INDIANAPOLIS
Greenwood’s offensive package with Gavin Ruppert made all the difference Friday night.
“He’s a really skilled athlete, he can do a lot of things for us,” Woodmen coach Mike Campbell said.
Ruppert ran for four touchdowns and passed for another as the Woodmen topped winless Perry Meridian 42-17 in Mid-State Conference action. Ruppert came in as the quarterback on the second series.
“We like getting all our athletes on the field,” said Ruppert, who finished with 125 yards on 20 carries. “It’s all thanks to the O-line, too. We have one of the best O-lines around locally and if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t get those athletes in place to make plays. The line knows what they are doing. They’re great leaders. They help us get those 5 and 6 yards and we’ll just do that down the field. We don’t care what anyone has to say about it. We’ll just keep doing it over and over.”
Campbell said the Falcons controlled the middle of the offensive line early in the game.
“They packed it in and forced us to make a few adjustments,” said Campbell, whose team improved to 3-3 and 1-3 in the Mid-State. “I thought our offensive line picked things up on those adjustments and did some nice things. I thought our kids played a more consistent game than we have in a long time. That’s what we’ve been working for in practice. It was no mistake we played well. We had a good week of preparation and a good week of practice.”
After Perry Meridian (0-6, 0-5) took a 3-0 lead, Greenwood’s Ethan Haessig broke loose for an 80-yard TD. Haessig finished with 134 yards on 19 carries. On the Falcons’ first play on the ensuing possession, Falcons running back JaJuan Dale scored on a 59-yard run to give the Falcons a 10-7 lead with 4:13 left in the first quarter.
Dale, who also plays linebacker, was ejected for targeting with helmet hit on Greenwood tight end Carter Campbell on an overthrown football with 6.4 seconds left in the first quarter.
“That kid (Dale) is a great athlete,” Mike Campbell said. “You hit a kid in the helmet who is 6-4 and you are only (6 feet). It’s a safety thing. You don’t want to see anything like that happen. Ten or 15 years ago, that was a great hit. Now it’s an ejection, and it should be. Carter is a tough kid. He came out and said he was just mad because because the wanted to catch the ball.”
Ruppert went 22 yards on the next play to put the Woodmen ahead for good at 14-10 at the end of the first quarter. Ruppert added a pair of 3-yard TD runs in the second quarter to give Greenwood a 28-10 halftime lead.
Ruppert tossed a 5-yard TD pass to Carter Campbell in the third quarter. The Falcons scored on Aidan Warren’s 11-yard run to narrow the deficit to 35-17 later in the third quarter. Ruppert capped off the scoring with a 6-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
“As a team, we were all on the same page,” Ruppert said. “We wanted to keep the defense fresh and just keep everyone going to get a big team win that we will need to push ourselves forward for next week. We needed it because we have a big match next week (with Decatur Central).”
Coach Campbell was pleased with his team’s defensive effort, especially Sam Rapp getting two interceptions.
“We gave up one big play, other than that we gave up some chunks but it wasn’t the gashes,” he said. “I felt like we defended the vertical pass better than we have the first few weeks. I thought our corners were solid out there. We came up and tackled well. We still missed a few tackles, but we swarmed the ball better than we have earlier in the season and it certainly showed tonight.”
Greenwood nearly had three runners with more than 100 yards as Noah Apgar rushed for 96 yards on 13 carries. The Woodmen had a 405-186 edge in total yards.
