The heart still beats

By Rex Kirts

The football Gods checked South for a heartbeat and found one, but the pulse was weak.
North scored touchdowns on two of its first three plays of the game, and South had to punt. The shovels were filled, and the dirt was ready to be spread over the Panthers.
But North fumbled the punt away, and South scored. From that point there was a lot of back-and-forth left until midway in the third quarter when the Panthers gradually took control.
Down 35-24, South scored the last 21 points of the game to win at North, 45-35, Friday night.
The Panthers, whose roster numbers continue to shrink, were as fresh in the fourth quarter as they were in the first. They finished the game with a strong drive, going from their own 12-yard line to North's 11 and consuming the last 7:51 of the clock.
And the presumptuous T-shirts worn by North fans that read, "This is our town," proved to be premature.
THE VICTORY touched off a wild celebration, which was to be expected since South not only came into the game 0-3 but had not shown any improvement in the three losses. Only the week before they had made only six first downs in a 22-12 loss to Franklin Central. Against North the Panthers had 16 first down and ran for 342 yards.
So how did that happen? It is not an easy question to answer.
But certainly junior quarterback Michael Bower drove the team with his running and passing and decision-making, and he even played safety. Tailbacks Keith Bunton and Trae Washington and fullback Nolan Rogers ran hard and caught passes and threw passes.
The offensive line of tackles Reilly Flynn and Zach Bonnell, guards Alex Sarpa and David Tiwari and Jacob Brinegar, center Jarred Mason and tight end Joey Todd had its best game.
The defense was ravaged by swift, strong North tailback D'Angelo Roberts, who rushed for 213 yards and three touchdowns, until it tightened midway through the third quarter.
The Panther kicking game was outstanding as Drew Barlow's kickoffs sailed to the five-yard lne and he made a 40-yard field goal and all six PATs. Even punter Lucas Franz ran for a first down on a fake punt.
AND COACH KIRK KENNEDY got contributions from new people. Such as sophomore defensive back Tyrae Murphy, who in the third quarter stripped the north quarterback of the ball and recovered it to set up a Panther touchdown.
Tyrae was in the game because his older brother, senior Derek, was sidelined with an elbow problem and because senior starting cornerback Adam Wiley had been dismissed from the team earlier in the day for violation of Kennedy's disciplined way of conducting a total football program.
And offensive coordinator Pat Cannon had a neat tongue-in-cheek perspective. "It's nice to call plays that work," he smiled.
But all that doesn't explain the "why" of the matter, doesn't explain how South found the will to rally from oblivion.
"We got after it, didn't let up," Sarpa tried to explain. "We wanted it, we fired off the ball, never gave up."
Bower carried 19 times for 136 yards and two touchdowns and completed 5 of 6 passes for 49 yards and one TD, a 10-yarder to Rogers.
"Just heart," Bower said. "In the first games we played not-to-lose, and tonight we played to win.
"It was nuts."
BOWER SAID a factor might have been "a little team meeting" the Panthers had before Wednesday's practice. Wednesday went a whole lot better than Tuesday, which was not good and turned into a Kennedy-driven long, tough episode.
Kennedy's tough episodes seem to be paying off, at least that's what it looked like in the fourth quarter as the Panthers took charge and hammered away.
"We had really physical practices this week," Flynn said. "We got conditioned. Halfway through the third quarter their defensive linemen got a little tired, you could see it in their eyes."
Kennedy is capable of speeches that would win prizes in any coaching oratory contest.
"All the hard work . . . I thought that was one of the best drives I've ever seen (to end the game)," Kennedy told the team. "We proved we have a champions' heart.
"This is one game. We determine our fate."
The win evened South's record in Conference Indiana at 1-1. After only two weeks there is only one team left unbeaten in league play, Columbus North. All others are 1-1 except Bloomington North, which is 0-2. The Panthers travel to Southport next Friday.
"NOW WE HAVE CONFIDENCE," Kennedy continued to tell the team. 'Now we're hungry, now we know what this is all about. The great thing about this is . . . we get back to work tomorrow."
Kennedy said the game wasn't pretty, and he was talking primarly about the start when the Panthers fell behind 14-0 so quickly. Their first play was scrimmage was a lost fumble.
"We got the turnover in the kicking game (North's fumbled punt) that gave us the spark. We made some good adjustments defensively on the end, where they were hurting us off-tackle.
"We finally gained some momentum. As we stayed in the game and kept trading punches maybe they (North) started looking behind them. We gained confidence."
Kennedy praised Bower.
"He was our leader tonight. He put us on his shoulders. And Keith Bunton had some great runs. Our offense came to play.
"WE HAD TO OVERCOME a lot tonight. We had some adversity and didn't give up. You could see the confidence in the fourth quarter. The offensive line controlled the line down the stretch.
"And you have to credit coach (Dean) Walendzak and the defensive staff for making the adjustments (in the third quarter)."
Confidence is a powerful weapon. South picked up a lot of it in the game and on Saturday when the jayvees and freshmen made a sweep of the weekend, the jayvees winning 19-14 and freshmen 55-6.