BENNETT'S MINUTES: State finals don’t go as hoped for Burgess, Crabtree

The pair of former Putnam County football coaches who took teams to Indianapolis last weekend for the state finals wound up on the short end in two very different games.

On Friday, former South Putnam coach Troy Burgess saw his team battle Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger to a scoreless tie through regulation in the 4A title game, and eventually lose 16-10 in a state finals-record four overtimes.

In a 180-degree reversal from that contest, former North Putnam coach Brian Crabtree saw his North Vermillion squad lose by a 60-0 score on Saturday to defending Class A champion Pioneer — which won its 30th straight game.

Few high school football teams utilize field-goal kickers, but Burgess found himself needing his on Friday.

The Bears had attempted just three field goals all season long, but equaled that total on Friday.

Central got the ball to the Dwenger 22 with one second left in regulation, and the Dwenger coach called three consecutive timeouts to “ice” the Bear kicker.

The kick was blocked, and the game went to overtime with each team getting an attempt from the 10-yard line until one team was ahead after an equal number of chances.

Central missed a field goal to end the first overtime, but Jon Degenhart connected on just his second successful boot of the year to tie the score at 3-3 after the second overtime.

Each team scored a touchdown in the third extra session, with Dwenger scoring first and the Bears matching on their turn.

Central had a pass intercepted to end its possession in the fourth overtime. Dwenger scored on a nine-yard run to end the game.

Burgess was asked after the game if he had any regrets about the many coaching decisions he had to make.

“I told the coaches when it was 10-9 in the third overtime that I was going to kick myself later for not going for two to win it,” Burgess said. “We had so much confidence in our defense, and our defense played well.”

Still, he was happy with his first season in Evansville.

“This is a wonderful group of young men and they have represented our community well,” he said. “They play the game with class.”

For Crabtree and the Falcons, things just never got untracked. Notre Dame recruit Jake Kiser was everything advertised to be and more, scoring on an 81-yard TD run in the first quarter, a 1-yard TD in the second quarter and a 40-yard TD run in the third quarter.

Pioneer led North Vermillion 16-0 after one period, 32-0 at halftime and 54-0 after three quarters.

Crabtree had said earlier last week that Pioneer is the best 1A team he’s ever seen, and they did not disappoint.

State finals notes:

• One other game of note saw Western Boone pull off a 34-20 comeback win over Eastbrook in the 2A title game.

Stars’ quarterback Spencer Wright was injured toward the end of the first half, and his return was uncertain.

Eastbrook led 14-10 at halftime, and tried an onside kick to open the third quarter.

WeBo recovered, and Wright returned to action to throw a 56-yard TD pass to Logan Benson to put the Stars ahead for good.

Wright and Benson connected for two later TD passes, as WeBo dominated the final two quarters by a 24-6 margin.

North Putnam can take pride in the fact that it took the state champions to eliminate them from the tournament in the sectional championship game.

• The other results were Warren Central over Carmel 27-7 in 6A, West Lafayette over Evansville Memorial 47-42 in the 3A game and New Palestine 28-24 over Decatur Central in the 5A game.

• One completely insignificant oddity was the the team which lost the coin flip for home/visiting team in each game at the tourney meeting last Monday was the winner in all six games.