Wide Open Offenses Power Reitz and Memorial

I have been asked by many people (casual fans and hardcore fans alike) what makes Memorial and Reitz so great this season?  There are many different angles I could answer that basic question:  the quarterbacks, the defenses, the coaches, the lines, the tailbacks, receivers etc. etc.

I think one of the main reasons that the Tigers and Panthers are on the eve of State Championship Saturday is their dynamic offenses.  Reitz and Memorial can spread defenses out so much that it is a nightmare to defend.

The Panthers have to have one of the largest playbooks in the state.  I really think that offensive coordinator Cory Brunson could play a game without running the same play more than once or twice.  I have really noticed it while calling the Panthers games on RTV25.  My job is to setup the formation to give the viewers an idea on what the Panthers are working out of, and to perhaps give them something to look for before the snap. 

I have literally seen thousands of football games in my life at all levels both in person and on TV.  There are formations that Reitz runs that I have never seen.  They will run 5 wide often with no tailback or tight end.  They will put 4 receivers in a diamond formation and the other receiver on the other side.  They can go with a tight flexbone set and run the option.  I could go on and on. 

It is a credit to the kids for knowing the amount of plays in Brunson and head coach Tony Lewis’ offense.  Without question you have to have high football IQ to run the Panthers offense.

Memorial’s offense is similar but the Tigers have their own style.  The Tigers rely on Grant Gribbins experience, reading the defense, and being very accurate.  Gribbins has a great receiving corps that runs precise routes which makes it difficult to defend every receiver on every play.  Gribbins can make all of the throws, and is just as effective outside the pocket.  Tailback Ryan Hatler feeds off that passing success which in turn can setup play action. 

For both teams, the offense is a constant chess match with plays setting up future plays in the game. 

The advantage to spreading out defenses like that is they have to make an important decision.  Does a defense bring a lot of pressure, or play back to defend the pass?

If a defense blitzes they force either Matt McIntosh or Gribbins to make a quick read, and possibly disrupt the play.  The problem with that is two-fold.  If a heavy blitz attacks that means there are less defenders back and it can create a big play or even a touchdown if the offense connects.  Also, it can setup the potent screen plays that both Memorial and Reitz run so well.  The screen allows the pressure to come on in and the then the pass goes over the top with the potential to break it long.  Reitz has not had to run as many screens in the playoffs.  Memorial however has scored many of its touchdowns off very effective screens.

If a defense plays back and does not blitz that can also play in the hands of Reitz and Memorial.  First off, with the great offensive lines of both teams, it gives McIntosh and Gribbins plenty of time to go over reads and find the open man.  For Reitz it also opens up running lanes for McIntosh.  Those lanes can be good for 5-10 yards, or even more.  For Memorial, that allows the inside handoff to Hatler to open up. 

Few teams run offenses as dynamic as these in high school football. (Mater Dei did the same in their championship run in the Schiff years)  The majority of high schools run tight formations and run the ball a great majority of the time.  That gives Memorial and Reitz a distinct advantage because playoff opponents that have never seen the Tigers or Panthers have just 6 days to get ready for it.

Of course an offensive scheme like that does not mean instant success.  These particular offenses would mean nothing without the players running it.  You have to have some talented smart kids that know exactly what is expected of them on every play.  That goes for all 11 players on the field.  McIntosh and Gribbins are built perfectly for the systems, and they maximize the most out of each snap.

The best way to defend it is by having a ball control running offense that keeps chewing up yardage, first downs, and the clock.  We saw that done by Heritage Hills against the Tigers…but Memorial still prevailed.

The Reitz defense really compliments the Panthers offense well because the “D” is consistently forcing their opponents to punt the ball and they get the ball right back to the high powered offense.  Reitz is giving up just 8.6 points a game, and 10 times this season the Panthers defense has held opponents to single digits.

So in my opinion from watching and covering these teams so much is that both will keep the pressure on their opponents by trying to score on every single possession.  That puts a bigger emphasis of taking care of the ball and not turning it over.

Memorial remembers all too well what happened last year.  I think that will be a strong motivating factor to win the school’s first IHSAA football state championship.

As for Reitz, if the Panthers go up by 14-21 points…game over.  The Panthers have consistently jumped out on their playoff opponents, and never looked back.  Hopefully, they can do the same on Saturday.

