South Bend St. Joseph knocks out Logansport
Oct. 23—Football can be a game of inches.
The two game-deciding plays in the Logansport-South Bend St. Joseph sectional game were just that.
Izak Mock was stopped at about the one-foot line just short of the goal line in what would have been a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter. Later in the quarter, on the Berries' final possession of the game, it looked as if they had a screen pass set up for a big gain, but 6-foot-4 defensive end Julian Kamanda tipped the pass and came down with the game-sealing interception.
The Indians pulled off a 15-14 upset victory over defending sectional champion and No. 13-ranked Logansport in a Class 4A sectional game.
It was an even matchup between Logansport (5-3) and St. Joe (3-7), a tradition-rich parochial school located on Notre Dame Avenue in South Bend. It was the third straight year the teams met in sectional play, with the Indians winning by blowout two years ago and the Berries returning the favor last year.
The Indians started strong in this one. Sophomore quarterback Alex Ortiz scored from 15 yards out to cap an 87-yard scoring drive in the first quarter. The Indians went to a swinging gate alignment on the extra point try and Tommy Eck threw a 2-point pass to an uncovered Tyrick Kamau to make it an 8-0 game.
The Berries answered back when John Scott ran the ball around left end and 55 yards to paydirt. But the 2-point run was stopped and Logan trailed 8-6.
The Berries forced a punt and again went to work on offense. Jeremiah Miller's 6-yard TD run capped a 78-yard drive. Miller's 2-point run made it 14-8 and the Berries took the lead into halftime.
The Berries forced a punt to open the second half but were forced to punt the ball back to the Indians. Jack Tobolski scored from 24 yards on a run up the middle, and Jacob Deahl's PAT gave St. Joe a 15-14 lead with 3:08 left in the third quarter.
The Berries put together a good drive, which included a an 11-yard run on a fake punt on a fourth-and-3 play near midfield on a run by Mock. Last year the fake punt was a weapon in sectional play for the Berries and it was again this year.
They continued their drive and faced fourth-and-goal from the 3. Mock kept the ball on an option run to the right and dove for the end zone. Mock lost control of the ball but the official said he was down about one foot short of the goal line, giving the ball back to the Indians with 6:15 remaining.
Logansport coach Mike Johnson was questioning himself after the game on whether or not he should have kicked a field goal, although a field goal is no sure thing in high school football.
"We had a shot, we had a chance. You drive down to the 3, kick it or go for it? Now it looks like we should have kicked it. There's going to be lots of second-guessing that one and I'm sure we're second-guessing it. But we didn't play well enough to win. We did some good things offensively. They took us out of our rhythm a little bit. They played pretty good defense I thought in the second half against us, very good run defense. That's probably the biggest thing in the ballgame, they played pretty good run defense," he said.
The Indians drove the ball from the one-foot line out to the 40 but faced a fourth-and-3 and punted the ball. The Berries started their final possession at their own 30 with 2:17 remaining and no timeouts left.
Grayson Long drew a pass interference penalty on the first play to move the ball to the 45. The Berries had a screen pass set up down the right sideline to Miller, but Mock's pass was tipped and intercepted by Kamanda, who returned the ball to the 10-yard line before he was tackled by Mock.
With 1:54 left and the Berries out of timeouts, the Indians ran the ball one play and then went into victory formation as the rest of the time ran out on the Berries' season.
"A relief when Julian intercepted that pass," St. Joe coach Bryon Whitten said. "He made an outstanding play on that screen. He's a hooper, we were able to get him out this year. He's had an outstanding season and it was nice to see him clinch the win."
The screen could have been a big play for the Berries, who had plenty of time left on the clock at that point.
"That was a fullback slip screen to Miah," Johnson said. "44 just happened to be right there. He didn't charge as hard as what we thought he was going to.
"We were hoping if we would have completed it, it could have gone. But you get in those situations like that everything has to be really perfect and it wasn't."
"They had their screen set up off their waggle pass," Whitten said. "And he had some yards to go. We had our linebackers scraping up over the top but they would have had a nice gain on it."
Scott rushed for 126 yards and a TD on 11 carries in his final game for the Berries. Miller had 57 yards on 14 carries and a score.
The Berries rushed for 273 yards as a team but it was not enough.
"Our defensive coaches had an outstanding game plan," Whitten said. "They're tough with what they do with their flexbone stuff and they run hard downhill, low to the ground. We did literally just enough to win tonight."
Tobolski had 99 yards on 15 carries and a score. Ortiz had 67 yards on 18 carries and a TD and was 6 of 13 passing for 79 yards.
Whitten said his team is playing its best football down the stretch, playing Culver Academies and Mishawaka Marian to close games before defeating Logansport.
"We knew since we played Penn that we were getting better and we were improving," he said. "We weren't necessarily seeing it with the results on the scoreboard but we knew we were getting better and it was just a matter of time before we got over that hump. We're excited it's tonight."
The Berries will have a lot coming back from this year's team that finished ranked 13th in Class 4A, but Johnson was shaking his head after the game.
"We could have gone the other way and kicked it, then we would have had to stop them. Yeah, I'm certainly second-guessing myself on that, no doubt," he said. "But he was pretty close to getting the ball in there on the option. That could have gone either way there too."
