ATTICA – A long and difficult football season came to an end for Fountain Central in a 54-0 loss to Attica in the first round of the 1A Sectional No. 45 tournament.
The Mustangs finish winless in 10 tries for the football campaign, while the Red Ramblers even the season out at 5-5 as they head to second-round action next Friday.
“We came out and we tried,” FC coach Ryan Hall said. “In my 25 years of coaching, I have never witnessed what these guys went through. We have one senior, third-string guys playing in lots of spots, injuries all over, but the guys and coaches came out every day and worked hard. We spent the entire season plugging holes, but they never quit, and I’m very proud of them for that.”
ATTICA OFFENSE
The numbers all lay on the Attica side of the ledger, as the Red Ramblers amassed 513 yards of offense.
Senior quarterback Eli Kirkpatrick, who was fourth in Indiana 1A total yards coming into the weekend, added to his totals with an all-around night
He ran for 163 yards and four touchdowns and then passed for 319 more. Three went for scores. He was 18-of-21 for the night throwing the ball.
“Kirkpatrick obviously runs our offense, and we run it through him,” Attica coach Ryan Good said. “He thinks like the coaches and with his experience, he knows what we want to do. He and I really work well together. It was interesting that we had planned on running the ball a lot tonight, like we usually do, but Fountain Central really had some difficult defensive schemes, so we decided to throw the ball more, and that worked out well.”
The home team scored every time they had the ball, except to run our the clock in both halves. Seven touchdowns in the first half was more than needed.
Jordan Douglass hauled in eight passes for 151 yards. John Britt caught four for 109 yards and a TD, and Bradley Britt had six more catches for 59 yards and found the end zone twice. The Red Ramblers were 6-for-6 in the red zone and were also 6-for-6 on third downs.
“Our line up front makes all that happen,” Good said. “We have a solid set of guys, and we are getting guys back from injuries late in the season, so we feel good about their down blocking and pulling.”
ATTICA DEFENSE
There was just no where to go for the Mustangs offense, who finished with 61 yards off total offense.
The telling story of that side of the ball was in the fourth quarter, when FC moved inside the Attica 10-yard line.
The Mustangs ran eight plays, and Attica had two penalties, but the visitors could not get into the end zone.
Seth Gayler was 7-of-12 passing for 71 yards. The big play came on a catch and run by Luke Adams for 51 yards. Jordan Melvin led the ground game, getting 10 yards on six carries.
MOVING ON
Attica will hit the road for next Friday’s semi-final matchup against Parke Heritage, a team they lost to in the regular WRC season.
“We are getting guys back,” Good said. “We only have 22 guys on the roster, so any injury is a big one. Parke Heritage is a well-coached team with a lot of great players, but with some of our guys back and we like being the underdog. We’ll get our guys ready.”
The Mustangs season ends, and one senior played his last game.
“Eric Medley was the only senior on the team.” Hall said. “He was an absolute role model for the rest of the guys. He led by example, in the weight room and on the field. I found out that he never missed a summer workout in his entire four years, which is amazing. He is going to be a success in his life because of how hard he can work. We told the rest of the team that next season starts in the weight room in the offseason. We just have to re-dedicate ourselves to the Fountain Central football program and re-group.”
ATTICA 54 FOUNTAIN CENTRAL 0
Score by Quarters
Fountain Central 0 0 0 0 - 0
Attica 28 19 7 0 – 54
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
A: Kirkpatrick 9-yd run (pass fail) 10:13
A: Kirkpatrick 64-yd run (pass fail) 8:58
A: Kirkpatrick 27-yd pass to J.Britt (Kirkpatrik pass to J.Britt) :8:08
A: Kirkpatrick 1-yd run (Kirkpatrick run) :30
Second Quarter
A: Kirkpatrick 1-yd pass to B.Britt (run fail) 9:50
A: Kirkpatrick 17-yd pass to B.Britt (kick fail) 7:42
A: Black 1-yd run (Douglass kick) 3:24
Third Quarter
A: Kirkpatrick 15-yd run (Douglas kick) 6:35
Team Stats FC ATT
First Downs 5 22
Rushes-yds 24 (-10) 24-194
Comp-Att-Int 7-13-0 18-21-0
Pass yds 71 319
Total yds 61 513
Penalties-yds 7-55 6-51
Fumbles-lost 2-1 0
Individual Stats
Rushing
FC: Melvin 6-10, Alexander 2 (-1), Graff 5 (-5), Adams 2 (-6), Gayler 8 (-6); ATT: Kirkpatrick 17-163, Black 5-20, Douglass 1-13, Britt 2 (-2).
Passing
FC: Gayley 7-12-71, C.Kirkpatrick 1-1-7; ATT: Kirkpatrick 18-21-319.
Receiving
FC: Pickett 2-22, Melvin 2-9, Adams 1-51, Lynch 1-1, Coutreau 1 (-1), Groff 1 (-4).
