Published: October 24, 2009 01:12 am      

Minutemen too much for Berries

Concord QB Yoder passes for 266 yards, 5 touchdowns

Logansport football coach Bucky Kramer threw the kitchen sink at Concord in a Class 4A first-round sectional game at Berry Stadium Friday night.

The Berries ran plays out of the pullcat formation, with the offense wide to one side of the center, they went for it on fourth down in their own territory and they dialed up running plays up the middle in third-and-long situations. And that was just on the first drive of the game — which did result in a touchdown.

But in the end the Minutemen’s prolific passing offense and stout defense was too much for the Berries to overcome, as Concord rolled to a 45-13 win.

“It’s tournament time and you have to do what you have to do,” Kramer said. “There were some things that are a little bit different that helped us out early on, [but] later on maybe it didn’t help us out.”

Concord (7-3) hosts South Bend Riley next week in a sectional semifinal matchup. Logansport finishes 6-4.

The Minutemen showed why they were ranked most of this year before they had a three-game losing streak to end the regular season. Junior quarterback Anthony Yoder went 12 of 19 for 266 yards and five touchdowns. He also had a team-high 73 yards on the ground and a touchdown.

“He’s a competitor. He’s the leader of our team,” Concord coach Tim Dawson said. “He’s got a slight separated shoulder, grade 1. He hasn’t thrown the ball as well the last couple weeks but ... [Friday night] we were clicking.”

Logan opened the game in a pullcat formation and ran two plays out of it for eight yards. Jon Tierney later converted a fourth-and-1 with a nine-yard run, and Derrick McQuiston converted a third-and-8 with a 15-yard run. Then on a third-and-6 play, David Hayden ran the ball 18 yards to paydirt to give Logan a quick 7-0 lead. The drive amassed 70 yards and took 5:48 off the clock.

But Concord answered quickly, driving 70 yards in 2:05 and capping it with a four-yard TD run by Larone Smith.

After a failed fake punt by Logan to start the second quarter, Concord drove 50 yards for a score in a drive that took just 1:50 to complete. The drive was aided by a roughing-the-passer penalty on a third-and-7 play and was capped by an 18-yard TD pass from Yoder to Logan Draus.

Concord scored one more time in the first half on a six-yard TD pass from Yoder to Kyle Gavin on a third-and-4 play. The Minutemen had another chance to put more points on the board late in the half before they had back-to-back fumbles on Logan’s one-yard line, the second of which was recovered by the Berries.

The Minutemen took a 19-7 into halftime before a 26-point third quarter erased any doubt. On the second play from scrimmage, Yoder found Draus for a 74-yard TD pass that included a leaping catch on a bomb and a long run to paydirt.

Logan answered that score with its second long scoring drive of the game. McQuiston had 17 yards rushing and 14 yards receiving on the drive, which was capped by a 25-yard touchdown pass from Tanner Hess to Jake Slusher.

Concord ended the third with three long-but-quick scoring drives — a theme of the game. The drives were sandwiched around Logan not converting a fourth down deep in its own territory and later fumbling to give the ball back.

The fourth quarter was academic.

“Our kids were hungry,” Dawson said. “We preached all week long that these guys are a good football team. We’re both 6-3. We knew they were tough, and we wanted to match that intensity and toughness. And I’m proud of our kids. I thought in all three fazes we were able to do that.”

McQuiston led the Berries with 103 yards rushing on 20 carries. Zach Craven had a team-high seven tackles.

Draus had three catches for 123 yards and three TDs for Concord. Smith had 119 yards from scrimmage and two TDs. Linebacker Doug Acker finished with a game-high 15 tackles.

The Berries played the contest without their second-leading rusher, Wilmer McGill, who was out with an ankle injury. They also played without a starting linebacker due to a suspension because of an ejection during last week’s Kokomo game. In addition also played part of the second half without Hayden because of an ankle injury.

“We had a lot of kids who had to step up into some roles that were a little different for them,” Kramer said. “They gave it their effort and they gave everything they had for us. That’s why we love these guys.

“Concord’s a great football team. Obviously we had some matchup problems in some places. So again, it is a little bit of a crapshoot sometimes.”

Logansport graduates 21 seniors but still will have a lot of players back next year with a lot of varsity experience.

“I’m proud of our kids, I’m proud of their effort, I’m proud of our coaches,” Kramer said. “We’re looking forward to what we’ve got coming.”