The cliché is defense wins championships.  I agree with that whole-heartedly.  However, what separates Reitz and Memorial from the rest is those high powered spread offenses that hopefully will bring home two state titles back to Evansville on Saturday.

Watch Reitz Hilites and Post-Game from 4A Regional

Here is Randall's sportscast recapping the Reitz Regional Championship.  Aaron Hancock shot some great highlights.

Click Headline above if you are on main page.

Enjoy Panther Fans

Answers to your Reitz/Jasper TV Questions and a Preview

With the first TV broadcast of a high school football game in the Home Team Friday era, there are a lot of questions.  These past two days I have spent a lot of time organizing this telecast with all of the great people at the station.

So let me update you on some items, and then I’ll answer some of your questions.

First off, many have asked exactly where to find our digital channel RTV 25.  If you are a cable subscriber, you have to have the digital package to be able to see the channel.  Here is a list of what channel RTV 25 is on every cable provider:

Over the Air: NEWS 25-2

Insight: Channel 189

WOW!: Channel 111

Time Warner: Channels 184 and 311

Avenue Broadband: Channel 135

More good news, we will stream the television broadcast online at www.news25.us .  A link will be on our home page, and on our sports page that will launch you into the webcast.  That means fans from anywhere in the world can watch the game.  Alumni of both teams anywhere can tune in.  I hope the stream looks good.  I know our computer tech people are working hard to get things setup for Friday.

The kickoff will be at 7:05pm, and our broadcast will go on at 7:00pm.  Reitz Athletic Director Beth Hagan and EVSC Athletic Director Paul Neidig have been great in helping out with this telecast.  The hardest part was figuring out where to put the two upper cameras.  Reitz is having a lift brought in from Doug Waterman at VANDCO on the right of the press box.  That will give us an angle up and over the fans and near midfield. Thanks so much to Doug and VANDCO for their help on that.  The only hiccup is that our two cameramen up in the lift will be right next to the PA speakers.  So to avoid any hearing damage, we have picked up two professional headphones from a gun range for the guys to wear.  Hopefully that will work.

Keep in mind since this is our first football broadcast we are trying to keep things simple so things will go smoothly.  It is my belief that we will get to do more and more games if the demand is there.  That is when we can expand some of the production quality and spruce things up, but for now, it is all about mainstreaming things and making sure you the viewer get what you need.

We will have instant replay.  We are bringing in deck to record the game and cue up replays.  My buddy from Wabash Valley Junior College in Mt. Carmel Kyle Peach will run the replay machine. The angle of the replay will be the exact same as what just aired, but at least it will be a replay. 

We will also have an on screen scoreboard up the entire time. There will not be a clock on the scoreboard, so I will try to say the time on air as much as possible so everyone knows.  I am sure we will also have a camera shoot the scoreboard in between plays from time to time.

I talked with both head coaches the last two days.  Both Tony Lewis and Tony Ahrens were really nice and complimentary about the broadcast.  They are also both excited about being a part of such an enormous game.  Ahrens told me that Jasper has played in the rain and mud 9 out of its 11 games.  He said he is looking forward to playing in good weather and on the turf.  Coach Lewis is focused on the running game of Jasper.  He said that the Cats have been pointing to this year for awhile as a special season. 

The one thing that should not get lost in this entire night is how special it is for everyone involved.  I was talking with Matt McIntosh, and I asked him how he would describe this kind of game to some random high school football player in say New Hampshire.  Matt told me he doesn’t ever take the support and atmosphere for granted.  He said he gets chills every time he runs out onto the Reitz Bowl.  He went on and on how great the Reitz fans are, and how lucky the team is to have the support.

I also talked to Panthers safety Erik Bryant about Jasper quarterback Austin Ahrens.  Even though Ahrens and McIntosh are not identical players, they have a lot in common.  They are dual threats that make great decisions.  Bryant talked about how good Ahrens is, and how difficult it is to defend him. 

I appreciated how much that both Jasper and Reitz respected each other.  There were absolutely no derogatory remarks by either team.  That is refreshing.

I joked with Coach Lewis that I wasn’t rooting for either team, but I would like it to go to overtime with one of the teams going for 2 and the win.  He laughed and said that just may happen.

