NORTHWEST INDIANAPOLIS — It was a crazy night in the M.I.C. on Friday and the best conference in the state went nuts with great ball games!!! Three of the four games that I previewed earlier this week ended with the teams that I picked to win losing. Pike made me eat my words as they knocked off Lawrence 19-15 on homecoming night.
They played their hearts out as they walked out of the joint with a win. It was the best game I’d seen all season because the kids were competing and talking $100 worth of trash all night. Good trash though… Lawrence Central’s Jasen Graves was the starting quarterback last year at Pike so all of the kids on defense at Pike were hungry to play their former leader on offense. It was so much fun to hear the jawing on the field and watch these great kids compete.
Homecoming couldn’t have been better for the Red Devils as they came from behind to win this one. On the opening kickoff Lawrence Central’s Cortaveon Barnett-Bonds walked it back to Pike’s own 16 yard line. It only took the Bears two plays to score on a 9-yard rushing touchdown by Bonds. They got the two-conversion to go up 8-0 with 11:08 left.
Pike wasted no time keeping their fans in the ball game as Anthony Ciadella hit Elijah McLaughlin for a 68 yard strike to close the gap 8-6. The extra point was blocked by LC. We go into the break with the Bears leading this one 8-6.
The Red Devils came out hungry in the third quarter as Derrius Williams goes 23 yards for a touchdown to put Pike up 12-8. The intensity level went up like 10 degrees after that score. Lawrence Central’s Jasen Graves sustains a shoulder injury and is replaced by freshman Charles Vaden who gave the Bears a boost of energy with his speed and quickness.
Before I could bite into my hot dog Vaden was sprinting down the middle of the field to go 38 yards for a touchdown to put the Bear back up 15-12 with 4:46 left to play in the third quarter.
Panic for Pike? Not at all playa!! Anthony Ciadella kept his composure as he guided his Red Devils down the field in the final minute like he was Tom Brady or somebody. He finally finds Zavier Simpson in the corner of the end zone with seconds to play to win it 19-15 as the homecoming crowd went nuts!!! Great ball game!!!
Other scores in the M.I.C.: