Arlington utilizes special teams to get by Eagles

Speed kills!

The Arlington Golden Knights traveled from Indianapolis to South Putnam on Friday night for the Class 1A Sectional 45 championship.

The Knights scored seven touchdowns and only two of them were less than 28 yards to advance 46-6 over the Eagles. This included two punt returns, a kickoff return and an interception return.

“They’ve got some athletes that can run. That’s kind of been our achilles heel all year. We’ve got to get faster and quicker. Hats off to them, they made big plays,” South Putnam head coach Nathan Aker said.

The Eagles played solid early on. South got a good kickoff return from Devin Cashion to open the game and set them up near midfield. The Eagles used an uptempo offense and picked up a first down and reached the Knight 35-yard line, but fumbled on a fourth down play, giving the ball up.

“We moved the ball well on the first drive. We tried to gas them early, but it kind of got to us also,” Aker said.

Arlington started winning the field position game as the quarter went on. The Knights had a bad snap on a field goal attempt late in the quarter, but that pinned the Eagles down inside their own 10-yard line. The Eagles were forced to punt out of their end zone and the athleticism of the Knights showed up.

A short punt was fielded by Darrius Wood at the 15, and he raced in for the first score of the game early in the second quarter to give the Knights a 7-0 lead.

The Eagles couldn’t move the ball on their possession and had to punt again. Lightning struck again. This time Davion Samuel fielded the punt and returned it 71 yards for a score and following the PAT, the Knights led 14-0.

Late in the first half, Arlington put together a long drive and had two long touchdown passes called back, but third time is the charm. Antawan Canady hooked up with Ford for a 28-yard touchdown pass with just :53 left in the half. The Knights led 20-0 but were not done yet.

Just 13 seconds later the Knights scored again. Samuel picked off an Eagle pass and returned it 31 yards to give Arlington a comfortable 26-0 halftime lead.

“The first half was four plays. We were closer in the game than the score,” Aker said.

Arlington wasted no time in the second half. The Knights scored three plays into their first possession on a 57-yard pass from Canady to Ford and boosted the lead to 32-0.

The Eagles couldn’t move the ball and Arlington put together 62-yard drive scoring on a Duane Cobb 5-yard run to extend the lead to 39-0.

“They played outstanding defense, they gave us fits,” Aker said.

The Eagles finally found their offensive rhythm.

South went 62 yards to finally put points on the board with a Christian Zeffel 2-yard score.

The Knights immediately scored their third special teams touchdown on the ensuing kickoff. Ford scooped up an attempted on-side kick and raced 48 yards for the final score of the game.

“They got us in the special teams game. The two punt returns, the onside kickoff return. Our youth showed up there,” Aker said.

South drove inside the 10-yard line late in the game, but was stopped at one-yard line and the Knights picked up a couple of first downs to run out the clock to win the championship.

“I couldn’t be prouder of our guys. To have a rough season in our brutal conference and then get two tournament wins and host a sectional championship game is a credit to the leadership of our seniors,” Aker said.

The Eagles finished the season with a 3-9 record.

Arlington 7 19 20 0 — 46

South Putnam 0 0 6 0 — 6

AHS — Darrius Ford 15 punt return (Gemero Escobedo kick), 7-0, Q2 11;03.

AHS— Davion Samual 71 punt return (Escobedo kick), 14-0, Q2 9:15.

AHS — Edurice Laflore 28 pass from Antawan Canady (kick failed) 20-0, Q2 :53.

AHS – Samual 31 interception return (pass failed) 26-0, Q2 :40.

AHS – Breenon Snead 57 pass from Canady (kick failed) 32-0, Q3 10:19.

AHS – Duane Cobb 5 run (Escobedo kick) 39-0, Q3 5:35.

SP – Christian Zeffel 2 run (run failed) 39-6, Q3 3:49.

AHS – Ford 48 kickoff return (Escobedo kick) 46-6, Q3 3:41.

AHS SP

First downs 13 8

Rushes-yards 34-172 37-40

Passing yards 159 134

Comp-Att-Int 8-13-0 7-18-2

Total offense 47-331 55-174

Punts-Avg. 2-34.5 6-27.3

Fumbles-lost 1-0 3-1

Penalties-yards 14-110 4-31

Individual statistics

Rushing — Arlington: Duane Cobb 24-129, Darrius Ford 6-33, Breenon Snead 1-8, Antawan Canady 3-2. South Putnam: Dalton Scott 13-28, Aiden LeBlanc 6-12, Devin Cashion 6-7, Christian Zeffel 10-(-1), Kain Gregory 2-(-6).

Passing — Arlington: Canady 8-13-0 159. South Putnam: Zeffel 7-18-2 134.

Receiving — Arlington: Snead 2-88, Edurice Laflore 5-56, Ford 2-15 . South Putnam: Kain Gregory 3-70, Colin Adams 1-7, Scott 2-17, Dru Teipen 1-40.