Edinburgh’s Jarrett Turner (20) stretches the ball out for a first down during Friday’s game against Knightstown.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
A third quarter scoring blitz ended Edinburgh’s season in the first round of Class A sectional play Friday night. Knightstown held a slim 6-3 lead at halftime but scored three touchdowns in the span of 5:07 to open the second half and pull away from the Lancers for the 26-9 victory.
“I feel like they just executed better in the second half,” Edinburgh coach Tyler DeSpain said. “We knew they wanted to spread us out. We knew they wanted (Mason Fields) to run the ball, and that was tough for us to stop tonight.”
Edinburgh (4-5) appeared to be off to the races on its first possession. Quarterback Caleb Murphy found a streaking Caleb Dewey down the right sideline on the first play from scrimmage for a 50-yard strike, and the Lancers were in business at the Knightstown 10-yard line. But two plays later, Murphy was intercepted at the goal line by the Panthers’ Mathew Smith, who returned the ball to the 45-yard line of the Lancers.
“I feel like that first drive got into Murphy’s head a little bit. He’s a young quarterback, so it affected him some,” DeSpain stated.
From there, Knightstown moved down the field, using a 12-play drive, capped off by Fields finding receiver Camden Gorman for an 8-yard touchdown to put the Panthers up 6-0 with 4:29 left in the first quarter.
Edinburgh was able to answer back on its next drive, quickly moving the ball down to the Panthers’ 13-yard line before a bad snap backed them up to the 21. Following an incomplete pass on third down, Lancer placekicker Enrique Callejas boomed a 39-yard field goal to cut the lead in half, 6-3, early in the second quarter.
Knightstown received the second-half kickoff and marched right down the field, using the legs of Fields for the majority of the drive. He rushed for 75 yards, the last 3 which put him in the end zone to extend the Panthers’ lead to 14-3.
Following an Edinburgh fumble, Knightstown took advantage of great field position and once again found the end zone. This time, it was Bryce Gorman who found pay dirt from 7 yards out to put Knightstown up 20-3 with 5:27 remaining in the third. The Panthers continued to keep the momentum on the ensuing kickoff, as they recovered another Lancer fumble on the Edinburgh 33. It took just two plays for Fields to once again find the enzone, galloping around the right side of the line from 27 yards out with 4:16 left in the quarter.
Edinburgh made a switch at quarterback in the second half, as Jarrett Turner replaced Murphy. After fumbling on the first possession, Turner settled in and drove the Lancers down the field, finding Dewey on a screen pass from 7 yards for a Lancer touchdown that cut Knightstown’s lead to 26-9 with 1:26 left in the third.
“The switch was a coaching decision,” DeSpain said. “I feel like Jarrett can run around a little more back there, use his legs to make some plays, so that’s what I decided.”
The Lancers then recovered an onside kick to give themselves a chance to get right back into the game. Unfortunately, a personal foul penalty backed Edinburgh up and it could not recover, turning the ball over on downs.
The Lancers managed to get a fourth-down stop of their own, but only two minutes remained in the game. A long completion from Murphy to Blaze Jensen, coupled with a face mask penalty, moved the ball down to the 7-yard line. Unfortunately, like it had all game, Edinburgh suffered self-inflicted wounds, as an intentional grounding penalty backed the Lancers to the 33-yard line, keeping them off the scoreboard.
DeSpain noted that his team only dressed 22 players on Friday.
“We were missing some key guys,” he said. “Also, we hadn’t had Dewey for three weeks, and he’s still probably only 80%, so that makes a difference.”
