By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – In the early minutes of the Sectional 28 game between host Guerin Catholic and Hamilton Heights, the Golden Eagles’ offense made quick plays to get an early lead.
Then during the game’s final minutes, Guerin Catholic’s defense made the big plays. Those plays sealed a 21-20 sectional first-round victory for GC at the Eagles Nest and advanced the Golden Eagles to next week’s sectional semi-finals.
“I thought they prepared well during the week,” said Guerin coach Tom Dilley. “I thought we had a good week of practice. I was a little disappointed we didn’t play more consistently throughout the game.
“But I thought we did some really good things. Heights is well-coached. They had a great year,” said Dilley, who added that he has “a lot of respect for their program.”
Guerin Catholic scored on its first two drives of the game. A 37-yard pass from Ryan Zimmerman to Ryan Glenn set up the Golden Eagles’ first score, as they moved the ball to the Huskies’ 19-yard line. That was all Justin Zdobylak needed, as he ran the ball in from there to get Guerin on the board.
Will Fremion got the Golden Eagles’ next touchdown, making a five-yard run to score with 3:04 left in the first quarter. Just like that, Guerin Catholic led 14-0.
Heights got its first score in the second quarter when Guy Griffey sent a six-yard touchdown pass to Nate Hulen. Griffey had earlier made a 37-yard pass to Trey Ehman to get the Huskies into the red zone. As a result, Heights was within 14-6 at halftime.
But the Golden Eagles would start the second half just like they did the first – in fact, they started even faster. On Guerin Catholic’s first play from scrimmage, Zimmerman threw a pass to Fremion, who started running, picked up speed and was soon in the end zone for a touchdown just 21 seconds into the half. It was an 85-yard pass play. Evan Guenthner made the extra-point kick, as he did for GC’s other two scores, and the Golden Eagles led 21-6.
Minutes later, it was the Huskies’ turn to make the big play. Griffey found Isaac Tuma on a pass, and Tuma took off running, not stopping until he was in for a touchdown on a 77-yard pass play. Griffey then made a run into the end zone for the two-point conversion, and Heights was within 21-14.
The Huskies began another long drive during the first minute of the fourth quarter. Griffey found freshman Tyler Champion for a couple of big catches, then worked his way to the Guerin five-yard line. Nate Hulen took over from there, making two runs to score, finding the end zone on 2nd-and-2.
But the Golden Eagles blocked the extra point, preserving a one-point lead. Guerin Catholic stayed in front from there; although GC had to punt with less than a minute and a half left, the Golden Eagles held the Huskies to a three-and-out to finish the game.
“You’re not necessarily going to stop everything all the time, but you stop things when you need to,” said Dilley. “But again, the message has got to be, you don’t know when that ‘need to’s’ going to come around. You’ve got to play your best on every play. But they did a good job. After they gave up some things, they didn’t hang their heads and they just kept battling.”
Zimmerman finished the game with 215 passing yards, while Glenn had five catches. Zdobylak totaled 45 yards rushing in 15 carries.
Griffey, a senior for Heights, totaled 217 yards on 10-of-18 passing. Ehman led the rushing with 78 yards and had three catches, as did Tuma, another Huskies senior.
“My seniors put Hamilton Heights back on the map,” said Heights coach Jon Kirschner. The coach praised that group, the first class Kirschner has coached from freshman to seniors.
“Our seniors have made a statement,” said Kirschner. “Our JV went 8-1 and our varsity went and finished 6-4 and lost a heartbreaker tonight against a quality opponent. We did that all year. We stood toe-to-toe with everybody.”
The Golden Eagles are 3-7 and will play at Western Boone in next week’s Sectional 28 semi-finals.
GUERIN CATHOLIC 21, HAMILTON HEIGHTS 20
Score by Quarters
Heights 0 6 8 6 – 20
Guerin Catholic 14 0 7 0 – 21
Team Stats HH GC
First Downs 12 12
By Rush 7 4
By Pass 4 7
By Penalty 1 1
Rushes-Yards 42-109 26-66
Yards Passing 217 215
Comp-Att-Int-TD 10-18-0-2 9-20-0-1
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 0-0
Penalties-Yards 1-15 1-5
Punts-Average 3-30.7 4-34.5
Scoring
First Quarter
GC, 9:28 – Justin Zdobylak 19-yard run (Evan Guenthner kick)
GC, 3:04 – Will Fremion 5-yard run (Guenthner kick)
Second Quarter
HH, 1:01 – Nate Hulen 6-yard pass from Guy Griffey (kick failed)
Third Quarter
GC, 11:39 – Fremion 85-yard pass from Ryan Zimmerman (Guenthner kick)
HH, 6:00 – Isaac Tuma 77-yard pass from Griffey (Griffey run)
Fourth Quarter
HH, 4:29 – Hulen 2-yard run (kick blocked)
Heights individual stats
Rushing: Trey Ehman 21-78, Griffey 11-11, Chance Yeager 6-8, Harrison Hochstedler 1-6, Hulen 2-5, Owen VanHaaren 1-1.
Passing: Griffey 10-18-217.
Receiving: Tuma 3-99, Ehman 3-53, Tyler Champion 2-58, Hulen 1-6, Cooper Vondersaar 1-1.
Guerin Catholic individual stats
Rushing: Zdobylak 15-45, Zimmerman 6-24, Fremion 2-6, Cooper Navarro 1-3, team 2-minus 12.
Passing: Zimmerman 9-20-215.
Receiving: Ryan Glenn 5-83, Fremion 1-85, Navarro 1-24, Zdobylak 1-16, Alex Gibbs 1-7.
This sentence:
“ But the Golden Eagles would start the second half just like they did the first – in fact, they started even faster. On Guerin Catholic’s first play from scrimmage, Zimmerman threw a pass to Glenn”
Should be:
“ But the Golden Eagles would start the second half just like they did the first – in fact, they started even faster. On Guerin Catholic’s first play from scrimmage, Zimmerman threw a pass to Fremion”
#7 Will Fremion caught the pass at beginning of the second half.
William — Thank you for catching this! Our sports editor has been made aware and will make a correction. Thanks for reading The Reporter!