Sep. 18—The Logansport Berries defeated the McCutcheon Mavericks for the first time ever in football on Friday night.
The series began when the Mavericks joined the North Central Conference in 2014. The Class 5A Mavs won the first seven meetings but the Berries enacted some revenge and kept the Mavericks winless on the season with a 21-6 victory on Friday night at Logansport Memorial Hospital Stadium.
The Class 4A No. 12 Berries improved to 4-0 and 2-0 in NCC play. It’s their first 4-0 start since the 2009 season.
“To get that victory against McCutcheon at this time was huge for our players, huge for our program,” Logan coach Mike Johnson said. “That was important to us.”
The Berries got off to the fast start they were looking for when Grayson Long blocked a punt that was recovered by Deagan Kitchel on the first possession of the game. Izak Mock then hit Long for a 35-yard pass down to the 3-yard line, and Luis Ortiz took it in from 2 yards out to get the Berries on the board. Yahir Guzman’s PAT gave the Berries a 7-0 lead less than two minutes in.
The Berries defense was good most of the night but they allowed the Mavs to convert a fourth-and-24 with a 24-yard pass play down to the 3-yard line in the second quarter. Jack Morland’s 3-yard TD run made it 7-6, but the Berries blocked the PAT kick.
The Berries took a 7-6 lead into halftime. They outgained the Mavs 120-67 in total yardage but were down 70-12 in penalty yardage as penalties were an issue all night.
But the Berries regrouped at halftime and had a strong start to the second half as well. They drove it 88 yards on a drive that was capped by a 15-yard TD run by Gavin Barron.
Long then forced a fumble with a bone-jarring hit that was recovered by Tristan Kitchel. Barron broke off a 59-yard TD run but an unnecessary penalty in regards to the play brought it all the way back. But the Berries went on another drive that took up most of the rest of the third quarter, capped by an 8-yard TD run by Jeremiah Miller. Guzman’s kick made it 21-6 with 1:56 left in the third.
The Berries controlled most of the rest of the game. Amari Gittings and Miller each came up with interceptions and Logan’s ball control offense took most of the rest of the clock off the board.
Ortiz finished with 111 yards on 19 carries to lead the Berries’ ground attack. Barron rushed for 89 yards on nine attempts. Miller and John Scott each added 51 yards on the ground. Mock rushed for 22 yards and was 4 of 5 passing for 44 yards. Long had three catches for 53 yards.
Long was once again all over the field defensively as he finished with a sack and forced fumble and had a blocked punt on special teams. Quentin Clark had two sacks on the night and Ortiz added a sack.
When taking into account negative rushing plays, the Mavericks finished with just 15 yards rushing on 20 attempts for the game. Owen Smith was 11 of 22 passing for 119 yards.
“We came together, played well,” Long said. “Offense started coming together in the second half. Our defense played how we always play, we just played tough.
“They talked their stuff. They have no respect for us. I hope they have some respect now.”
It was reported on Friday that McCutcheon starting quarterback Ethan Smith transferred to Lafayette Jeff and is currently enrolled as a Jeff student as this week.
“He was out against Kokomo, so we saw some of 11s film, We saw that he didn’t run as much as 1 did but he could still sling it, so we set our game plan to 11,” Long said. “They did change it a little bit but we could play a little more aggressive because we knew 11 wouldn’t pull and run.”
Logan coach Mike Johnson said his team was close to pitching a shutout on a night the 1991 state championship baseball team was honored.
“Defensively, we played well throughout the ballgame,” Johnson said. “We gave up the one score really and really had them stopped. We came out of a coverage and they were able to complete it and pick up a first down and really we could have driven the guy out of bounds or gotten a sack or a stop there and it might have been who knows at that point in time but they might not have scored at all. Defense we were able to get some pressure on them this week that was important. Last week against Tech we didn’t really have anything dialed up, so the defensive guys, coach Sailors and those guys, put in some pretty good pressures and it worked. We got to him and made plays when we had to.”
The offense also racked up 364 yards of offense, 320 on the ground.
“The first drive was huge. We got the stop and were able to hit the pass play to Grayson, Mock threw a nice ball and we were able to score from there,” Johnson said. “The second half those first two possessions were important, were huge. We were really clicking and even had one called back but were able to recover and still scored on that possession.
“We have good backs, we have some good skill guys, we’ve just got to clean some things up. McCutcheon’s a good defensive team, they bring all kinds of pressure, present all kinds of problems, all kinds of movement. We’re fortunate really to score.”
The only negative for the Berries was they were penalized 15 times for 140 yards. Johnson said it was a State Finals referee crew and that there was no excuse for his squad. There were too many offsides penalties on defense and too many personal foul penalties overall that the Berries will need to clean up moving forward.
Logan hosts Richmond next week for homecoming.