Aug. 21—Friday night’s Logansport-Peru game had extra significance for Logansport junior Jeremiah Miller. Miller knew Don Baldini well. Baldini passed away earlier this year at the age of 82. In 2016, the Baldini Trophy was created to honor Baldini and given to the annual winner of the Logansport-Peru game. Baldini grew up in Peru and is Logansport’s all-time winningest coach in football. Friday night was the first time the game was played following Baldini’s death. Miller rushed for 76 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries as the Berries defeated the Tigers 36-8. The Berries snapped a two-game losing streak in the series and took back the Baldini Trophy. “That felt really special because he was definitely family. He was my Grandpa Lee’s best friend and they coached together and it meant a lot,” said Miller, whose grandfather is former Logansport head coach Lee Gaumer, who succeeded Baldini and carried on many of his traditions with the football program. “I’m just glad we got it done.” “We had family dinners together. It was a great time. It was really hard to see him go,” Miller added. Peru led 8-7 at halftime before Logan scored 29 unanswered points in the second half. The Berries won the battle of attrition on the hot and muggy night against a short-handed Tigers team. Miller’s third touchdown of the night gave the Berries a 21-8 lead with 4:25 left in the third quarter. Gavin Barron finally broke loose with a 65-yard sprint for a score to make it 29-8 later in the third quarter. Luis Ortiz showed he has big-play ability as well as he scored from 51 yards out with 6:49 remaining to cap the scoring. “We have good backs, we knew that going in,” Logan coach Mike Johnson said. “Of course Gavin is good, he’s fast. Really Jeremiah coming back, he hasn’t played last year since Richmond and that’s really maybe his second start at fullback. He’s a very good football player and very good fullback. And so is Ortiz, we’ve got two good fullbacks in our offense. Our offensive line I thought picked it up in the second half, executed a little better and were able to block the way they should. In order to run our offense you’ve got to have a good tight end and Grayson Long’s a very good tight end.” Long also got the job done defensively at linebacker as he was all over the field making plays. “Defensively he just has a knack to get to the ball. He goes and he picks it up and reads real well and plays with a real motor,” Johnson said. “We think we’ve got lots of guys on defense like that. We don’t have the big guys we’ve had in the past and that’s why we’ve switched it up a little bit and have three down linemen. I thought having [Tristan] Kitchel back there and Amari and Shamari [Gittings] and Ortiz that can rotate in there at linebacker, we have some real quickness on the field as well as our secondary guys.” Scotty Barron and Quentin Clark also combined for multiple sacks in the contest. Gavin Barron rushed for 135 yards on nine carries. Ortiz rushed for 91 yards on 12 attempts. Peru senior quarterback Levi Strong had an impressive showing with 96 yards rushing on 13 carries and was 8 of 11 passing for 28 yards. The Tigers took an 8-7 lead with 10:56 left in the second quarter. Strong scored on a 40-yard touchdown run and a botched snap on the PAT try turned into a 2-point conversion run. The score would remain that way until halftime. “This is a 7-2 ballclub from a year ago that didn’t get to play in the playoffs,” Johnson said. “They’ve got a lot of their guys back, they’ve got their skill guys back. Their quarterback and fullback are very good. They’ve got some players and receivers. They’re only going to get better.” Peru coach Romison Saint-Louis credited Logansport. “It’s a good football team, No. 1, so I give them all the props. They came out and they stuck to their guns, they did what they were supposed to do. They wanted to win and they found a way to get it done. The first half, it was a tale of two halves. That’s what we told them, they did a decent job. And again, we’ve had a lot thrown at us. We had a lot of people missing, that’s not an excuse because we showed in the first half we still competed. But we didn’t finish it.” The Berries overcame the 8-7 halftime deficit in a big way. “I thought it was two different halves. I thought defensively we played well throughout the entire ballgame,” Johnson said. “We gave up one big play to them that cost us a touchdown. Unfortunately at that time in the first half our offense wasn’t in sync. “The second half we did what we needed to do in terms of the running game to get the ball in the end zone.” Miller’s return to the field after missing the second half of last season helped. “That was a major stepback for me. I tore everything in my knee except my ACL and I just worked my butt off and I feel a lot better now. I’m ready to go,” he said. “I’m definitely 100%.” Logan took a 61-52-5 lead in the all-time series against Peru, which dates back to 1902.
