By MICHELLE GARMON
As M.C. Hammer once rapped, “It’s Hammer Time.”
Friday night was certainly that as Tipton’s Class 2A No. 7 Blue Devils hammered away at the Hamilton Heights Huskies to the tune of a 31-7 victory and in doing so, took possession of “The Hammer.’
The Huskies had had the traveling trophy for the past three seasons. Tipton’s last win was 28-7 in 2013.
Perhaps more importantly, Tipton (4-0) opened Hoosier Conference East Division play with a win. Heights, meanwhile, fell to 0-2 in the HC East and 0-4 on the season.
“We didn’t have a lot of things go our way from the start, pregame on,” Hamilton Heights Coach Mitch Street said. “It’s just the nature of football sometimes and the nature of our season right now.
The Huskies provided the Blue Devils with plenty motivation hours before the game, as two players painted ‘The Rock,’ honoring Tipton’s winningest coach, Mike Tolle, orange.
The stunt proved to be costly in more ways than one as the players were discovered, forced to apologize to the former coach during pregame, had their helmets confiscated and were forced to watch from the sideline.
“It changed a lot,” Heights’ Street said. “One is a two-way starter and the other is an offensive starter. One of the kids is on special teams, a lot of them. It changes things. We had multiple plans coming into the game. When you lose two DBs, it changes what you can do and it changes our ability to put DBs out there that are prepared and ready to execute the plan, so it does hurt you.
“It’s unfortunate, but it needed to be done. We lost two more. Shortly after the third quarter (started), we were down two more. We lost one right before the half and another one sometime there in the third quarter. Against a team that passes as well as Tipton does that makes it really, really difficult to be down four DBs.”
Conversely, a lot of things went right for the Blue Devils as they amassed 502 yards of offense and surrendered just 172 yards –– 41 of which came on one play –– and forced three turnovers.
Tipton quarterback KJ Roudebush completed 20 of 37 passes for 325 yards and 2 TDs, while also throwing an interception. He also ran 12 times for 83 yards.
Aidan Moses was his favorite target last night, catching six passes for 183 yards. Caleb Burkett had five catches for 88 yards and 2 TDs, covering 10 and 18 yards.
Sebastian Connor added 45 rushing yards and a TD on 11 carries. Peyton Carter had seven carries for 23 yards and a TD.
“We went kind of brain dead on the last play of the half and they moved the ball a little bit on us the second half but our defense played at an awful high leveltonight,” Tipton Coach Aaron Tolle said.
“I thought we were just flying around and I thought we were extremely physical. I thought we flew to the ball and we hit. I think that wears on teams. We’re just really fast, fly to the ball and are physical.
“It’s nice to be able to count on your defense to keep you in games until you find some things that your offense can do,” the Tipton coach said. “I think that kind of happened tonight.”
Perhaps the first play from scrimmage provided an omen the night might belong to Tipton as Roudebush had his pass deflected. But lineman Brogan Brown was there to catch the deflection. He lost a yard but a personal foul facemask penalty against the Huskies gave the Blue Devils a first down at the 39.
The very next play, Roudebush connected with Moses on a 48-yard pass play and another first down at the HH 13.
Heights’ defense held, allowing a yard in three plays. But Tipton junior Nathan Slack split the uprights on a 29-yard field goal to put Tipton up 3-0 at the 10:50 mark.
Senior Grant Shively came up with a huge special teams play for Tipton as he sprinted across the field to chase down Heights’ Isiah Campbell and make a touchdown-saving tackle on Campbell’s kickoff return that went for 67 yards to the Tipton 18.
But the Huskies fumbled on the ensuing handoff and Tipton linebacker Chase London recovered the ball. The Blue Devils advance the ball down the field before Camron Knott intercepted Roudebush’s pass at the Husky 11.
Seven plays later, Heights was forced to punt and the Blue Devils took over at their own 34. Eleven plays later, they were in the end zone.
A pass interference penalty against the Huskies aided the 66-yard drive that was capped by Carter’s 7-yard TD scamper. Slack’s PAT extended the lead to 10-0 just 37 seconds into the second quarter.
