'We know how to fight': OT heroics decide Bloomington North's football battle at South

His teammates call him 'Captain Jack' and this was a moment to be treasured.

After a late field goal to tie in regulation by Bloomington South.

After the Panthers took the lead on a well-timed reverse play to Lucas Waldon to start the overtime.

After Cole Grupenhoff made a diving catch in the end zone to get Bloomington North back within one point. The Cougars decided to go for the win at the end of one of the more thrilling contests in the 63-game series.

"We said it before we called the first play (of overtime)," North coach Scott Bless said.

North snapped the ball. South linebacker Ralph Rogers found a seam and made a beeline for King who started to roll right. Meanwhile, Jack Leonard coming off right end, was getting lost in the wash. He cut to his left and ran along the goal line as King, with Rogers leaping toward him, pivoted and threw a fadeaway off his back foot.

The ball hung in the air but only Leonard was there to catch it and his teammates rushed the field to celebrate a stunning 25-24 Conference Indiana upset pitting the second and fifth-ranked teams in Class 5A Friday at South's Huff Memorial Field. It was the only ball he caught all night.

"It's so nerve-wracking for me because I know it's coming to me no matter what," Leonard said. "(The ball) is in slow-motion. It's the most nerve-wracking thing I've been through.

"And playing through a knee injury, too, from two weeks ago. It feels great."

For the fourth week in a row, North was pushed to the limit. For the fourth time, the Cougars won.

"It's big," Leonard said. "We knew this was going to be a tough game. This was going to be our hardest game of the year. They're a great team but we put up a fight. We know how to fight.

"I'll give them credit. They haven't played the second half because they've been so dominant but we've played the second half and came back multiple times. That's a big confidence booster for us. Even if we were 3-0, great confidence against a really great South team."

South outscored North 73-14 in two meetings last year.

"I think we were a lot more confident," King said. "We were a lot more willing to play fast and physical this year."

No other North team in school history has ever started 4-0 (the 1988 squad was 4-0-1, starting the year with a weather-shortened 7-7 tie). The average margin of victory? Six points.

"We have a team that's become comfortable in this situation," Bless said. "The resilience that they showed all along. We got behind fast and never lost our resolve. We stayed on the attack and kept plugging.

"When you're playing a great team like South, they're going to stop us, they're going to make plays. Our kids just kept plugging."

South sputters at the wrong times

The first three games were 'easy' for the Panthers (3-1, 1-1) who hadn't had to sweat out most of the second halves.

But three turnovers, 70 yards in penalties and 68 yards lost on three snaps over quarterback Jarrin Alley's head were just enough to bring Loss No. 1.

"Didn't deserve to win," South coach Gabe Johnson said. "I don't know how else to put it. We didn't play well. We didn't deserve to win. We were out-coached. We were outplayed. Which is not something typically that we talk about a lot.

"We've got to go back to our week and how we handled it. But that will start with me. We've got some things that we have to get corrected in a hurry."

South shot out like a cannon, scoring 1:45 in, but the fuse fizzled until late.

"We looked like we were business as usual there for a little bit," Johnson said. "But that wasn't obviously the case. We couldn't get going. They had a really good defensive game plan for us and our players who typically play well did not play well and that's part of it.

"There's a whole lot of things that came into the game that we were not good enough."

There are still five games left and postseason goals to meet giving the Panthers time to recover.

"I'm not sure that we have handled success well," Johnson said. "We've got to frame our minds around what this is. This is a loss and no losses are fun and sometimes in those losses, you get exposed on things and we have to address them."

By the numbers

Alley finished 16-of-27 while King was 19-of-30. Both threw two picks and each finished with 196 yards.

South ran for 137 yards outside of the snap failures, with 99 and two scores coming from Gavin Adams, to North's 68-yard total. Drew Crum-Hieftje caught two passes for 65 yards and D'Andre Black had two for 47 and Waldon three for 37.

"I don't think our offense played very well," Johnson said. "Our defense could have played better, but our offense was really abysmal and quite frankly, didn't show up."

Gruppenoff was North's big-play receiver again with seven catches for 77 yards, while Jorian Brooks had a career night with five catches for 73 yards and a TD.

"(Brooks is) that guy who can make things happen," Bless said. "And that makes our receiving corps even better."

Fourth quarter frenzy

North looked ready to go up two scores when Lucas Waldon was called into action in South's secondary and came up with a huge interception in the end zone with 1:12 left in the third.

