09/07/2024
BY JACK BULLOCK
BRIDGEPORT - Saturday's battle of Lawrence County was tied at 7-7 at halftime in a defensive struggle.

But Red Hill came up with the formula for success in the second half to take a 23-7 victory over Lawrenceville on the strength of a couple of big plays from their offense.

A 65-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Avery Arbuckle to wide receiver Holden Jacobsen on the first play from scrimmage in the second half gave the Salukis the momentum and they held the Indians scoreless in the final two quarters to improve to 1-1 on the season while securing the annual Oil Field trophy awarded to the victorious team in this long running rivalry.

Another long pass (26-yards) from Arbuckle to receiver Dylan Aten set up the Salukis' third touchdown of the day and sent Lawrenceville to their second consecutive defeat to begin the season.

Red Hill head coach Billy Gray's club won the war in the trenches and came away with the important victory after a first week defeat to Casey-Westfield.

“Our offensive line struggled last week against Casey-Westfield, they dominated the line of scrimmage and that was a point of emphasis this week, fixing problems we had,” said Coach Gray. “We worked on some things this week and it showed today.”

Arbuckle ended up 4-of-8 throwing the ball for 105-yards and the TD pass the broke the 7-7 deadlock.

Three different running backs led the way on the ground for Red Hill with Jacobsen gaining 53-yards and adding 84-yards receiving.

Senior Karsen Tully (33-yards) and junior Gavin Tewell (57-yards) helped with the ground game.

Lawrenceville and head coach Cory Joergens didn't get enough done on offense as the Tribe committed four turnovers and a bad snap on punt resulted in a safety to add to the second half problems.

Senior running back Wyatt Halter rushed for 46-yards which led Lawrenceville as they were held to just 85-yards rushing for the day compared to 170 by Red Hill.

Quarterback Maddox Pargin hit on 5-of-13 passes for 55-yards and the only Indians' touchdown of the game on a completion to sophomore tight end Luke Schultz in the second quarter to tie the game at 7-7.

After getting the opening kick, the Indians ended up coughing up their first turnover of the the contest on the fifth play.

A bad snap resulted in a recovery by Red Hill at the Lawrenceville 35-yard line.

It took the Salukis six plays to score with Tewell scoring on a five-yard run.

The PAT kick by Jacobsen gave the hosts a 7-0 lead with 5:50 left in the first quarter.

Lawrenceville put together their best drive for their only points of the game on its next possession.

It took 12-plays to go 63-yards for the tying touchdown.

Pargin connected with Schultz twice during the drive and the rest of the yards came on the ground with Halter, senior Josh Devin, junior Zander Cessna and senior Conor Lill all picked up yards.

The TD pass came on a first-and-goal from the five as Pargin rolled out and found Schultz in the back of the endzone for a score.

The PAT by sophomore kicker Nick Morehead evened things at 7-7 with 10:13 left in the second quarter.

Red Hill drove deep into Indians' territory on its next possession only to turn it over as Jacobsen's fumble was recovered by Lawrenceville at the 17-yard line.

The turnover spoiled what was a 10-play drive.

After forcing a punt by the Indians, Red Hill drove back into the Indians side of the field only to turn the ball over on downs with :40.5 left.

The game changing play to open the second half was the TD pass from Arbuckle, who found Jacobsen sprinting down the middle of the field on a post pattern.

The 6-foot, 190 junior caught the pass in stride and went the distance for the 65-yard score.

Although a bad snap spoiled the point after touchdown, Red Hill was up 13-7 with 11:40 left in the third quarter.

Facing a fourth-and-long from their own 27, Lawrenceville was forced to punt but a bad snap went passed the punter and out of the endzone for a safety.

After the free kick set up Red Hill on their own 45, it took the Salukis just nine-plays to travel the 55-yards to put the game away.

Jacobsen carried the ball four times in the drive, including the final three-yards for a touchdown as he powered through the Lawrenceville defense for the score.

A key play in the drive was the pass from Arbuckle to Aten, who made a diving catch to make it first-and-goal at the Lawrenceville four.

Arbuckle completed a two-point conversion pass to junior Aiden Decker to push the score to 23-7 with 3:11 left in the third quarter.

“We talked about executing at halftime and obviously things did not go well. We got in our own way sometimes, the bad snaps and the fumbles bouncing their (Red Hill) way,” said Coach Joergens. “Give credit to Red Hill. They came out and punched us in the mouth and we didn't respond.”

The Indians next three drives ended in disaster.

Lawrenceville fumbled on a bad snap to turn the ball over at its own 45 with Red Hill's Tully making the recovery on the first try.

The next march made it to the Red Hill 25 but a pass from Pargin was tipped and intercepted by sophomore Levi McCullough.

“I've been stressing this since summer camp that takeaways are an important part of the game. If you don't have the ball you can't score,” said Coach Gray. “It was the difference in the ballgame today. We made the plays today.”

The final possession came to a quick end as Pargin was again pressured and his pass was deflected and intercepted by junior defender Cohen Trainer with just 2:13 left.

“We have to be able to finish drives, sustaining drives and we have to work on that,” said Coach Joergens. “We can't turn the ball over.”

Red Hill ended up with 170-yards rushing and 117-yards passing on the day while Lawrenceville managed just 140-yards of total offense in the loss.

“We have three seniors and some juniors but this is still a young team and we're going to fix the mistakes and we want to be good by the end of the season,” said Coach Gray.

Red Hill will host Farmersburg (IN.) North Central next Saturday while Lawrenceville will hit the road to play at 2-0 Richland County next Friday night.

“They know each other (kids from both teams) and they (seniors) have bragging rights for the rest of their lives and the trophy (Oil Field) will be here for a while,” said Coach Gray. “We came out and played hard today. We were a lot better today than we were last week.”