I want to emphasize that I really like and respect both teams.  I will do my very best to do the broadcast as neutral as possible.  It is very difficult.  I remember when I did the KWC/USI basketball game in 2000; I had eight emails from KWC fans claiming I was biased for USI, and six emails from USI fans claiming I was biased towards KWC.  It was kind of funny.  I will keep the broadcast positive, and try to paint the best picture as possible of what is going on.  I will also make sure to wait for a referee’s signal on a play!  I will never live down that Reitz/Cathedral ending!!

I will say though, whoever wins…I will be rooting for that team to win State.  That goes for all of our teams left in the Tri-State!!  I love it when our teams win State Championships.  There is nothing better than that!

Ok, let me answer your questions:

Somehow can you get this on the internet also, through the stations internet site or maybe through ustream.com or another site...tons of Reitz alum in Indianapolis that would love to watch it

-Scott

That would be great if they could somehow stream the game online for people outside of the area!

-Panther Man 98

Yep!  Go to www.news25.us and go to the sports page on Friday

Ill be at the game and still would like to record it at home for later playback. I get the over-the-air signal and can't record onto my dvd recorder. What are my options for getting this game recorded?

-Griffco76

My best advice for that is to go Old School and hook up a VHS VCR to your over the air box and record it on tape.  I know that is not the greatest of answers, but I am not sure what the other options are.  Hopefully a Reitz or Jasper fan will be able to capture the webcast and upload it for the fans to download and save it to their computer.  I will look into the possibility of being able to save the webcast here at the station for online for downloading purposes.

How many camera's are you going to use at the game? Would be nice if it was broadcast on the web also. How many people will actually have access with the game being on the digital channel? It is great what you do to help promote high school football. Hopefully this turns out well and you can do more games in the future!!!

-Kevin

We are going to have 4 cameras at the game.  Like I said earlier, we are keeping things simple on our first telecast.  Anyone with a digital antennae can get the broadcast free over the air, but on cable you do have to purchase the digital package.  I do think if things go well, we will do a lot more of these for not only football, but for other sports.  (crossing my fingers)

That's great! I hope your ratings are really good might help for future broadcast......

-Pings59

Just as important as ratings and sponsorships is feedback!  Emails and calls to the station on how much you enjoy the broadcast go a long way!!  Just the feedback we have gotten in two days has not gone unnoticed by my bosses.

Lance, thanks for all the wonderful coverage you do for HS football, and especially all you did for our 07 team.

Is there a way to get this broadcast if I'm on DirectTV?

-PDaddy

Unfortunately no.  DirecTV does not carry the digital channel.  Hopefully that will change, but I am sure it will take awhile.  You can watch it online, or better yet, go to a buddy’s house that has RTV25 bring a pizza and have a great night!

If you have any other questions, let me know.  Also thanks for all of the other kind posts that didn’t have questions, but just thanks us for doing the game.  That is very much appreciated. 

Three days till kickoff!  I can’t wait.  We have a lot of interviews from both teams that we will be running preview stories all week in my sportscasts on NEWS 25.

Best wishes to both Reitz and Jasper!

 

Week 10 Home Team Friday Recap

I have had a pretty hectic week, so my apologies for getting this out later than normal.  Since it is already Thursday, I will make this both a recap, and a preview of tomorrow.

We set another record on Home Team Friday.  We had 17 games of highlights.  It was a lot of fun to see if we were up to the challenge of being able to pull it off.  It wasn’t easy! We went right up to the final seconds.  Overall, I thought it was a great show.

There were very few intriguing matchups in Week 10.  Nothing at all jumped off the page.  The favorite won every game, but one.  In 2A, North Posey avenged a regular season loss to Southridge.  The Vikings Cameron Calvert has really lifted his team.  He has been a huge spark on offense.  Quarterback Colton Motz continues to make the highlights.  For the second straight year North Posey is trying to get to the Sectional Championship.  That should happen. The Vikes have Tell City at home.  North Posey handled the Marksmen pretty well on the road just a few weeks ago.

The other 2A semifinal features Mater Dei at South Spencer.  This is a game I am really looking forward to.  I wish I was able to cover it.  Randall will have that honor in our Showdown game.  Wayne Hart says we will have heavy rain tomorrow night.  So does that favor the Rebels or the Cats?  Normally, I would say it would help South Spencer.  However, the Rebels passing game is pretty strong.  The Rebels only two losses came in sloppy muddy conditions against Boonville and Heritage Hills.  However, Mater Dei has played the majority of its games on the turf.  So it is hard to say what kind of advantage Mother Nature will play for either team. 

MD had its best win in throttling Forest Park.  I thought that game would be much closer.  Cats head coach Mike Goebel told us they caught the Rangers without their best player, and FP was battling the flu.  Goebel gave a lot of credit to Terry Wagner and Forest Park.

South Spencer advanced last week with a win at Sullivan.  We had some pretty good highlights from that game from our friends at WTHI.  That game was close all the way to the end when the Rebels pulled it out 30-20.  I am sure Mater Dei scouted that game Friday, and South Spencer scouted MD on Saturday.  Should be a great one in Reo tomorrow night!

Let’s move over to 4A.  Aaron Hancock covered the game for us at the Bowl.  Reitz hosted Seymour.  It was an early 6pm start time, and Aaron called me before I was going on the air for my 6pm sportscast.  He said, “I don’t know what Seymour was thinking.  The Owls stomped on the R in pre-game, and then Reitz promptly scored a touchdown in just 57 seconds!”  Just a few minutes later I got these texts on my phone:  “14-0 Reitz”  “21-0 Reitz, the beating is on”.  Ironically, Reitz only scored in the first and fourth quarters. 

The Panthers now have an interesting matchup with Central tomorrow night.  I say that because of how the first game between these two teams played out.  Reitz just blasted the Bears 55-7.  Obviously, Central is much better than that.  The Bears just had one of those nights.  You know Coach Andy Owen will have his team remembering that loss, and I can imagine the Bears have had some pretty lively practices all week getting ready for Reitz.  On the Panthers point of view, even though this is a playoff game, I am sure it is hard not to overlook the Bears a bit for the possible matchup with Jasper. 

Even though this has the markings of a letdown game for Reitz, I don’t think that will happen.  Coach Tony Lewis’ demeanor will really help in this game.  He and his team never get too high, or too low.  That even keel will keep the Panthers focused at the task at hand.  We were out at practice yesterday, and Lewis told us that exact thing.  The only thing Reitz is worried about this week is Central.  However, I cannot help but get a bit excited about the possibility of Reitz versus Jasper next week.

Speaking of Jasper, wow what a statement the Cats made in the opener!  Jasper had to play on the road at Northview (north of Terre Haute), and the Knights were 8-1.  Now if you read my recap last week, I predicted at least a 28 point win.  As a matter of fact I told photographer Blaine Jasper would win by 50.  Well, that is exactly what Tony Ahrens team did.  The Cats turned in a 50-0 shutout on the road.  Both Jasper and Reitz are just obliterating teams.  How can you not look ahead if you are a fan?  Tomorrow night Jasper hosts Boonville.  I am not slighting the Pioneers at all.  Boonville has had one of its best seasons in school history.  The Pioneers will have an uphill battle tomorrow night in Dubois County.

I was really happy for Doug Hurt and Castle.  They have the hardest draw of any of the 5A teams in that sectional.  I knew it would be tough to win at Jeffersonville.  Our old HTF photographer Greg now works at WHAS in Louisville.  Greg was nice enough to shoot some great highlights of both Castle at Jeff, and North at New Albany.  Knights’ tailback and HTF MVP Logan Hayford had some spectacular runs.  That game was close the entire way, but Castle pulled it out 21-14.  I think the Knights loss to Memorial the week before in the muddy slop helped Castle in this game.  Jeffersonville’s field was pretty beat up too, and the Knights seemed prepared.

Castle now hosts BNL in a mud bowl tomorrow night.  I was pretty confident the Knights would win, but with the prediction of heavy rains, it is hard to be confident in any pick.  I think for any teams playing in horribly muddy conditions, scoring first will be huge.  It will be much easier to play with the lead in a low scoring slop game.

No surprises in 3A.  Memorial is the clear favorite in Sectional 24, and Heritage Hills will win Sectional 23.  I thought Mt. Vernon would be able to score on the Tigers, but I did not see how they could stop Memorial’s offense.  That was pretty much the case.  Memorial won 44-21.  The Tigers offense is absolutely peaking right now.  During the Tigers 6-game winning streak, they are averaging 37 points a game.  I think the Memorial/Bosse game will be similar for the Tigers.  Bosse won’t be able to stop the Tigers, but I do think the Dogs will be able to put up some points.  I give the Bulldogs a puncher’s chance with that dynamic offense.  Weather could be a factor with quarterback Grant Gribbins passing game even on the turf if it is windy.

Bosse won at Pike Central.  The Dogs had a 31-7 lead, but the Chargers made a furious comeback.  I got an email from a viewer and a Pike Central Parent named Jennifer.  She said PC should have won.  Here is what she wrote me:

Just to let you know, Pike Central scored a touchdown in last few seconds of Bosse game and should have won.  Even the radio announcers said it was plain as day.  For some reason the refs refused to call it.  Game film clearly shows they were in with time to spare. If the refs would have called touchdown correctly we would have won and should be advancing to next round.  The team is absolutely devastated!  I have never seen anything like this and wow I'm still in shock.  It will be protested by Pike but what good will that do.  We should all be celebrating, instead there is pain and shock.  Our boys played the best game of the season and did in fact beat Bosse.  Please give Pike Central the credit they deserve and make it aware we had a clear victory taken away.  How awful for these boys.  Those refs should never be allowed to officiate another game, ever!

I don’t know anymore to that story than her email.  If anyone else can shed some light on this, please make a comment below.   

Gibson Southern is at Washington in the other 3A semifinal.  I will give the edge to the Hatchets in this one.

It is hard to write much about Heritage Hills.  The Patriots play in such a weak sectional.  Bob Clayton’s club has won every sectional this decade except one.  The Pats have Salem in The Jungle tomorrow night.  I’m going with a 35-0 prediction.

The best 1A game in the entire state will be in Leopold.  Perry Central hosts North Daviess.  Both teams have had great seasons.  It is another game that could be affected by the weather.  I picked the Cougars to win the Sectional, so I will stay with that.  However, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see PC pull it out.

There is still one week left in the regular season in Kentucky.  Henderson County is at Owensboro tomorrow night.  Before the season, I think most of us would have expected the Devils to win in a blowout.  Not now!  The Colonels are playing so well.  Henderson has won six straight, and the Colonels have won the district.  The Devils have struggled scoring.  In their last four games Owensboro has posted scores of 10, 16, 16, and 16.  I still think Owensboro is the favorite, but not by much.

Henderson had a thrilling win at home against Apollo.  The Colonels erased a late six point deficit by scoring twice and rallying for a 27-20 win.  I talked to one Colonels fan this week that said it was one of the most thrilling games he had seen in years.  Randall talked with head coach Clay Clevenger this afternoon.  The staff was scouting their playoff opponent tonight.

Union County wins the district.  The Braves used another great defensive performance to win 19-2.  Union County is down at Hopkins Central this week.

Illinois playoffs start Saturday.  Mt. Carmel throttled Robinson last week.  Quarterback Alex Hale rushed for 285 yards in the win.  The Golden Aces have a tough opponent at the Snake Pit in the first round.  Mahomet will be the favorite.

As for the HTF show, it was more insane than I would like.  I was at Enlow Field for the Bosse/Harrison game.  Fewest fans I have ever seen there.  I got back and edited my game, plus the Reitz and Memorial games.  We had three different feeds.  2 games from WTHI in Terre Haute, 2 from WHAS in Louisville, and Ryan Jenkins shot some games and fed out of Newschannel 15 in Mt. Carmel.  It was a lot to organize.  We had all kinds of troubles getting our 2 games from WHAS.  We literally were able to pull them off the satellite about 5 minutes before the show.

We have a very short amount of time after the 10pm newscast ends and HTF begins.  My first mic didn’t work, so I tried a second, and it didn’t work!  That never happens.  So I had to use Brad Byrd’s mic.  So literally after Brad signed off, he ran over to me to give me his wireless mic.

