By Mike McGraw
Executive Director
EASTBROOK – One undefeated team played like a champion, and the other fought and acted like one Nov. 13 in the Class 3A Regional 10 contest before 3,335 fans at Eastbrook’s George Freck Complex. Second-ranked West Lafayette took down a gallant but outmanned No. 3 Panther squad, 34-15, to advance to the Final Four in 3A.
The difference in this one was speed, and lots of it. West Lafayette (13-0) used sped on offense to total nearly 300 yards rushing and speed on defense to bottle up the vaunted Eastbrook rushing attack.
The Red Devils led this contest 14-0 before fans were even comfortable in their seats. After stalling on their initial drive, the Devils recovered a muffed punt by Eastbrook (12-1) at the Panther 17-yard line.
It took senior quarterback Daniel Wodicka just two plays to cover that distance. He went for 11 yards up the middle on the first play and covered the last six on a nearly identical jaunt on the second.
After Eastbrook failed to move, West Lafayette did so to the tune of 70 yards in just three plays. The big strike was another Wodicka run, this one for 59 yards down the right sideline. He then hit senior wide receiver Andrew Pekny with a six-yard bullet for the second West Lafayette score of the first quarter.
What followed was the key part of the game. On its next three possessions, Eastbrook entered or neared the West Lafayette red zone. The Panthers came away with a missed field goal, an interception, and a failed fourth-down attempt.
Despite dominating nearly a quarter of play, the Panthers placed no points on the board. It quickly came back to haunt them.
The next time Eastbrook had the ball, junior quarterback Tanner Day suffered his second interception of the half (he finished with three). Starting on its own 42, West Lafayette needed only three plays to increase the lead to 21-0.
The big blow came on a 54-yard pass from Wodicka to junior Aaron Woodard that placed the ball on the Eastbrook 3.
The fatal blow came moments later. Eastbrook junior quarterback Tanner Day dropped back deep in his own territory and tried to float a middle screen. The Red Devils’ Zach Waters jumped and plucked the ball out of the air, returning it 19 yards for a touchdown and sending West Lafayette to intermission with a 28-0 margin.
Anyone who thought the first-half barrage would break Eastbrook was in for a quick surprise. The Panthers took the opening kickoff of the second half and immediately drove 80 yards to dent the scoreboard on a one-yard run by Day, making it 28-7.
The rally, however, went no further. West Lafayette responded with an 80-yard drive of its own, and Wodicka (110 yards and three touchdowns rushing, 130 yards and another TD passing) covered the final 30 yards on a spectacular run around left end to let the Red Devils regain their four-score advantage.
Eastbrook put the clamps on the high-powered offense of the visitors for the remainder of the contest. But the Panthers could never unloose their powerful rushing attack – West Lafayette was simply too fast on the defensive front.
The Panthers didn’t seriously threaten again until very late in the final quarter, when junior running back Colton Benedict blasted into the end zone from 13 yards out to make the final 35-14.
“I dreamt about this when I was a little kid, but I never knew if it would actually happen,” Wodicka told jconline.com. “This was just a great game, and this is the best feeling of my life.”
The Red Devils limited Eastbrook, which rushed for 475 yards in its sectional championship win over defending 3A state champ Bellmont last week, to 57 yards on 21 first-half carries.
This game was never really in doubt. Nonetheless, Eastbrook fought valiantly until the final horn behind senior running back Jeremy Porter-Jones, who had 84 of his 100 rushing yards in the second half.
“They played a really good game, and we just got off to a slow start and couldn’t overcome that,” Porter-Jones told jconline.com.
Even more impressively, the capacity Panther crowd was enthusiastic until the bitter end. It was a display of why the Panthers are perennial contenders on the gridiron.
West Lafayette now advances to face No. 4 Jimtown (12-1), a 10-7 winner over No. 16 Andrean (9-4), in the 3A northern semistate – West Lafayette’s first in 16 years – in a home game at Straley Field. It will be another test versus decades of football tradition.
The Jimmies had better bring more than history. I suggest some jet packs. They are going to need them.
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