By RICHIE HALL
FISHERS – A football team needs several different personality traits to play in and win a Mudsock game.
Fishers coach Rick Wimmer mentioned a trait that is probably not immediately thought of, but obvious in retrospect: Confidence. As his team celebrated winning the Mudsock trophy over Hamilton Southeastern 27-6 Friday night at Reynolds Tiger Stadium, Wimmer kept using the word ‘confidence.’
“Football’s hard work and you’ve always got to push them in practice hard,” said Wimmer. “Just because it’s HSE Week didn’t make things easier. Now come game time, everybody’s ready to play. If you put the preparation in and your guys know what they’re doing, they’re going to play with confidence, and I think that’s what happened tonight.”
The game was tight through the first quarter before Fishers was able to get the first score of the game. The Tigers began their drive with good field position at the Royals 26, and used short runs to get themselves to first-and-goal at the 10.
Fishers eventually got to the 1-yard line on fourth down with just a few seconds left in the first quarter. The Tigers then showed their confidence by going for it, and they succeeded, with quarterback Marcus Roux punching the ball in from the 1 with 1.8 seconds left in the quarter.
Jack Phillips made the extra point kick, and Fishers led 7-0. That would be the score at halftime, as neither team scored in the second quarter. The Royals came close to getting in the end zone in the final seconds of the period, but the Tigers didn’t allow them in, then blocked a field goal.
“That was huge,” said Wimmer. “Absolutely huge. They’re a dangerous offense. We pinned them down there, they didn’t have much time.”
“I felt like we moved the ball really well in the first half, we just couldn’t finish drives,” said Royals coach Adam Morris. “We missed a field goal, go for it on fourth and don’t get it. I thought we moved the ball in the first half, we just couldn’t finish drives.”
Fishers took control in the third quarter with two touchdowns. Jeffrey Simmons caught a 26-yard TD pass from Roux with 7:29 left in the period. On their next possession, the Tigers got to the HSE 44, then Shaun Kim made a 29-yard run to get Fishers in the red zone. Two plays later, Dylan Scally got the ball into the end zone on a 7-yard run. Phillips made both extra-point kicks.
“Our offensive line gained confidence and our running backs gained confidence as the night went on,” said Wimmer. “We came in at halftime and felt like we were getting good pushes. We had too many penalties. There’s a negative offensively tonight, we put ourselves in bad situations, took away a lot of first downs because of penalties, mostly holds. So we got to clean that up.
“When we didn’t do that, they didn’t really stop us. We just stopped ourselves with some penalties. I think we gained confidence as the game went on and that showed in the way our offensive line played and our running backs.”
Roux scored his second rushing touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter on a six-yard run. Southeastern got on the board on the next series, with DeAndre Rhodes catching a 16-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Hobson.
“I think they just played tougher than we did,” said Morris. “They came out, played better in the second half.”
Scally led the Fishers rushing with 76 yards, while Roux gained 63 yards. Roux was 8-of-19 passing the ball, with Nick Leath making four receptions.
Hobson had a huge night passing for Southeastern, completing 20 of 38 passes for 271 yards. Ben Boysen made seven of those catches, with Rhodes getting five receptions. Nija Wilson led the Royals’ rushing with 28 yards.
The Tigers remain undefeated with the win at 4-0, while the Royals drop to 1-3.
FISHERS 27, HAMILTON SOUTHEASTERN 6
Score by Quarters
Southeastern 0 0 0 6 – 6
Fishers 7 0 14 6 – 27
Team Stats HSE FHS
First Downs 19 13
By Rush 2 10
By Pass 14 2
By Penalty 3 1
Rushes-Yards 23-81 41-199
Yards Passing 271 70
Comp-Att-Int-TD 20-38-2-1 8-19-0-1
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties-Yards 8-55 9-89
Punts-Average 3-36.0 6-37.5
Scoring
First Quarter
FHS, 0:02 – Marcus Roux 1-yard run (Jack Phillips kick)
Third Quarter
FHS, 7:29 – Jeffrey Simmons 26-yard pass from Roux (Phillips kick)
FHS, 2:18 – Dylan Scally 7-yard run (Phillips kick)
Fourth Quarter
FHS, 7:07 – Roux 6-yard run (kick blocked)
HSE, 4:24 – DeAndre Rhodes 16-yard pass from Andrew Hobson (kick blocked)
Southeastern individual stats
Rushing: Nija Wilson 7-28, Hobson 9-27, Tylin Taylor 6-25, Tony Myers 1-1.
Passing: Hobson 20-38-271.
Receiving: Ben Boysen 7-78, Rhodes 5-66, Nathan Wolf 4-78, Luke Childers 2-26, Myers 2-23.
Fishers individual stats
Rushing: Scally 16-76, Roux 13-63, Shaun Kim 10-56, Reggie Cook-Graham 1-4, team 1-0.
Passing: Roux 8-19-70.
Receiving: Nick Leath 4-30, Simmons 2-33, Silas Martin 1-8, Cook-Graham 1-minus 1.
The Fishers football team won the Mudsock trophy Friday night, beating Hamilton Southeastern 27-6 at Reynolds Tigers Stadium. (Kirk Green)
Hamilton Southeastern’s DeAndre Rhodes scored a touchdown for the Royals in the fourth quarter. (Kirk Green)