November 29, 2025 • 21 mins
To kick off this Saturday edition of Indiana Sports Talk, coach Bob Lovell talks to Brendan King, who was on the call for Andrean and Brownstown’s defensive struggle in the Class 2A State Championship this morning. King recaps it and breaks down what led to the Fighting 59er win. Then, coach Lovell reflects on 31 years of Indiana Sports Talk covering high school football. Then, Jim Leisure, who was the color analyst for the game 2A State Championship game, calls in to break down the classic that took place inside Lucas Oil Stadium Saturday.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to Network. Indiana's Indiana Sports
Talk on Bob Lovell is brought to you by Indiana
Donor Network. Coming up high school football championships. Welcome to
Little IU basketball and football plus the Pacers. Right now, though,
turn it over to the start of the show and
the man who had the two to eight championship, the
(00:20):
one and only Brendan King Coach.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's going on? Great to be with you and Caleb
on this Saturday night, and let's get right to it.
It's the IHSAA football State Finals coach. As you said,
the two a ball game going to Andrean in a
seven to zhing shutout of Brownstown Central. That's a game
that was scoreless at halftime, but boy did it ever
(00:44):
pack a punch. That was a spectacular football game, the
first half featuring both teams missing field goals, all kinds
of opportunities. At one point, Brownstown Central stopped seven consecutive
plays ran by andre and that were inside the five
yard line. However, it was a touchdown by Brady Stovall
that eventually put away the ballgame, and Brady Stovevall scored
(01:08):
the only TD of that two way state title seven
to nothing. Browns Andrean with their fourth state championship as
a program. In the four A game, fort Wayne Wanger
got past Ron Colly final of thirty six to twenty nine,
much more high scoring as that one featured a touchdown
in the first minute. I like the first half of
that two way game and the six A game currently
(01:29):
going on. It's Brownsburg holding onto a thirty eight to
seventeen lead. Fourth quarter started the fourth Rocks got a
rally down multiple scores running King Network Indienna.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Welcome back, everybody, this is Indiana Sports Talk. If you're out,
drive carefully, please please. It's a mess, so I we
all know it. So you're part of my gig in
this time of years to try to help you and
uh take a little more time. Just be very very careful,
(02:02):
all right, Brendan King. As I mentioned in the intro,
Brendan had the two A game with Jim Weezer, and
we're gonna talk with Jim a little bit later on.
But nine straight times they stop inside then what is
it ten yard line?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, coach, it was seven consecutive plays Brownstown stopped andre
And inside the five, and many of those were at
the goal line at the one yard line, and it
also featured one time coach where Andrea had the football
at the one and failed to punch it in. It
was a turnover on down. So we you know, we
were joking through a good majority of the broadcast, but
in all seriousness, if you like defense, that was the
(02:41):
ticket you needed to buy because that was a brilliant
football game. And I feel bad for the listener that
was either in and out of their car or listening
sparingly or just kind of checking in right because they
may hear, hey, it's a scoreless game at halftime. It
was one of the best games I've ever seen, and
it finishes in a seven to nothing ball game. So no,
did it have points, Absolutely not. But did it have defense?
(03:02):
Did it have twists and turns? Did it have game
changing moments? You bet you Andre and earned that one
without question.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
See, and I think, you know, you could build the
compelling case that that might be one of the best
championship games in the history of the event, just in
terms of what you're talking about, And people would look
at you dumbfounded and say, you're talking about a seven
to nothing game. What could possibly have been that important
during a seven to a nothing game that you would
(03:29):
say these superlatives about how this thing ended up. Just
what you're saying about. Think about it. Goal line stand
is not just one and not just two, it's seven
of them, basically, Yeah, seven goal line stand seven consecutive
goal line stands, and they would stand their barrage and
unfortunately still losing. So you know, give Andrean credit, give
(03:50):
Andrean and Brownstown Central for hanging in there and literally
playing their hearts out.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh, coach, it was an unbelievable football game. Both teams
missed goals in the first half, so left some points
on the board there. But again, besides that, coach, it
was a heavyweight bout. It was blow for blow on
these Turnofron Down's plays right where you get to third down,
fourth down, And you know, Jim Leisure made a great
comment and again he's gonna call you in a little
bit here. Jim made a great comment during the game.
(04:18):
Inside the twenties, both offenses were brilliant, but outside of
the twenties, when he got into the red area, the
defenses came to play and sort of out of nowhere
at times. So no, again, give credit to both ball clubs.
Brownstown Central was undefeated for a reason. But I'll tell
you what, coach, highest scoring team in the state fifty
four points per game, and Drayan shuts them out and
(04:40):
the fifty nine ers get the game winning touchdown late
in the fourth quarter the run for the junior Brady Stolevall,
and all he did was get behind his six six
three to twenty five left gover Ben Novak, who was
heading to Indiana to play for kurtz Signetti next year.