Friday night’s Logansport-Peru game had extra significance for Logansport junior Jeremiah Miller.
Miller knew Don Baldini well. Baldini passed away earlier this year at the age of 82.
In 2016, the Baldini Trophy was created to honor Baldini and given to the annual winner of the Logansport-Peru game. Baldini grew up in Peru and is Logansport’s all-time winningest coach in football. Friday night was the first time the game was played following Baldini’s death.
Miller rushed for 76 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries as the Berries defeated the Tigers 36-8.
The Berries snapped a two-game losing streak in the series and took back the Baldini Trophy.
“That felt really special because he was definitely family. He was my Grandpa Lee’s best friend and they coached together and it meant a lot,” said Miller, whose grandfather is former Logansport head coach Lee Gaumer, who succeeded Baldini and carried on many of his traditions with the football program. “I’m just glad we got it done.”
“We had family dinners together. It was a great time. It was really hard to see him go,” Miller added.
Peru led 8-7 at halftime before Logan scored 29 unanswered points in the second half.
The Berries won the battle of attrition on the hot and muggy night against a short-handed Tigers team.
Miller’s third touchdown of the night gave the Berries a 21-8 lead with 4:25 left in the third quarter.
Gavin Barron finally broke loose with a 65-yard sprint for a score to make it 29-8 later in the third quarter. Luis Ortiz showed he has big-play ability as well as he scored from 51 yards out with 6:49 remaining to cap the scoring.
“We have good backs, we knew that going in,” Logan coach Mike Johnson said. “Of course Gavin is good, he’s fast. Really Jeremiah coming back, he hasn’t played last year since Richmond and that’s really maybe his second start at fullback. He’s a very good football player and very good fullback. And so is Ortiz, we’ve got two good fullbacks in our offense. Our offensive line I thought picked it up in the second half, executed a little better and were able to block the way they should. In order to run our offense you’ve got to have a good tight end and Grayson Long’s a very good tight end.”
Long also got the job done defensively at linebacker as he was all over the field making plays.
“Defensively he just has a knack to get to the ball. He goes and he picks it up and reads real well and plays with a real motor,” Johnson said. “We think we’ve got lots of guys on defense like that. We don’t have the big guys we’ve had in the past and that’s why we’ve switched it up a little bit and have three down linemen. I thought having [Tristan] Kitchel back there and Amari and Shamari [Gittings] and Ortiz that can rotate in there at linebacker, we have some real quickness on the field as well as our secondary guys.”
Scotty Barron and Quentin Clark also combined for multiple sacks in the contest.
Gavin Barron rushed for 135 yards on nine carries. Ortiz rushed for 91 yards on 12 attempts.
Peru senior quarterback Levi Strong had an impressive showing with 96 yards rushing on 13 carries and was 8 of 11 passing for 28 yards.
The Tigers took an 8-7 lead with 10:56 left in the second quarter. Strong scored on a 40-yard touchdown run and a botched snap on the PAT try turned into a 2-point conversion run. The score would remain that way until halftime.
“This is a 7-2 ballclub from a year ago that didn’t get to play in the playoffs,” Johnson said. “They’ve got a lot of their guys back, they’ve got their skill guys back. Their quarterback and fullback are very good. They’ve got some players and receivers. They’re only going to get better.”
Peru coach Romison Saint-Louis credited Logansport.
“It’s a good football team, No. 1, so I give them all the props. They came out and they stuck to their guns, they did what they were supposed to do. They wanted to win and they found a way to get it done. The first half, it was a tale of two halves. That’s what we told them, they did a decent job. And again, we’ve had a lot thrown at us. We had a lot of people missing, that’s not an excuse because we showed in the first half we still competed. But we didn’t finish it.”
The Berries overcame the 8-7 halftime deficit in a big way.
“I thought it was two different halves. I thought defensively we played well throughout the entire ballgame,” Johnson said. “We gave up one big play to them that cost us a touchdown. Unfortunately at that time in the first half our offense wasn’t in sync.
“The second half we did what we needed to do in terms of the running game to get the ball in the end zone.”
Miller’s return to the field after missing the second half of last season helped.
“That was a major stepback for me. I tore everything in my knee except my ACL and I just worked my butt off and I feel a lot better now. I’m ready to go,” he said. “I’m definitely 100%.”
Logan took a 61-52-5 lead in the all-time series against Peru, which dates back to 1902.