wanted to continue building momentum heading into the postseason.
After starting 0-2 and then being 1-3, a third straight losing season looked like it might be in the cards.
Nope. They discovered a playmaker in 5-6 senior running back Debo Knisley and won five of their last six games.
“We worked our way back,” Nees said. “We barely missed the playoffs last year, and we’re in the playoffs this year. Everybody knows high school football goes in cycles, and we’re cycling back in the correct direction.”
Knisley starred again Friday night with 189 yards against the Jackets, but sophomore quarterback Chris Davis came through with a couple of plays to keep the hosts from coming back.
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First he hit Keaton Fisher with a swing pass in the flat to give Fisher a running start down the Piqua sideline for a 72-yard touchdown pass that extended the visitors’ lead to 28-20 with 9:58 to go.
Then the quarterback kept the ball on a read play to pick up the last first down Piqua needed to be able to run out the clock in the final minutes.
Indian Camryn Best (15) attempts to take down Sidney’s running back Ishhod Diomande (4).
“I know they’re keying on Debo,” he said. “We’re trying to run the clock out, and I realized (the defender) was going to key on it, so I pull it, and then he’s stuck in a situation where he either comes at me or he thinks that Debo has the ball, and I just took over myself.”
On the other side of the ball, the star was Keaton Bolden for Piqua.
He nearly had an interception in the end zone midway through the third quarter, but Sidney’s Davis Burkes snatched the ball away from him for a 4-yard touchdown catch instead.
That gave Sidney a chance to tie the game at 21, but the PAT kick was wide left so the hosts remained down a point.
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After Piqua turned the ball over on downs deep in Sidney territory, Bolden snuffed out the Jackets’ first chance to take the lead with a leaping interception at the Piqua 24.
Two plays later, the Davis-to-Fisher connection extended the lead, but Sidney wasn’t finished.
Defensive back Jay’Zail Hancock (13) breaks up an attempted pass that was meant for Sidney’s wide receiver Davis Burks (24).
Freshman quarterback Andrew Lundy and senior running back Ishhod Diomande combined to drive the ball about 79.5 yards, but Diomande was ruled short of the goal line on a 7-yard run.
That turned out to be big as he was stuffed for a loss of one on the following play to set up third-and-goal.
Lundy took the snap and rolled to his right, then spun around and went back to his left before lobbing an ill-advised pass into the left corner of the end zone.
He had a receiver there, but this time Bolden snatched it for his second pick and a drive-killing play with 4:19 left.
“These players are outstanding in the fact that we don’t have to sell ourselves to them,” Nees said. “They know what this program is. They know what the culture is. They built it. Their dads built it. And as a result, they’re very resilient.”
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The fourth-quarter drama came after a wild start to the game.
Sidney struck first when Davis hit Fisher on a smash route in the end zone for a 20-yard touchdown to cap the opening drive.
Wide receiver Debo Knisely gestures “listening to the crowd” after scoring for the Indians.
The Yellow Jackets responded with an impressive drive that covered 74 yards and featured six carries for 49 yards by Diomande, but he was the decoy on third-and-1 when Lundy kept the ball on a zone read and walked into the end zone without much trouble.
The Indians wasted little time going back on top. Taking advantage of a short kickoff and a good return by one of its upbacks, Piqua went 46 yards in just five plays, finishing the drive with another touchdown pass by Davis. This time, he faked a handoff to Knisley and rolled to his right, where he had Rayshawn Garrett wide open in the flat. The Jackets pursued hard to try to cut him off, but the senior put a spin move on a defender at about the 5-yard line then strolled into the end zone for a 28-yard touchdown.
That lead lasted barely two minutes, though, as Diomande burst through the left right side of the Piqua line, broke a tackle then raced 53 yards for a touchdown to tie the game with 9:29 left in the second quarter.
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Next it was Knisley’s turn. He took a simple handoff over the right side and found no resistance, racing untouched 64 yards on the first play of the ensuing drive for a touchdown to make it 21-14 with 9:14 on the clock in the second quarter.
At that point, both defenses started to get a grasp on what was going on, but Piqua did the game-changing things needed to in order to improve to 85-41-6 against Sidney and snap its first two-game losing streak in the series since the late 1970s.
Quarterback keeper, Andrew Lundy scores for the Yellow Jackets.
Sidney finished 1-9, but the Jackets finished the season better than they started.
First-year head coach Kyle Coleman lamented not being able to coach his seniors again, but he sees plenty of building blocks in place for the future of Sidney football.
“There’s just a lot of growth that’s going to happen over this offseason,” Coleman said. “We’ve got good classes coming up, and our youth program’s doing really well. So a lot of the things happening this year people will never see or notice, like we’re trying to do everything we can to build a program. We’re not looking for one season here or there. We want to be a program that year in and year out can compete for league titles, so I think we definitely have some building blocks for that.”
The most notable development of the season was obviously the emergence of Lundy.
He started the last eight games and put up some impressive numbers, including 274 yards in the Week 9 win, but he also threw 15 interceptions.
Friday night he was very impressive, executing the offense with short throws all over the field (20 for 34 for 178 yards) and demonstrating the ability to move out of the pocket and find open receivers.
The Indians were the ones hoisting the Battered Helmet in triumph on 30-0 Field at Sidney Memorial Stadium on Friday night after improving to 6-4.
The interceptions were crippling, however.
“You can’t give up essentially four big plays for touchdowns,” Coleman said. “That’s a good football team, and we told our guys all week they’re going to be a good football team that’s going to be able to find mistakes when you make them. And unfortunately, we made some big mistakes that led to some big plays.”
Late fourth quarter interception that kept the Yellow Jackets from scoring and potentially tying the game. Indian Keaton Bolden intercepts in the endzone attempted for Damarcuse Fleming.
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