Penn wakes up in the second half behind center Jones to blank Elkhart

MISHAWAKA — When 6-foot-3, 335-pound senior center Auden Jones speaks, his Penn Kingsmen offensive teammates generally listen.

After a lackluster performance in the first half at Everwise Credit Union Freed Field, Jones showed the way and his teammates, especially senior quarterback Nolan McCullough and senior running back Jake Balis, followed. The No. 11 Kingsmen controlled the clock for almost 18 minutes of the final half in a 21-0 Northern Indiana Conference East-West Division victory over visiting Elkhart.

“Auden just split the river and I followed him up it,” said McCullough after following Jones into the end zone on an 11-yard quarterback sneak to break the scoreless tie with 4:00 remaining in the third quarter.

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Jones, the son of former Washington, Niles and Adams head football coach (and Notre Dame defensive lineman) Antwon Jones, said all the right words to the Kingsmen (4-1 overall, 1-0 NIC East-West).

“Auden got us fired up. He said, ‘We can beat them. We can pound them,’” added McCullough, who later added a 10-yard scoring run on a bootleg and threw for 65 more yards on 8-of-10 passing off some nifty ballhandling fakes.

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“We trust every single one on that offensive line,” said Balis, who was held to 12 yards on seven carries in the first half but gained 80 in the second half on 18 carries, one of them a four-yard sprint to the end zone which made it 21-0 Penn with 9:04 remaining. The Kingsmen ran off the final 6:49 of the clock.

“Auden is a good athlete and a good leader, too,” Penn coach Cory Yeoman said. “He and (senior left tackle Neven) Freitag settled those guys down at halftime and got them going in the right direction.”

Another shutout

Friday’s shutout was the second consecutive one for the Kingsmen, who beat Hammond Morton 35-0 two Fridays ago. Penn surrendered just 28 yards in total offense to the Lions (1-4, 0-1 NIC East-West) in the second half. For the game, Elkhart had just 35 yards rushing on 28 attempts and quarterback Quinn Rost threw for just 70 yards (8 of 18) and was sacked three times, twice by Penn defensive end Brandon Lynch.

Lions caged

“We didn’t run the ball efficiently, and we didn’t complete passes like we wanted to,” Lions head coach Romison Saint-Louis said after his team’s second straight shutout defeat. “The issue has been consistency. That’s a good football team (Penn). You know it’s not going to be 0-0 the whole game.”

Up next

Kingsmen travel across town next Friday to play Marian (2-3, 1-1 NIC East-West) which beat visiting South Bend Adams in overtime, 13-6. Elkhart returns to Rice Field to play host to South Bend Saint Joseph (3-2, 1-1 NIC East-West) which fell to visiting New Prairie, 29-26.

Penn 21, Elkhart 0

SCORING PLAYS

THIRD QUARTER

P—Nolan McCullough 11-yard rush at 4:00 (Dylan DeDario kick)

P—McCullough 10-yard rush at 0:12.7 (DeDario kick)

FOURTH QUARTER

P—Jake Balis 4-yard rush at 9:04 (DeDario kick)

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Penn football gets second straight shutout with 21-0 victory over Elkhart