BOURBON – Thanks to the weather, and a predisposition to run the ball, LaVille and Triton played a lot of old-fashioned, smash-mouth football Friday night. Sadly for the home team, the Lancers were able to convert a pair of breaks into touchdowns in a 15-0 win in Class 1A Sectional 41 semifinal action. The wind was a factor in LaVille’s first touchdown. Triton’s punter, Joey Corder, had the stiff breeze at his back when he knocked a punt 78 yards for a touchback in the opening quarter. When punting into the wind from his own end zone midway through the second stanza, Corder kicked the ball well, but the ball blew back to the Triton 5-yard line. The Lancers’ Mason Leed scored on the next play. “I thought that was really the difference in the ballgame,” said LaVille head coach Will Hostrawser. “It put us in a really good position.” Both teams continued to rely on their running games, knowing anything in the air, passing or kicking, was going to be difficult at best. LaVille attempted only one pass the entire game. “We knew we weren’t going to kick a field goal, and we knew we weren’t going to punt. Those are things we need to work on anyway,” said Hostrawser. The Trojans had the wind behind them to open the second half, and had good field position at the Triton 43-yard-line after LaVille opted to use a squib kickoff. But three plays netted a 1-yard loss, and Corder had the choice of punting, passing or running on fourth down. He chose to pass, and the ball fell incomplete. “We put that rugby punt in this week for that specific idea, to give us the option if there’s anything there at all we’ll take it,” Triton head coach John Johns said. “They played good, hard, aggressive defense and forced our hand a couple of times and got what they wanted. “Football is all about consistency,” he added. “We talked about it all week long, not shooting ourselves in the foot. And we put in quite a bit of stuff this week to try and throw them a few curve balls. It was one of those situations where if you make mistakes, you can’t win a game. The football’s hard, it bounces funny, the kids’ hands are cold, weird things happen once in a while.” LaVille then drove the ball 42 yards in nine running plays, using up time in the process, before running back Ben Norton scored the second Lancer touchdown of the game. Norton then pounded the ball in for a two-point conversion to close the scoring. Hostrawser said that while his team doesn’t pass much anyway, the weather played right into the Lancers’ hands. “This is going to sound bad, but we’re an ugly football team,” he smiled. “We’re not one that’s going to come out and bust big play after big play. We’re three yards and a cloud of dust, and we’ve been that way all year. So when I heard it was going to be windy, with rain and possibly snow, I was happy as a lark.” Triton kept trying to establish a running game of its own, but key penalties and, eventually, strong play by the Lancers’ front seven kept the Trojans in a hole from midway through the third quarter to the final horn. “Everyone who’s been around football long enough knows you can run for a while, but eventually they’re going to shut it down, and you have to capitalize by hitting them with a pass,” Johns said. “We didn’t protect like we should have, and we kind of shot ourselves in the foot.” LaVille improved to 8-3 on the season and advanced to play Winamac, a 34-14 winner over Whiting, for the sectional championship Friday. Hostrawser had praise for Triton after the game. “You know, we’re trying to win our first sectional since 2003, and we beat them 31-0 the first time around,” he said. “We felt like this was a trap game, and they were going to come out, play hard and give us their best shot. We’re fortunate to be moving on, because they’re a good football team.” Likewise, Johns was pleased with his teams’ effort, in spite of closing its season at 3-8. “I put a lot of pressure on these guys, and they respond,” he said. “I couldn’t thank them enough after the game, and I’m as proud of them as any team I’ve coached.”