Instead, the Panthers rattled off an impressive 90-yard drive, overcoming a third-and-10 and two holding calls with completions of 39, 21 and 22 yards by Alley. It led to a three-yard TD run by Adams to tie it with 9:41 left.

King was stuffed on third-and-1 and after a bad snap, Graham Freund's shanked punt went just 10 yards, giving South an opportunity and a short field to start the drive at the Cougar 39. But after a bad snap set up third-and-25, Freund flipped the field with an interception he returned to the 35. A late hit moved the ball to the 20.

"It felt amazing," Freund said. "All the hard work that goes into this. All the hard work we put in over the summer and winter, it's just so rewarding and I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else."

The drive fizzled but Noah Nelson hit a 33-yard field goal for a 17-14 lead with 4:28 to go.

South had to make something happen and did, as Alley found Drew Crum-Hieftje for a 41-yard strike again on third and long. But North's defense stiffened, forcing Bryce Taylor to answer with a 30-yarder to tie it at 17, with 1:16 remaining and set up the theatrics.

"We've been in tough games all year," Freund said. "We were prepared to play through the end."

Tackling, defense lift Cougars

North recorded seven tackles for loss, including three of Alley. In fact, South's biggest running play, a 21-yarder, came on the shocking two-play touchdown drive on their first possession.

"The first touchdown, the defense wasn't set right," North rush end Grey Hostetler said. "So we had nobody to set the edge.

"I just think we came into this game knowing we have a good defense, knowing we could stop them, knowing we could win this game. We just believed in ourselves."

The Cougars' ability to bow up at the line of scrimmage and then make the solo tackles, made the Panthers have to work and punt a lot. The Panthers went two full quarters between their first and second TDs, and that was huge in stiffing South's momentum after the quick start.

"The extra few yards, falling forward each play is just one, two, three yards closer to a first down," Hostetler said. "So it was tremendous in this game. We were on our tackling and it made the difference."

North also continued to feast on turnovers, with two interceptions and a fumble recovery.

"I came in here thinking we were going to win," Hostetler said. "I don't know if the town believed it. I don't know if the people at our school believed it. At the end of the day, the team believed in themselves.

"In my mind, it was a good game. It was an upset, obviously, because they were ranked higher, but we came in knowing we were going to compete and we were going to play hard. So to me, it was a great win. But I knew it was coming."

BLOOMINGTON NORTH 25, BLOOMINGTON SOUTH 24

North (4-0, 2-0 CI) 0 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 8 — 25

South (3-1, 1-1) 7 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 7 — 24

FIRST QUARTER

BS: Gavin Adams 21 run (Bryce Taylor kick), 10:15. BS, 7-0.

SECOND QUARTER

BN: Jorian Brooks 9 pass from Dash King (Noah Nelson kick), 4:12. Tied, 7-7.

THIRD QUARTER

BN: Tate Bless 3 pass from King (Nelson kick), 5:50. BN, 14-7.

FOURTH QUARTER

BS: Adams 3 run (Taylor kick), 9:41. Tied, 14-14.

BN: Nelson 33 FG, 4:28. BN, 17-14.

BS: Taylor 30 FG, 1:16. Tied, 17-17.

OVERTIME

BS: Lucas Waldon 10 run (Taylor kick). BS, 24-17.

BN: Cole Grupenhoff 10 pass from King (Jack Leonard pass from King). BN, 25-24.

INDIVIDUALS STATISTICS

RUSHING

Bloomington North (31-68): Dash King 13-40, Kijuan Hayes 11-22, Brayden Johnson 7-6.

Bloomington South (38-74): Gavin Adams 25-99, Lucas Waldon 2-25, Jarrin Alley 7-12, Ben Morrison 1-1, Team 3-(-63).

PASSING

Bloomington North (19-30-2-196): King 19-30-2-196.

Bloomington South (16-27-2-196): Alley 16-27-2-196.

RECEIVING

Bloomington North: Cole Grupenhoff 7-77, Joran Brooks 5-73, Tate Bless 4-17, Aidan Steinfeldt 3-22.

Bloomington South: Adams 4-34, Waldon 3-37, Drew Crum-Hieftje 2-65, D'Andre Black 2-47, Alex Shaevitz 2-4, Jake Arnett 1-2, Tysen Smith 1-0.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington North, South need overtime to settle football rivalry