Ben Novak give him credit on that touchdown just as
much as Stovall got for scoring because Novak threw the
block and Stovall was able to punch it into the
(05:00):
end zone.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So is there a point where Brownstown Central, aside from
maybe the miss field goals, is there a point where
they had touchdown opportunities and were denied?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Very much so Brownstown Central, especially at the end Coach.
On their last drive, they have the ball at their
own twenty yard line, first play with five minutes left
in the fourth quarter, a twenty four yard completion from
Mikah Scheffer, who's heading to Purdue to play golf next year.
He's the quarterback for Brownstown Central. To Preston Garrison, who's
their star running back and of course, coach, we talked
(05:31):
about it all last night. They run the single wing. However,
even though you think about them just as a rushing attack,
they're not a one trick pony. Brownstown Central has thrown
the ball more this year than Andrean, So just when
you think that all they do is run, absolutely not.
Preston Garrison came up with his fourteenth catch of the
season to put them inside the fifty. But that's when
Andrean really put their boots on the turf and completely
(05:54):
stopped Brownstown. But I would say, coach, the game changing
moment here before we go to break the game changing moment.
It was a blocked punt that turned into an illegal
formation penalty that Brownstown Central got rid of. It was
the fourth quarter and it set up that game winning
drive for the fifty nine ers. The punt was partially
blocked by Andrean's Christian Gavin Big Senior six foot two
(06:15):
twenty five at the linebacker, but then after the block,
an illegal formation penalty was called and that allowed andre
to get the ball inside Brownstown Central territory and on
that drive, Coach, they did not miss and they scored.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Brendan King. What an excite I wasn't there, but I'm
excited just listening to it.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
It was incredible.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
No, I was in my car. I was listening to
you and Jim, and you know, I kept thinking, these
guys are pretty fired up about what's going on. And
it wasn't during that goal line stand period of the game.
It was early on, maybe second quarter or so, but
it was again, those are the kinds of thing it was.
(06:59):
That club, an instant, classic situation for that type of ballgame.
And you know, you look at you know the scores
that are you know coming through again, you know with
the Dwinger and Brownsburg and Westfield and everybody in Ron
Colly who says, who's to think that a seven o
games the best of the bunch? Brendan King coming back.
This is Indiana Sports Talk. Welcome back, We're talking football.
(07:27):
This is Indiana Sports Talk. State Finals wrapping up today.
This would be Brendan King. Joint rejoins me. Brendan not
the wax poetic, but here this wraps up the thirty
first year of Indiana Sports Talk doing state finals in football.
Uh And you know when we started, I didn't think
(07:49):
we'd make thirty one days. So, you know, thirty to
thirty one years is incredible. But I continue to be
energized even at this advanced age because of knights like
tonight and knights like last night, and stories like you're
talking about with the Brownstown and Andrean game, and just
the absolute ferocity with which both teams played in one
(08:14):
of those memorable nights of high school football in our state.
It's just it's energizing to hear these kinds of stories.
And you know, for you, you're an old hockey guy, uh,
and all the specially grew up in Yeah you grew up. Yeah, yeah,
just turned what.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Thirty thirty two, thirty one, thirty one.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Thirty one? Sorry about that last year. You'll want it
back at some point. But you you're you know you're
And the other part of it is you're a hockey guy,
right yeah, and so here you but you number one,
you're a pro.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
But you're doing this game and you and Jim Leisure
have to be literally on the edge of your seats
watching this whole thing play out.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Coach. On the seventh consecutive stop that Brownstown had andre
And at the goal line, I was standing, I took
off my suit jacket and my hands were on my
knees as I was broadcasting it like it was crazy.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
It was like washing.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
It was like watching a twist in a Christopher Nolan movie.
It was he had no idea what was gonna come
up next? Coach. One good story I had written down
that I wanted to bring up too was Andrean last
year at Semi State, they lost to Adam Central twenty
to thirteen. The entire offseason Chris Skinner year number ten
(09:31):
at Andrean. He's a two thousand and four state champion
as a player, won twenty twenty one state championship as
a coach. The entirety of the offseason, Chris Skinner, in
auditory fashion, kept on asking his players the entire offseason, quote,
what have you done to close the seven point gap?
Not only did andre and avenge that win over Adam
(09:51):
Central by beating them at Semi State last week, Guess
what they want by today? Seven seven and nothing was
the finals. So I thought that was a cool nugget
of the game. The coach, I'll toss this in there too.
Reid May, head coach of Brownstown three and twenty six wins.
That's fourth among active coaches eighth all time, just the
second time in thirty three years he has been shut out,
(10:12):
the first since nineteen ninety seven. Think about that.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I do.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
He's one of the classiest guys in the business. And
I can't play favorites in this job. It's not it's
not it's not right, and I won't do it. But
I agonized for him and for his community. You just
think about the success that the community of Brownstown has
had on this run. Would he would David Benner, their
(10:39):
longtime Hall of Fame worthy coach his son the run
they had to the state championship and all of that.
Their girls team is fantastic, football team is fantastic. There's
something listen. It's one of those communities that's a championship community,
that's a that's a community with that mentality. And you
(11:01):
want to be a part of those kinds of things.
Oh man, what a fun, fun game. And that's just
one of six.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
How about sex?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
How about it?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And And I've done enough of them and been around
long enough to know, because I'm the ultimate hype man,
I suppose talking about these these will be great games.
They are going to be tremendous drama, on and on
on and invariably you have three or four of the
games end up being blowouts. But you know this, this
one is one one for the ages. All right? What
(11:32):
else you got? You got? We got all kinds of stuff.
We got football basketball, Pacers are playing, yeah, playing the Bulls.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Last couple of minutes, going down to the wire. It's
a one point game. Notre Dame starts at ten thirty
out in Polo Oute. What more can you want?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yep? I guess, just an opportunity to talk to you,
That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I ain't going anywhere, all.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Right, Brenda, can't come over to the school board update.
Stay with us. We get all a lot to talk
about talking about championships. On Network Indiana's Indiana Sports Talk.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I'm Brendan King with this Network Indiana scoreboard update here
on Indiana Sports Talk. Getting down to the wire from
Lucas Oil Stadium. In the final state championship game of
this twenty twenty five window for the ISHSAA football State Finals,
Brownsburg is trying to go back to back. The Bulldogs,
with eight minutes and forty nine seconds remaining in the fourth,
have a thirty eight to seventeen lead on Westfield. Brownsburg
(12:30):
has punched together three hundred and eighty seven total yards
on the night and the Bulldogs are ever so close
to pushing back to back state championships under head coach
John Hart. Again. Earlier this afternoon four a game fort
Wayne Dwanger got pasted ron Klli thirty six twenty nine
was the final score. And then as coach and I
have discussed that seven to zhering final that saw Andre
(12:52):
and shutting out Brownstown Central Hey on the Pacers last
thirty four seconds of the ballgame at Cambridge field House,
Indiana's looking for back to back wins for the first
time this year. The Pacers have a one hundred to
ninety nine lead on the Bulls. Indiana beat Washington last
night at Cambridge field House and are trying to take
the back to back on the night for the Pacers.
(13:14):
Pascal Siaka with twenty two points, Ben Mathern with nineteen,
how about Jay huff the Pacers center has fourteen points.
They all came consecutively to start the game. No other
Pacer in the first fourteen points in the night had
points except for Jay Hoffey has not scored since that point, however,
coming up at ten thirty, the number nine Notre Dame
(13:37):
fighting Irish try and get to double digit wins, taking
on Frank Reich, Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinal ten
to thirty kickoff from Palo Alto and what will be
Frank Reich's final game as the head coach at Stanford.
I'm Brendan King.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Welcome back. This is Indiana Sports Suck, brought to you
by Indiana Donor Network. We've talked about the two A
game with the man who had the call to play
by play call Brendan King. Let's bring in the star
of the two A broadcast, Jim Leisure. All right, Jim,
Brendan and I were talking about this tremendous goal line stand.
You've done this a while. There's no way you've seen
(14:12):
anything like this before, is there.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Well, it's obviously rare, and when you do see it,
you really have to kind of pause and appreciate what
you're seeing. Ye, fantastic defensive performance. I mean Brownstown comes
in averaging fifty four point seven points a game, andre
and giving up twelve a game defensively. Something had to
give and today it was not the Andre and defense.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I mean Brendan was taking me through the Brownstown Central
onslaught to try to get in the end zone, you
know at the inside the ten You heard Line talk
about the goal line stand. Walk me through that from
your perspective and what you saw unfold right in front
of your eyes.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
You know, one of the things that I really thought
we would see is a little bit of you know, attrition, Uh,
basically exhaustion. Neither one of these teams had had announced it.
Quit in and Bob and and uh and you know,
and you may have been talking with Brendan about the
Brownstown goal line stands. They had a couple. Yeah, Andrew
was eating on the on the door all day long.
And you know, between the twenties and the twenties, both
(15:17):
teams were moving the football, but then when it got
inside the red zone, man, it was just a different speed.
And those kids never quit on either side. Very impressive.