The HTF open is playing, and I am try to run the mic under my shirt, by pants are undone, belt out(it was quite the site I’m sure!)  So I am tucking everything in, making sure that production is receiving good audio levels.  I am still getting together when BAM I’m on camera.  I needed just 10 extra seconds to take a breath and get my composure. 

However, time does not stand still.  I knew I had 17 straight games of highlights to get through, and I am thinking in the back of my mind, “God I hope I zipped my zipper!”  I wasn’t even sure what the first game was, and I looked at my scripts and saw Reitz.  That is why I said, “Let’s just get to the highlights as we start off with Reitz.”  After I got going, all was well, and as I said before, I thought it was a pretty good show.

Editor Erica had 27 pieces of video to keep straight with those three different feeds, and she made deadline for every single one of them.

Now that we are losing teams, our shows won’t be so jam packed.  I will miss that.  However, we will now go longer with our highlights as we go deeper into the playoffs.  We have 13 games tomorrow night on the schedule.

Thanks as always for reading.  It means a lot to me that you take the time.  If you ever want me to touch on anything else, let me know.  I will see everyone tomorrow night at 10:35 for NEWS 25 Home Team Friday Live!

 

Week Five Home Team Friday Recap

Before I dive into my week five recap of high school football and Home Team Friday, I wanted to address a few comments and emails I have received. 

First off, thanks so much for the feedback.  Many of you are shy and email me directly instead of leaving posts at the bottom of the page, and that is just fine.  A few people have said they like the behind the scenes comments I put into the recaps, so I will try to add a few more of those, just to give you a feel for what it is like back at the station. 

Also, a big thanks to Rudy over at reitzfootball.com.  He was gracious enough to make a post on his forum page, and I had a lot of Reitz peeps read the blog.  Because of that I will try to put some extra Reitz stuff in each week.  I have said this in a few speeches that I have made over the years at Reitz and Mater Dei, but it is worth repeating here…growing up in Newburgh my whole life, we are raised to dislike the Westside.  However, over the years in my job at NEWS 25, I have met my closest friends either at Reitz or Mater Dei.  I have always found Westsiders to be very appreciative of stories or highlights that I have done in the past.  Afterall, my grandma(maiden name Doris Saltzman), was a Panthers cheerleader on the hill.  I believe she graduated in 1942, but I am going to have to ask her again.  So I do have some Westside roots!  I am one of the few weird ones that honestly likes both Reitz and Mater Dei.  Now that I have completely sucked up as much as possible…I might as well start with Reitz…

I have to start by giving myself props.  I was editing around 6:10pm on Friday and I got a call from our Internet Radio play by play man Warren Distler.  He asked me my prediction on the Reitz/Castle game.  I told him I thought the Panthers would win by 28.  Of course, that is not any kind of knock on Castle.  I am a Knight afterall.  However, Castle is such a young team.  Doug Hurt’s squad has really been a heckuva lot better than I thought at this stage.  Think of the talent Castle lost to graduation.  Combine that with the fact that Reitz is pretty loaded, especially at the skill positions.  The Panthers had not really put together a solid 4 quarters of football all season up to that point.  Tony Lewis had a lot going for him with motivation, and he certainly got the most out of his kids.  The perfect storm came together for the lopsided 42-7 victory.  Lewis really kept his offense balanced with the pass and the run.  Matt McIntosh had 271 total yards and two touchdowns.  I think we saw the true potential of the Panthers this season, and if you are a Castle fan, there’s no reason to hit the panic button.  The Knights will continue to gain experience, and as Coach Hurt told us in the pre-season, his team will come together late in the year.

On my Friday 6pm sportscast, we had our first three wrap preview since Bo McFall left us for WFIE last year.  Bo and I are still close friends, and we go out at least once a week.  A wrap is a report from a stadium that usually has interviews from coaches, but not always.  We keep them shorter than a regular story.  Anyhow, Randall did a wrap from Castle, David Heckard made his sports debut from Enlow Field, and ace reporter Aaron Hancock had one from Central Stadium.  It looked great.  Hopefully, we will be able to pull it off again this Friday.  We are down a sports person.  Because of the sagging economy our station did not allow us to replace our #3 position.  So it is just me and Randall holding everything together.  It has been a real challenge, so any and all help from others in the building is greatly appreciated!  David is an enormous football fan, and no one works harder than Aaron. 

