Vikings enjoy highlight night as Tecumseh is no match

Can I have this dance....This collision between Camden Clowers and his Tecumseh defender was brutal during Friday night’s Viking win. Photo by Dave Pearce

By Dennis Marshall

POSEYVILLE, Ind. — North Posey opened at Joe Gengelbach Field against a defense that gambled it could take the run away and still survive putting its defensive backs on an island. The passing game made that bet expensive in a 48-14 win over Tecumseh on Friday, Aug. 28.

“They kind of caught us off guard with how they played us,” North Posey coach Waylon Schenk said. “They went to a five-man front, brought a ton of pressure and played man coverage. That caught us off guard to start the game. We didn’t expect that.”

Once the Vikings saw the coverage was staying the same, the advantage was having four receivers the Braves had to defend one-on-one. Bret Buecher finished with 130 yards and two touchdowns on six catches. Brody Fehn caught six for 93 yards and a score, Camden Clowers had seven for 98 yards and a touchdown, and Remi Johnson finished with four catches for 49 yards.

“We saw they were going to stay in man coverage all night, and we started airing it out,” Schenk said. “You just got to take what the defense gives us. They gave us openings in the passing game and they didn’t adjust most of the night, so we just kept slinging it.”

Quarterback Carter Schickel completed 24-of-35 attempts for 371 yards and four touchdown passes. He was intercepted twice, both by Max Grimes, but the senior kept attacking the coverage without forcing the ball to any one receiver, taking the matchup Tecumseh gave him and repeatedly finding the open man.

One of those matchups produced the game’s biggest play, with Buecher getting behind his defender for an 80-yard touchdown.

After Johnson’s nine-catch night the previous week at Southridge, the Braves shaded that side of the field and left Buecher isolated on the backside with no safety.

“He beat the kid right off the line of scrimmage,” Schenk said. “Schickel hit him on a rope down the seam.”

Cade Mauck carried it only six times against a front that kept sending extra bodies, and he still finished with 68 yards and two rushing touchdowns.

The defensive answer was just as convincing. The running game the Vikings’ coaching staff had worried about all week produced just 146 yards on 33 carries after the Braves spent too much of the night behind the chains. The North Posey defense finished with nine tackles for loss, forced three-and-outs and stopped Tecumseh twice on fourth down.

Lane Young had eight tackles and three tackles for loss, Matthew Will added seven tackles and two TFLs, and Sullivan Harp had the sack.

Cru Wilzbacher and Mauck had interceptions. Wilzbacher gave up a deep completion in the first half, then intercepted the first shot they took at him after halftime and broke up the next one.

“Wilzbacher’s confidence is just building,” Schenk said, “As his confidence gets better, our defense gets better.”

Easton Ashby finished 2-for-2 on field goals, including a long of 38 yards, and 6-for-6 on extra points. That is 12 points and another clean night in the kicking game.

“Special teams was really good again,” Schenk said. “I thought it was a total team effort. Everybody puts the team ahead of their own personal interest, and when you do that with the talent we got, we’re going to win a lot of games.”

North Knox comes to Poseyville next week for a game North Posey has had circled since last season. The Warriors won by one (25-24) at home a year ago after the Vikings built an early lead, turned the ball over in bad situations and let the game slip away.

“We got out to a quick lead and got overly confident and stopped playing,” Schenk said.

“They just chipped away. I think the kids learned a valuable lesson up there last year. You’ve got to play four quarters.”

North Knox brings back several players from that team and runs a physical wing-T and single-wing attack built around the run, designed to make defenders read their keys while the football disappears.

“They try to hide the football from you,” Schenk said. “When you play a team like this, you’ve got to be disciplined and read your keys, otherwise you get your tail whipped.”