A lot of kids going both ways, as small schools
tend to do, you know, just kids playing. They they
just wanted that blue ring and you know, doing what
their coaches told them to do. We saw some great fundamentals. Uh,
(15:39):
we saw some great tackling.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
You know, sometimes when you watch a game, you just
sit and count the miss tackles.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Not today.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Both teams were dialed in and when they hit you, you
stayed hit. You knew you'd been hit, and both teams
got kids, just got up and kept playing.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Jim Leezier with us. We're talking about the two eight
championship game, and I mentioned this to Brendan. You know,
when you have six games and you're trying to talk
about them and preview them, and you expect them, you know,
playing for a championship, you expect good ball games. Oftentimes
it doesn't turn out that way. But this is one
that lived up to the hype. And again you're talking
(16:17):
about one of the highest, if not it's talking about
the highest scoring team in the state going against a
team that's good and rain has won multiple championships. But
to have it come down to a seven oh score,
I don't think anybody expected that.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
No, I did not. I told Brendan before the game.
I thought Andrein had a slight advantage because of the
schedule that they play. I think that's at early Brownstown
was trying to get to the perimeter on a lot
of their outside runs out of that single wing offense,
and these are plays I told Brennan on the air
that probably were successful throughout the year because they weren't
(16:51):
playing people with the lateral speed that Drayan has Andrein's
kids were playing sideline. The sideline and what would have
normally been huge games earlier in the year, we're going
for little or no games because of the end speed.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
As a coach, I'm curious how you prepare in a
week for an offense that you probably haven't seen at
all the entire year, and you know it's assignment based,
you know, you know you cover these situations in practice
from day one, and you know, just state of your assignments,
stay to your state, say to the keys and all
those things you have, but still preparing to go against
(17:29):
that offense that's, as we mentioned, the most prolific one
in the state is a major challenge.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Yeah, and I was fortunate enough to coach with a
couple of really good defensive coordinators and later head coaches
and Doug Armstrong and Tom Dilly. Sure, yeah, great minds.
And whenever we did that, we did a couple of things. One,
we took the scout team and while we while while
the rest of the squad was going through special teams
and we took the scout team down with some coaches
(17:58):
and they were just running this unit offense. They we
wanted them to have as many reps as they possibly could.
Then on defense, Bobby, it's assignment football. You've got the quarterback,
you've got the fullback, you've got the wing back. Don't
worry about anything else. So what we would do is
we would practice without a football. We would run their plays,
all their motions and shifts, and then we but we
(18:19):
didn't have a ball. And when a kid was chasing them,
you know it's like, son, who do you got to
the quarterback? Well, then why are you chasing the running back? Well,
I thought he had the ball. Coach, there is no balls, right,
you know, go to your guy. Don't worry. You got
to go for that guy. And that's one of the
ways that that Tom and Doug always did it. You
just got to, you know, give the kids their assignment
(18:40):
and keep it simple and make sure that they don't
try to do too much.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Did you get a chance to see the four A
matchup at all?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I saw it, well, I listened to most of it
on the radio on the way home, and sounded like
a fantastic football game. Again, I think that was a
seven point game as well. Really, Bobb the all three
games yesterday, we're close, I know, Pioneer and South put
we're sept or sorry, fourteen fourteen and a half. And
then Attrician I thought the same thing in the New
pal game, right, Uh, seventeen seventeen in the fourth quarter,
(19:11):
and then I thought the Maryville kids kind of wore down. Uh. So,
you know, they've been great games. And one of the
things that one of the kids that Chris Lowry are
fantastic sideline reporters, right, asked one of the kids at
andre and and he said, he goes, you know, I
want to thank everybody who puts this thing on. He said,
this is a tremendous opportunity, basically, you know, saying, this
(19:35):
is a heck of a party, and I'm just glad
to be invited to it. Just on a heck of
a party this weekend. And I can't imagine anybody is
going to the ticket office wanting their money back.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
You got to appreciate too, the fact that you know,
I'm a basketball guy. I'm an outsider so to speak.
But Mike, I continue to believe that football gets better
and better statewide every year.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, there's no doubt about it. I think a lot
of that has to do. I call it my Mount
Rushmore of coaches Chris Gave Penn and Dick Dellahana, Ben Davis.
I think you can add Eric Moore in there. But
those were guys and you know, Bob. When I started
coaching football in height nineteen ninety, I couldn't believe how
you would go to a clinic, whether it be local
or on a national level, and these coaches were up
there telling you exactly what they run and how they
(20:24):
block it. You know, Dick Toham was one. You had
a problem. You could call Dick and say, coach, how
do y'all run this trap or how do y'all run
this counter? And he tell you. Now he might be
putting him later in the year, right, but cared about
the game. He cared about the development. When I first
started coaching in the nineteen nineties, Indiana was lucky to
have twenty five Division one football players right out of
(20:47):
the state. And now look at it. I mean, we
got you know, Boston College at my Aapolis for years
and look how many kids now go local. Back then,
of those twenty five kids, not a lot of them
went to IU and Purdue. I mean, it was always
somewhere else. And now, kids, we had a young man
today who played for andre and that Ben Novak, sixty
(21:09):
six three, big offensive lineman. Whenever they needed a play,
they ran behind Ben. He's going to IU after originally
committing to Wisconsin. So some of these kids are deciding
to stay home.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
And Jim Leisure I heard I caught you in the car.
