Outside The County-Maconaquah

Results from Maconaquah for Friday, October 14th and Saturday, October 15th

The Rochester Zebras used a big fourth quarter flurry of points to defeat the Maconaquah Braves, 38-14, here Friday night and clinch a share of the Three Rivers Conference championship.

 The Zebra win coupled with Tipp Valley's 28-26 loss at Southwood left Rochester, Tipp Valley and Southwood all tied with 7-1 TRC records and sharing the conference crown.


  Maconaquah, now 6-3 overall, finished league play at 6-2 and will host Hamilton Heights in Fridays IHSAA sectional 28 first-round contest.


 After both teams traded punches in the opening 24 minutes and going in at halftime with the scored knotted at 8-all, Rochester scored on its opening drive to start the second half and never trailed again, using three fourth quarter touchdowns to widen its lead late in the game.


 Both defenses set the tone early as each squad came up with crucial stops to force the 8-8 tie at intermission.  Maconaquah reached the Zebra 27 and 23 yard lines on its first two possessions only to turn the ball over on downs.   Rochester took its first lead, 8-0, with 2:08 left in the first period after marching 77 yards in 10 plays.


 Second quarter action saw the pesky Brave defense stop Rochester at the Mac 20 on its first possession and get the pigskin back midway through the quarter when Fuddy Kile recovered a Zebra fumble at the Rochester 18.  


It would take only three plays for the Braves to knot things up as quarterback Braxton Birner teamed up with Kile on a nice 13-yard TD pass at the 4:05 mark.  Birner hit Kaleb Shelton on the conversion pass to tie the score at 8-8.  Kile, who would catch another TD pass in the fourth stanza, has caught a touchdown pass in all nine Brave games this year and surpassed 1,000 yards receiving this season.


 Rochester took the second half kickoff and took the lead for good, 16-8, after marching 65 yards in 10 plays. 


 The Braves took the ensuing kick and moved steadily downfield, reaching the Rochester 20 before a penalty, a qb sack and incompletion pushed them back to the 29.  A Birner-to-Oakley Reeser fourth down pass came up three yards short, stopping the Mac threat to tie the game.


 The opportunistic Zebras capitalized on a pair of Brave turnovers to score twice in a four-minute span early in the fourth period and watched their lead balloon to 32-8 with 7:53 remaining.


 The Braves final score came 74 seconds later when Kile hauled in a 39-yard TD strike from Birner.  Birner, the state's second-leading passer (yards), completed 20 of 34 passes on the night, good for 220 yards and both Mac scores.  Kile led all receivers with 136 yards on nine grabs, while AJ Kelly added 36 on six catches.  Kelly and Kile ranked 1-2 in the state in receptions going into the game.


 Maconaquah sophomore punter Kevin Nord provided late fourth-quarter fireworks when the Braves were backed up at their own 17 and were forced to punt with just over two minutes remaining.  With the winds gusting, Nord's kick kept rolling until it was downed at the Zebra one.... a school-record 82-yard punt, breaking the previous record (77) set by Dan Hagen vs Peru in 1975.


 Rochester finished with 422 yards rushing on 67 carries and was 0-3 passing.  Ty Galvan led Mac's ground game with 53 yards on nine totes.


Unofficially, Kile topped MHS tacklers with 14 stops.  Kelly and Shelton added 13 and 11 respectively, while Ethan Farnell, Reeser and Carsten Hollars each had nine.

***

The Maconaquah Lady Braves ran in the Culver Academies Regional on Saturday and came away with a second-place finish, qualifying to race in the semistate meet next Saturday.

Freshman Zoie Laber ran her best race ever, placing 8th overall and finishing in a time of 19:45.

Right behind her was Abby Jordan, who ran a 19:47 and placed 9th.

Lucy Loshnowsky was the third Maconaquah runner to finish in the top 20, placing 20th (20:37).

Sophomore Samantha Jones (29th, 21:26) was the fourth Lady Brave to finish, while Chloe Jordan (30th, 21:28) was right behind her.

Aubrey McClain (34th, 21:42) rounded out the runners for Maconaquah.

The Lady Braves will run at the New Prairie Semistate meet next week, where they hope to secure a berth to compete in the IHSAA State Championship meet.

***

The Maconaquah Braves advanced to the semistate round of the IHSAA championship tournament for the first time since 2010 by placing 4th out of ten teams at the IHSAA regional meet held at Culver Academies.

Junior Isaiah Wittenberg repeated last year’s performance by placing second overall, finishing in 16:57.

Daylen Schrock battled to a 28th place finish, crossing the line in 17:54.

Freshman Kaden Hanson ran a 18:09 and placed 31st overall.

Isaiah Moore and Kaden Miller both posted times of 18:46, but Moore placed 37th, while Miller placed 39th.

Senior Quinn Richard ran one of his best races ever, placing 66th and finishing in 21:53, while Jacob Sayger ran a 22:49 and placed 67th.

The Braves will race on the famous New Prairie cross country course in the IHSAA semistate meet next Saturday. Good luck, running Braves!