Perry Central runs past Miners for sectional crown
Perry Central senior tailback Mikey Wilkerson ran the football 52 times for 232 yards and scored three touchdowns to lead the Commodores past Linton-Stockton 28-17 in the Class A Sectional 40 championship game at Roy Williams Field Friday night.
“They’re a good ballclub,” Linton-Stockton (9-3) coach Steve Weber said. “They’re well coached, strong, fast and they execute what they do well, they’re a very good ballclub.”
Weber credited his team for doing what he and the assistant coaches had taught them to do — and Wilkerson for doing what he did as well.
“Where he’s running there’s no holes there, there’s no where to run,” Weber said. “That’s how the defense was set up and there’s no where to go and he found the holes, he’s a top notch back.”
Weber took his analysis of the situation a step further by admitting that his team could have probably been a little stronger physically at the end.
“They were stronger and faster right now,” he said. “I’ve got to get my boys in the weight room, they’ve got to believe me.
“They’ve got to get in the weight room and get back to where we used to be as far as strength.”
Wilkerson’s gawdy night was all a part of an offensive onslaught by Perry Central that outrushed the Miners by 219 yards and chewed up over 35 minutes of game clock — in all it was the worst rushing performance by Linton-Stockton this year.
Their lowest rushing output prior to Friday’s contest came in a 73-33 loss at North Daviess when they were held just 64 yards on the ground.
“It’s hard to run on them,” Weber said. “They had eight men on the line, you’ve got to throw the ball against that.”
In Friday’s game they were limited to 49 yards on a combined 12 carries between Ty Scott (8 rushes for 45 yards), Kent Helton (3 carries for just 8 yards) and quarterback Austin Karazsia (1 carry for a 4 yard loss).
“We knew going in that we were going to have to throw the ball,” Weber said. “We were having a hard time slowing them down and running the ball against them — so that was our best opportunity (to pass the ball).”
The lone offensive bright spot came from Karazsia who set a new school standard for pass attempts and passing yards in a season.
The sophomore signal caller now un officially has thrown the ball 270 times eclipsing the record of 243 attempts shared by mark Kaiser in 1986 and Jeremy Newton in 2000.
His 211 passing yards now unofficially gives Karazsia 2,220 yards this season, easily taking over the single-season yardage lead from Kaiser who threw for 2,083 yards in 1986 as well.
“He did well, the offensive line did well and the receivers did a good job,” Weber said. “I was very proud of them.”
Despite being intercepted four times, Karazsia did hook up with Bradbury for a 46 yard scoring strike in the second quarter that pulled the Miners within striking distance at 14-10, but it would be as close as they would come the rest of the game.
After Perry Central quarterback Dee Jay Shaw (who completed just 3 of 5 passes for 91 yards) connected with Lucas Bryant for a 54 yard scoring strike on the Commodores’ first possession, sophomore kicker Dyllanne Deischer hit a 21 yard field goal to cut the margin to 7-3.
Perry Central struck twice in the second quarter when Wilkerson ran the football in the end zone on jaunts of 4 and 5 yards, then added an insurance score with 2:08 to play in the third quarter.
Wilkerson’s final score of the night negated a Ty Scott 2 yarder five minutes earlier that cut the gap to 21-17.
Perry Central, who has now defeated the Miners 5 of the 8 times the schools have met — all in sectional play and all but one game at Roy Williams Field, will host Fountain Central in next week’s regional.
IHSAA Class A Sectional 40
Championship
COMMODORES 28, MINERS 17
Perry Central7 14 7 0 — 28
Linton-Stockton 3 7 7 0 — 17
First Quarter
P — Lucas Bryant 54 pass from Dee Jay Shaw (Austin LeClere kick), 9:48.
L — Dyllanne Deischer 21 yard field goal, 5:44.
Second Quarter
P — Mikey Wilkerson 4 run (LeClere kick), 11:38.
L — Cole Bradbury 46 pass from Austin Karazsia (Deischer kick), 7:31.
P — Wilkerson 5 run (LeClere kick), :43.
Third Quarter
L — Ty Scott 2 run (Deischer kick), 8:03.
P — Wilkerson 1 run (LeClere kick), 2:08.
PC L
First downs 21 10
Rushes-yards 66-268 12-49
Passing yards 91 199
Total yards 359 248
C-A-I 3-5-0 19-31-4
Punts-yards 1-33 0-0
Penalties-yards 7-55 5-26
Return yards 62 55
Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-1
Time of possession 35:10 12:50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Perry Central, Wilkerson 52-232, Hunter LaGrange 8-28, Shaw 3-(minus 5), Justin Hagen 3-13. Linton-Stockton, Scott 8-45, Kent Helton 3-8, Karazsia 1-(minus 4).
PASSING — Perry Central, Shaw 3-5-0-91. Linton-Stockton, Karazsia 19-31-4-199.
RECEIVING — Perry Central, Lucas Bryant 3-91. Linton-Stockton, Scott 2-15, Helton 2-6, Caleb Stuppy 5-44, Bradbury 9-130, Koye Kaiser 1-4.
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