You guys were great. I appreciate you taking the time. Jim,
have a fantastic weekend. Yeah, thank you, Thank you very much.
Thanks
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to Network. Indiana's Indiana Sports
Talk on Bob Lovell is brought to you by Indiana
Donor Network. Coming up high school football championships. Welcome to
Little IU basketball and football plus the Pacers. Right now, though,
turn it over to the start of the show and
the man who had the two to eight championship, the
(00:20):
one and only Brendan King Coach.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
What's going on? Great to be with you and Caleb
on this Saturday night, and let's get right to it.
It's the IHSAA football State Finals coach. As you said,
the two a ball game going to Andrean in a
seven to zhing shutout of Brownstown Central. That's a game
that was scoreless at halftime, but boy did it ever
(00:44):
pack a punch. That was a spectacular football game, the
first half featuring both teams missing field goals, all kinds
of opportunities. At one point, Brownstown Central stopped seven consecutive
plays ran by andre and that were inside the five
yard line. However, it was a touchdown by Brady Stovall
that eventually put away the ballgame, and Brady Stovevall scored
(01:08):
the only TD of that two way state title seven
to nothing. Browns Andrean with their fourth state championship as
a program. In the four A game, fort Wayne Wanger
got past Ron Colly final of thirty six to twenty nine,
much more high scoring as that one featured a touchdown
in the first minute. I like the first half of
that two way game and the six A game currently
(01:29):
going on. It's Brownsburg holding onto a thirty eight to
seventeen lead. Fourth quarter started the fourth Rocks got a
rally down multiple scores running King Network Indienna.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Welcome back, everybody, this is Indiana Sports Talk. If you're out,
drive carefully, please please. It's a mess, so I we
all know it. So you're part of my gig in
this time of years to try to help you and
uh take a little more time. Just be very very careful,
(02:02):
all right, Brendan King. As I mentioned in the intro,
Brendan had the two A game with Jim Weezer, and
we're gonna talk with Jim a little bit later on.
But nine straight times they stop inside then what is
it ten yard line?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, coach, it was seven consecutive plays Brownstown stopped andre
And inside the five, and many of those were at
the goal line at the one yard line, and it
also featured one time coach where Andrea had the football
at the one and failed to punch it in. It
was a turnover on down. So we you know, we
were joking through a good majority of the broadcast, but
in all seriousness, if you like defense, that was the
(02:41):
ticket you needed to buy because that was a brilliant
football game. And I feel bad for the listener that
was either in and out of their car or listening
sparingly or just kind of checking in right because they
may hear, hey, it's a scoreless game at halftime. It
was one of the best games I've ever seen, and
it finishes in a seven to nothing ball game. So no,
did it have points, Absolutely not. But did it have defense?
(03:02):
Did it have twists and turns? Did it have game
changing moments? You bet you Andre and earned that one
without question.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
See, and I think, you know, you could build the
compelling case that that might be one of the best
championship games in the history of the event, just in
terms of what you're talking about, And people would look
at you dumbfounded and say, you're talking about a seven
to nothing game. What could possibly have been that important
during a seven to a nothing game that you would
(03:29):
say these superlatives about how this thing ended up. Just
what you're saying about. Think about it. Goal line stand
is not just one and not just two, it's seven
of them, basically, Yeah, seven goal line stand seven consecutive
goal line stands, and they would stand their barrage and
unfortunately still losing. So you know, give Andrean credit, give
(03:50):
Andrean and Brownstown Central for hanging in there and literally
playing their hearts out.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Oh, coach, it was an unbelievable football game. Both teams
missed goals in the first half, so left some points
on the board there. But again, besides that, coach, it
was a heavyweight bout. It was blow for blow on
these Turnofron Down's plays right where you get to third down,
fourth down, And you know, Jim Leisure made a great
comment and again he's gonna call you in a little
bit here. Jim made a great comment during the game.
(04:18):
Inside the twenties, both offenses were brilliant, but outside of
the twenties, when he got into the red area, the
defenses came to play and sort of out of nowhere
at times. So no, again, give credit to both ball clubs.
Brownstown Central was undefeated for a reason. But I'll tell
you what, coach, highest scoring team in the state fifty
four points per game, and Drayan shuts them out and
(04:40):
the fifty nine ers get the game winning touchdown late
in the fourth quarter the run for the junior Brady Stolevall,
and all he did was get behind his six six
three to twenty five left gover Ben Novak, who was
heading to Indiana to play for kurtz Signetti next year.
Ben Novak give him credit on that touchdown just as
much as Stovall got for scoring because Novak threw the
block and Stovall was able to punch it into the
(05:00):
end zone.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
So is there a point where Brownstown Central, aside from
maybe the miss field goals, is there a point where
they had touchdown opportunities and were denied?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Very much so Brownstown Central, especially at the end Coach.