I better get to an Eastside school, or I am going to lose my membership card!!  So after anchoring the 6pm sportscast, I head to the game I am covering: North at Memorial.  It was an awesome atmosphere at Enlow Field.  There was a ton of tailgating before the game.  I saw a lot of that the previous week for the Reitz/Memorial game.  I took a picture with my iphone.

I knew this would probably be a lopsided contest.  The Huskies are without their quarterback, and let’s face it…Memorial is pretty darn good despite its record.   On the first drive, North got the ball near the red zone, but a 4th down conversion failed.  On the Tigers first play from scrimmage, quarterback Grant Gribbins hit Jon Wandling on a slant and Wandling did the rest going all the way down to the 10.  Next play Ryan Hatler threw his body over the goalline for a touchdown.  However, it wouldn’t be that simple of a night for Memorial.  The Huskies did a good job of containing Memorial’s offense for most of the first half.  North benefited from a mind-boggling awful call by the refs.  I am sure you saw it on HTF.  When I am shooting a game, I typically stay on the sideline.  However, with Gribbins, I intentionally went to the back of the endzone.  The reason is Gribbins can literally go anywhere on the field.  He can roll one way, and throw the other.  So by being in the back of the endzone, I am less likely to get faked out, and I might luck into a sweet highlight. 

Memorial is on the three yard line and is about to score.  DW Sexton fumbles the ball.  It squirts through a few hands and lands in the endzone, where it is clearly scooped up by a Memorial lineman.  What is more amazing is one of the referees couldn’t have been more than 5 feet from the recovery.  Now of course I know Memorial recovered it.  Heck the Tigers lineman is holding the ball.  The referees all huddle right next to me, and I can see it in the back judge’s eyes…he has no clue what to call.  In comes another official saying, “I have white ball”(North was wearing white).  I was almost tempted to say to the refs, “It was clearly a Memorial touchdown.”  Of course there is no way I would ever do that.  Indeed, they call it a touchback and give the ball to North.  I showed a few people on the Memorial sidelines the replay in my camera.  I don’t want to be too rough on the refs.  They get it right most of the time.  At the same time, that was a huge missed call.  It not only took 7 points off the board for Memorial, it gave North the ball!  The Tigers got the ball right back off an interception.  Gribbins threw a perfect spiral to Hatler right at my camera for a second touchdown (thanks Grant!).   Now with: 35 left in the half, I head to the exits to get back to the station.  One of my co-workers was in the stands and told me I missed a third touchdown.  He was getting food and he missed it too.  I still don’t know how Memorial scored to make it 20-0 at half.  I assume it was a defensive score.  The Tigers end up rolling to a 40-13 win.  That sets up their Catholic showdown with Mater Dei on Friday.

Speaking of Mater Dei, the Cats had a hard fought victory against Harrison.  Tailback Cody Hess had another great game on the ground for MD.  He rushed for 139 yards and 3 touchdowns.  Mater Dei is now 4-1, and is still that 2 point conversion in overtime against Central away from being 5-0.  Mater Dei hosting Memorial will be our HTF Showdown game.  I hope it is a good one.

The best game in the city took place at Central Stadium.  Last week, I said Bosse was going to chalk up an impressive win this season.  It almost happened against the Bears.  The Bulldogs had a 28-13 lead late.  Then a wild fury of touchdowns began.  Central quickly scored twice to make it 28-27.  There is only around 6:00 left in the game, and I am scrambling to find a photographer that can get to the Northside for the ending.  David Heckard was coming from Washington, but when I got a hold of him he was almost back to the station.  I called Aaron, and he had just left Central Stadium.  It was 9:05pm.  Aaron still had to drive all the way to Castle, edit his two games he shot, feed them back to the station, then setup to shoot Randall’s live from Paradise.  I almost had him go back, but I couldn’t chance the whole show going down the crapper.  Too much was on the line, and all of their games were near the top of HTF.  The Dogs counter with another score going up 35-27 with 3:00 left in the game.  Central scored, but missed the two point conversion to make it 35-33 Bosse.  The Bears had one more touchdown left in them, and pulled out a wild 39-35 victory.  It is another gut-wrenching loss for Bosse.  Andy Owen’s team is 4-1.