Roudebush had a critical play on the drive as he bulled his way forward for 2 yards on a fourth-and-inches.
Tipton’s defense forced a three-and-out and following Knott’s second punt of the game, the Blue Devils again took over at their own 34. And they marched down the field again. This time, Tipton overcame a holding penalty that came 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage.
Roudebush scrambled and found Moses along the sideline who came back to the ball to haul in a 16-yard pass on a third-and-10. The Tipton QB then ran for 15 yards on a third-and-7.
He and Moses again came up big, hooking up for 18 yards on a fourth-and-9. The play gave Tipton a first down at the Husky 13. Connor carried twice, scoring on a 7-yard run around right end. Slack’s PAT extended the lead to 17-0 with 4:20 left to play in the first half.
The two teams exchanged punts before Heights came up with its best and only scoring drive of the night. Taking over at the Tipton 47 with 1:15 on the clock, the Huskies needed four plays to reach the end zone.
DeShawn King ran twice for 2 yards. Tyler Andis then completed a 4-yard pass to Knott, leaving the Huskies with a fourth-and-4 with under 10 seconds on the clock. On the final play of the half, Andis hit Knott in stride down the Husky sideline. The 41-yard TD pass play and Owen Powell’s PAT kick cut the lead to 17-7 as the teams went into halftime.
Heights was unable to keep the momentum as Tipton’s defense forced a three-and-out to start the third quarter. The Blue Devil offense then put together a six-play, 58-yard scoring drive.
Roudebush completed a 14-yard pass to Luke Stoker. He then found Burkett on a 29-yard pass to give Tipton a first down at the HH 11. Connor carried for a yard before Roudebush dropped back and hit Burkett in the end zone. Slack’s kick made it 24-7 with 8:10 remaining in the third quarter.
“We got a fortunate coverage, man cover able to get on top of that and able to execute it,” HH’s Street said of the Huskies’ touchdown. “Our whole season has been, especially offensively, we do something really good and then we regress two or three steps and have a bad play. We’re not quite talented enough at this point and time to overcome those mistakes.
“We’re just real young and unable to overcome those self-inflicted mistakes. Tipton’s a good football team but some of those mistakes were self-inflicted. You put yourself in a bind against a good team, it’s hard to get out of. We continuously did that.”
The Blue Devil defense forced another three-and-out. The offense then put together its final touchdown drive of the night going 75 yards in eight plays.
Connor began the drive with a 13-yard run. Roudebush added a 23-yard run on a third-and-2. Carter then gained 4 yards on a third-and-1. The very next play, Roudebush hit Burkett with an 18-yard TD pass. Slack’s fourth PAT of the night made it 31-7.
Tipton’s Connor and Hyatt Flanigan came up with interceptions on Heights’ next two offense possessions. The Blue Devil defense then stopped the Huskies on downs on their final possession of the night.
“I thought they had a nice game plan,” Tipton’s Tolle said of the Huskies. “They have really, really big defensive linemen and they brought a lot of linebackers to get heat and they challenged our wideouts with man cover.
“They went one-on-one and to be honest, they did a pretty good job. We’ll have to go back to the film and look at it because we’ll see that again sometime.”
Blake Webel led Heights’ rushing attack with 14 carries for 58 yards. Ike Hooper had 17 yards on eighth carries and King 13 yards on five attempts. Anders was 5 of 14 for 92 yards and a TD. He also was picked twice. Knott finished with three catches for 47 yards and Brandon Garst had a 38-yard reception.
“We had six sophomores on the field on offense at one point tonight and that’s tough, especially against a team as good as (Tipton),” Street said. “I’m not making excuses. But you can’t replicate experience. They definitely have that going for them and they’re going to be a force to reckon with in 2A.”
Tipton takes its unbeaten mark on the road next week, traveling to Western for another conference showdown.
The Huskies travel to Northwestern for a conference tilt next Friday.
Hamilton Heights’ Camron Knott makes an interception during the first quarter of the Huskies’ game with Tipton Friday night. Knott would also catch a 41-yard touchdown pass later in the game. (Tami Hein)