On their last drive, they have the ball at their
own twenty yard line, first play with five minutes left
in the fourth quarter, a twenty four yard completion from
Mikah Scheffer, who's heading to Purdue to play golf next year.
He's the quarterback for Brownstown Central. To Preston Garrison, who's
their star running back and of course, coach, we talked
(05:31):
about it all last night. They run the single wing. However,
even though you think about them just as a rushing attack,
they're not a one trick pony. Brownstown Central has thrown
the ball more this year than Andrean, So just when
you think that all they do is run, absolutely not.
Preston Garrison came up with his fourteenth catch of the
season to put them inside the fifty. But that's when
Andrean really put their boots on the turf and completely
(05:54):
stopped Brownstown. But I would say, coach, the game changing
moment here before we go to break the game changing moment.
It was a blocked punt that turned into an illegal
formation penalty that Brownstown Central got rid of. It was
the fourth quarter and it set up that game winning
drive for the fifty nine ers. The punt was partially
blocked by Andrean's Christian Gavin Big Senior six foot two
(06:15):
twenty five at the linebacker, but then after the block,
an illegal formation penalty was called and that allowed andre
to get the ball inside Brownstown Central territory and on
that drive, Coach, they did not miss and they scored.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Brendan King. What an excite I wasn't there, but I'm
excited just listening to it.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
It was incredible.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
No, I was in my car. I was listening to
you and Jim, and you know, I kept thinking, these
guys are pretty fired up about what's going on. And
it wasn't during that goal line stand period of the game.
It was early on, maybe second quarter or so, but
it was again, those are the kinds of thing it was.
(06:59):
That club, an instant, classic situation for that type of ballgame.
And you know, you look at you know the scores
that are you know coming through again, you know with
the Dwinger and Brownsburg and Westfield and everybody in Ron
Colly who says, who's to think that a seven o
games the best of the bunch? Brendan King coming back.
This is Indiana Sports Talk. Welcome back, We're talking football.
(07:27):
This is Indiana Sports Talk. State Finals wrapping up today.
This would be Brendan King. Joint rejoins me. Brendan not
the wax poetic, but here this wraps up the thirty
first year of Indiana Sports Talk doing state finals in football.
Uh And you know when we started, I didn't think
(07:49):
we'd make thirty one days. So, you know, thirty to
thirty one years is incredible. But I continue to be
energized even at this advanced age because of knights like
tonight and knights like last night, and stories like you're
talking about with the Brownstown and Andrean game, and just
the absolute ferocity with which both teams played in one
(08:14):
of those memorable nights of high school football in our state.
It's just it's energizing to hear these kinds of stories.
And you know, for you, you're an old hockey guy, uh,
and all the specially grew up in Yeah you grew up. Yeah, yeah,
just turned what.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Thirty thirty two, thirty one, thirty one.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Thirty one? Sorry about that last year. You'll want it
back at some point. But you you're you know you're
And the other part of it is you're a hockey guy,
right yeah, and so here you but you number one,
you're a pro.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
But you're doing this game and you and Jim Leisure
have to be literally on the edge of your seats
watching this whole thing play out.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Coach. On the seventh consecutive stop that Brownstown had andre
And at the goal line, I was standing, I took
off my suit jacket and my hands were on my
knees as I was broadcasting it like it was crazy.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
It was like washing.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
It was like watching a twist in a Christopher Nolan movie.
It was he had no idea what was gonna come
up next? Coach. One good story I had written down
that I wanted to bring up too was Andrean last
year at Semi State, they lost to Adam Central twenty
to thirteen. The entire offseason Chris Skinner year number ten
(09:31):
at Andrean. He's a two thousand and four state champion
as a player, won twenty twenty one state championship as
a coach. The entirety of the offseason, Chris Skinner, in
auditory fashion, kept on asking his players the entire offseason, quote,
what have you done to close the seven point gap?
Not only did andre and avenge that win over Adam
(09:51):
Central by beating them at Semi State last week, Guess
what they want by today? Seven seven and nothing was
the finals. So I thought that was a cool nugget
of the game. The coach, I'll toss this in there too.
Reid May, head coach of Brownstown three and twenty six wins.
That's fourth among active coaches eighth all time, just the
second time in thirty three years he has been shut out,
(10:12):
the first since nineteen ninety seven. Think about that.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I do.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
He's one of the classiest guys in the business. And
I can't play favorites in this job. It's not it's
not it's not right, and I won't do it. But
I agonized for him and for his community. You just
think about the success that the community of Brownstown has
had on this run. Would he would David Benner, their
(10:39):
longtime Hall of Fame worthy coach his son the run
they had to the state championship and all of that.
Their girls team is fantastic, football team is fantastic. There's
something listen. It's one of those communities that's a championship community,
that's a that's a community with that mentality. And you
(11:01):
want to be a part of those kinds of things.