Heritage Hills received one gift after another in Poseyville.  The Vikings fumbled the opening kickoff to the Patriots.  If you are trying to upset the Pats, you cannot turn the ball over!  North Posey never recovered, but the Vikings did shutout the Patriots in the second half.  Heritage Hills looked out of sync on offense, but won 26-7.

Jasper had no problems with Vincennes.  The Alices program has really fallen off.  Someone told me the school’s enrollment is way down.  I hope Lincoln can bounce back soon.  Jasper is now 5-0 and looks pretty unstoppable.

If someone can figure out Mt. Vernon, please email me.  It has been five weeks of ups, downs, lefts, rights, and even some diagonals for the Cats!  Washington is a good team.  The Hatchets beat 1A power North Daviess the week before.  However, Mt. Vernon makes the long bus trip to Hatchet country and comes away with a very impressive 21-13 win.  Props to MV.

Another unbeaten resides in Spencer County, but it is not Heritage Hills.  South Spencer is 5-0.  The Rebels are for real.  This team could be as good as the ’03 semi-state team.  Bruce Green has now beaten two of his possible sectional opponents in Southridge and North Posey.  We still have four weeks to go, but it could be a Mater Dei vs. South Spencer matchup for 2A.

Back at the station, we are all keeping an eye on the Owensboro at Bowling Green game.  It pitted two of the very best teams in the entire state of Kentucky.  We could have asked our ABC sister station in Bowling Green to shoot the game for us, but for a game of this magnitude, I like to do things ourselves.  The Blaine Train made the trip to BG.  Blaine could only shoot for a half because of the hour and a half drive, but he still got ever touchdown scored in the game.  I hated seeing that the Devils lost 26-21.  I really thought they would go unbeaten.  One of my twitter followers @jcknox80 told me the Devils dropped a lot of passes. 

We got our first look at Perry Central.  The Commodores have been one of the best teams in 1A.  They also have the most complaining fans in the Tri-State.  I appreciate their loyalty to their team, but I was already getting emails that they don’t get enough attention after just ONE home game.  My PC peeps, please know we would have highlights from the Commodores every Friday if we could.  However, geographically that is impossible.  It is over 90 minutes from your field to our station.  It also hurts, that most of your road games are even further away from us than Leopold.  We will be there for your home game with Mitchell on October 2nd.  Plus, you have a Wilkerson at tailback!!  You know I have to get him on the air!  Mike Spencer is one of the best coaches in the Tri-State.  Coach Spencer has a mind-boggling record of 106-18 in a decade at the school.  The Commodores win over Tell City improved PC’s record to 5-0.

Week 5’s HTF show was the first one of the season that wasn’t insanely stressful.  I was actually able to take my place on the set a good 5 minutes before I went on the air.  That is huge for me.  Time to collect my thoughts, go over my shot sheets (scripts with the highlights written on them), and makes sure I have all of the scores.  Even though we had photographers in Washington, Vincennes, Perry Central, and Bowling Green, we were organized enough to have it all come together really smoothly.  Our only technical glitch is the scoreboard with the games we didn’t have highlights of did not run where it normally does.  However, because of quick thinking by the HTF producer Jason, you couldn’t tell on the air.  About 5 seconds before I was supposed to say, “Now here’s a look at the rest of the scores”, Jason said in my earpiece “NO SCORES, NO SCORES”.  So I just tossed it to commercial break.  It turned out when I typed up all of the full screen scoreboards, I used the wrong template.  You have to use the correct template for any kind of graphic that you see on the screen.  Luckily Jason caught the mistake, and quickly changed every single scoreboard during the 2 minute commercial break in time to get all of the scores on when we returned.  It also gave me a chance to give props to Forest Park for another win.

This week I will be at the Mt. Vernon at Boonville game.  Maybe I can see for myself what is going on with the Wildcats!  The Pioneers are 4-1.  Their lone loss was to Jasper.  Not too shabby for Coach James Blankenship’s club!

Thanks for watching HTF every week, and thanks for reading my ramblings!  Please spread the word about my blog.  If you have any questions or if you would like me to talk about a particular team, leave me a comment at the bottom, or email me using the link on the left.

See y’all at 10:35pm Friday for NEWS 25 Home Team Friday LIVE!