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| Montgomery blanks Thorobreds |
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9/12/2014
By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
The Montgomery County Indians put together a solid all-around game Friday night at Cunningham Field and walked away with a convincing 48-0 victory over Harrison County for their first win of 2014.
“I was really pleased with the offense, the defense and the kicking game,” said Coach Dan Gooch. “That’s what it’s going to take for us to be successful this year, to be good in every phase of the game.”
The Indians, on the strength of a 27-point second period, led 34-0 at the half, pushed the game to a running clock early in the second half and then possessed the football the entire fourth quarter without scoring as they registered their first shutout since midway through the 2011 season when the Tribe blanked Woodford County 38-0.
“We need for our defense to take some pride as a unit,” Gooch said. “I thought we played really well for over three quarters against Bourbon County in the opener and then they put up three scores. So it was nice for this group to get a shutout.”
On offense, junior quarterback Art Walker was almost perfect, completing 19 of 21 passes for 305 yards and four touchdowns, one of the top passing efforts in school history while senior receiver Joe Chism fell just short of a school record with 10 catches for 179 yards and three scores.
Those touchdown numbers would have been five aerial strikes for Walker and four TDs for Chism had the receiver not lost a fumble just
short of the goal-line.
Fortunately for the Tribe, senior Braxton Hopkins was right there to recover the fumble in the end zone for a score.
“Joe’s had a couple of big games, Cody and Braxton have gotten some catches, too. We know that we’ve got Chase Hall and Keiton Young as weapons, too, so Art Walker’s got plenty of people to look to.”
As for Walker, he was more impressed with his offensive line than anything else.
“I didn’t hit the ground one time,” he said. “That’s incredible when your offensive line protects you like that.
“When our offensive line can do that, we’re going to score points.”
And the Tribe rushing attack wasn’t too shabby either. Led by sophomore Jake Harvey with 56 yard on six carries, including a 22-yard scoring run, the Indians gained 224 yards on 23 attempts for the game.
“It was great to get a lot of our guys into the game and let them run the ball and even better that they had the success they had,” Gooch said.
In the opening drive, Walker went 5-for-5 through the air for 64 yards and capped the drive with a 22-yard scoring pass to Chism.
The Indians put four touchdowns on the board in the second quarter when Walker teamed up with Chism for scoring plays of 41 and 43 yards, Jake Harvey scored on a 22-yard run and Walker found Cody Parsley over the middle on a 73-yard scoring play.
In the second half the Tribe scored early when Walker hit Chism on a slant, he got hit near the goal line and fumbled into the end zone where senior Braxton Hopkins recovered.
That play set up the running clock with 10:27 to play in the third quarter.
The next time the Indians got the football it came when linebacker Mason Gooch recovered a fumble at the Thorobred 40 yard line.
Senior Keiton Young took over at quarterback and completed a 15-yard pass to Chism followed by a 20-yard scamper by junior James Fletche which set up a four-yard scoring run by Young to complete the scoring.
The next time Montgomery County got the football they took over with 31 seconds to play in the third quarter a their own 21 yard line following a Harrison County punt.
That started a string 15 plays, three of them resulting in penalties against Montgomery County that ended with no time on the clock and the Indians at the Harrison County 19 yards line facing third and 11.
Montgomery County had moved exactly 60 yards in those 15 plays and used up 12:31 seconds.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that, where a team had the football for an entire quarter,” said Coach Dan Gooch.
Penalties ended up being the one negative aspect of the game for the Indians as they were flagged 10 times for 106 yards.
On defense, Montgomery County allowed the Thorobreds only 24 yards as they ran just 29 offensive plays in the game that was shortened by the running clock.
The Thorobreds ran the ball 21 times for a net of 21 yards and completed just one pass for three yards.
Senior middle linebacker Brian Wagers led the Montgomery County defense with nine tackles and a pair of sacks .
Friday night the Indians will be in Winchester to take on the Clark County Cardinals as they go for a third consecutive win over the Cards who are 0-2 on the season.
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