Oh man, what a fun, fun game. And that's just
one of six.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
How about sex?
Speaker 2 (11:09):
How about it?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And And I've done enough of them and been around
long enough to know, because I'm the ultimate hype man,
I suppose talking about these these will be great games.
They are going to be tremendous drama, on and on
on and invariably you have three or four of the
games end up being blowouts. But you know this, this
one is one one for the ages. All right? What
(11:32):
else you got? You got? We got all kinds of stuff.
We got football basketball, Pacers are playing, yeah, playing the Bulls.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Last couple of minutes, going down to the wire. It's
a one point game. Notre Dame starts at ten thirty
out in Polo Oute. What more can you want?
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yep? I guess, just an opportunity to talk to you,
That's what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
I ain't going anywhere, all.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Right, Brenda, can't come over to the school board update.
Stay with us. We get all a lot to talk
about talking about championships. On Network Indiana's Indiana Sports Talk.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I'm Brendan King with this Network Indiana scoreboard update here
on Indiana Sports Talk. Getting down to the wire from
Lucas Oil Stadium. In the final state championship game of
this twenty twenty five window for the ISHSAA football State Finals,
Brownsburg is trying to go back to back. The Bulldogs,
with eight minutes and forty nine seconds remaining in the fourth,
have a thirty eight to seventeen lead on Westfield. Brownsburg
(12:30):
has punched together three hundred and eighty seven total yards
on the night and the Bulldogs are ever so close
to pushing back to back state championships under head coach
John Hart. Again. Earlier this afternoon four a game fort
Wayne Dwanger got pasted ron Klli thirty six twenty nine
was the final score. And then as coach and I
have discussed that seven to zhering final that saw Andre
(12:52):
and shutting out Brownstown Central Hey on the Pacers last
thirty four seconds of the ballgame at Cambridge field House,
Indiana's looking for back to back wins for the first
time this year. The Pacers have a one hundred to
ninety nine lead on the Bulls. Indiana beat Washington last
night at Cambridge field House and are trying to take
the back to back on the night for the Pacers.
(13:14):
Pascal Siaka with twenty two points, Ben Mathern with nineteen,
how about Jay huff the Pacers center has fourteen points.
They all came consecutively to start the game. No other
Pacer in the first fourteen points in the night had
points except for Jay Hoffey has not scored since that point, however,
coming up at ten thirty, the number nine Notre Dame
(13:37):
fighting Irish try and get to double digit wins, taking
on Frank Reich, Andrew Luck and the Stanford Cardinal ten
to thirty kickoff from Palo Alto and what will be
Frank Reich's final game as the head coach at Stanford.
I'm Brendan King.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Welcome back. This is Indiana Sports Suck, brought to you
by Indiana Donor Network. We've talked about the two A
game with the man who had the call to play
by play call Brendan King. Let's bring in the star
of the two A broadcast, Jim Leisure. All right, Jim,
Brendan and I were talking about this tremendous goal line stand.
You've done this a while. There's no way you've seen
(14:12):
anything like this before, is there.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Well, it's obviously rare, and when you do see it,
you really have to kind of pause and appreciate what
you're seeing. Ye, fantastic defensive performance. I mean Brownstown comes
in averaging fifty four point seven points a game, andre
and giving up twelve a game defensively. Something had to
give and today it was not the Andre and defense.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
I mean Brendan was taking me through the Brownstown Central
onslaught to try to get in the end zone, you
know at the inside the ten You heard Line talk
about the goal line stand. Walk me through that from
your perspective and what you saw unfold right in front
of your eyes.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
You know, one of the things that I really thought
we would see is a little bit of you know, attrition, Uh,
basically exhaustion. Neither one of these teams had had announced it.
Quit in and Bob and and uh and you know,
and you may have been talking with Brendan about the
Brownstown goal line stands. They had a couple. Yeah, Andrew
was eating on the on the door all day long.
And you know, between the twenties and the twenties, both
(15:17):
teams were moving the football, but then when it got
inside the red zone, man, it was just a different speed.
And those kids never quit on either side. Very impressive.
A lot of kids going both ways, as small schools
tend to do, you know, just kids playing. They they
just wanted that blue ring and you know, doing what
their coaches told them to do. We saw some great fundamentals. Uh,
(15:39):
we saw some great tackling.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
You know, sometimes when you watch a game, you just
sit and count the miss tackles.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Not today.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Both teams were dialed in and when they hit you, you
stayed hit. You knew you'd been hit, and both teams
got kids, just got up and kept playing.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Jim Leezier with us. We're talking about the two eight
championship game, and I mentioned this to Brendan. You know,
when you have six games and you're trying to talk
about them and preview them, and you expect them, you know,
playing for a championship, you expect good ball games. Oftentimes
it doesn't turn out that way. But this is one
that lived up to the hype. And again you're talking
(16:17):
about one of the highest, if not it's talking about
the highest scoring team in the state going against a
team that's good and rain has won multiple championships. But
to have it come down to a seven oh score,
I don't think anybody expected that.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
No, I did not. I told Brendan before the game.
I thought Andrein had a slight advantage because of the
schedule that they play. I think that's at early Brownstown
was trying to get to the perimeter on a lot
of their outside runs out of that single wing offense,
and these are plays I told Brennan on the air
that probably were successful throughout the year because they weren't
(16:51):
playing people with the lateral speed that Drayan has Andrein's
kids were playing sideline. The sideline and what would have
normally been huge games earlier in the year, we're going
for little or no games because of the end speed.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
As a coach, I'm curious how you prepare in a
week for an offense that you probably haven't seen at
all the entire year, and you know it's assignment based,
you know, you know you cover these situations in practice
from day one, and you know, just state of your assignments,
stay to your state, say to the keys and all
those things you have, but still preparing to go against
(17:29):
that offense that's, as we mentioned, the most prolific one
in the state is a major challenge.
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Yeah, and I was fortunate enough to coach with a
couple of really good defensive coordinators and later head coaches
and Doug Armstrong and Tom Dilly. Sure, yeah, great minds.
And whenever we did that, we did a couple of things. One,
we took the scout team and while we while while
the rest of the squad was going through special teams
and we took the scout team down with some coaches
(17:58):
and they were just running this unit offense. They we
wanted them to have as many reps as they possibly could.
Then on defense, Bobby, it's assignment football. You've got the quarterback,
you've got the fullback, you've got the wing back. Don't
worry about anything else. So what we would do is
we would practice without a football. We would run their plays,
all their motions and shifts, and then we but we
(18:19):
didn't have a ball. And when a kid was chasing them,
you know it's like, son, who do you got to
the quarterback? Well, then why are you chasing the running back? Well,
I thought he had the ball. Coach, there is no balls, right,
you know, go to your guy. Don't worry. You got
to go for that guy. And that's one of the
ways that that Tom and Doug always did it. You
just got to, you know, give the kids their assignment
(18:40):
and keep it simple and make sure that they don't
try to do too much.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
Did you get a chance to see the four A
matchup at all?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
I saw it, well, I listened to most of it
on the radio on the way home, and sounded like
a fantastic football game. Again, I think that was a
seven point game as well. Really, Bobb the all three
games yesterday, we're close, I know, Pioneer and South put
we're sept or sorry, fourteen fourteen and a half. And
then Attrician I thought the same thing in the New
pal game, right, Uh, seventeen seventeen in the fourth quarter,
(19:11):
and then I thought the Maryville kids kind of wore down. Uh. So,
you know, they've been great games. And one of the
things that one of the kids that Chris Lowry are
fantastic sideline reporters, right, asked one of the kids at
andre and and he said, he goes, you know, I
want to thank everybody who puts this thing on. He said,
this is a tremendous opportunity, basically, you know, saying, this
(19:35):
is a heck of a party, and I'm just glad
to be invited to it. Just on a heck of
a party this weekend. And I can't imagine anybody is
going to the ticket office wanting their money back.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
You got to appreciate too, the fact that you know,
I'm a basketball guy. I'm an outsider so to speak.
But Mike, I continue to believe that football gets better
and better statewide every year.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, there's no doubt about it. I think a lot
of that has to do. I call it my Mount
Rushmore of coaches Chris Gave Penn and Dick Dellahana, Ben Davis.
I think you can add Eric Moore in there. But
those were guys and you know, Bob. When I started
coaching football in height nineteen ninety, I couldn't believe how
you would go to a clinic, whether it be local
or on a national level, and these coaches were up
there telling you exactly what they run and how they
(20:24):
block it. You know, Dick Toham was one. You had
a problem. You could call Dick and say, coach, how
do y'all run this trap or how do y'all run
this counter? And he tell you. Now he might be
putting him later in the year, right, but cared about
the game. He cared about the development. When I first
started coaching in the nineteen nineties, Indiana was lucky to
have twenty five Division one football players right out of
(20:47):
the state. And now look at it. I mean, we
got you know, Boston College at my Aapolis for years
and look how many kids now go local. Back then,
of those twenty five kids, not a lot of them
went to IU and Purdue. I mean, it was always
somewhere else. And now, kids, we had a young man
today who played for andre and that Ben Novak, sixty
(21:09):
six three, big offensive lineman. Whenever they needed a play,
they ran behind Ben. He's going to IU after originally
committing to Wisconsin. So some of these kids are deciding
to stay home.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
And Jim Leisure I heard I caught you in the car.
You guys were great. I appreciate you taking the time. Jim,
have a fantastic weekend. Yeah, thank you, Thank you very much.
Thanks
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