The Logansport football team completed one of its most dominant regular seasons in program history with a 56-6 win over Twin Lakes on Friday night at Parkview Logansport Stadium.
The Berries (9-0, 7-0 Hoosier Conference) stuck with the familiar script of having multiple players score multiple touchdowns on offense while the defense was equally as impressive in a complete team effort.
The Indians (6-3, 4-3) entered averaging 44 ppg with a college-level quarterback, Cooper Dold, who holds six small-school offers.
But the Berries’ first-team defense allowed zero points for the fourth straight week as they just seem to be getting better as the season goes along and the weather gets colder. The Berries faced run-heavy attacks the previous two weeks against Western and Culver Academies and shut down a spread attack with Twin Lakes that is ran by fourth-year coach Kevin O’Shea, who won five state championships at Lafayette Central Catholic.
Quincy Jackson, who had one of the Berries’ three interceptions on the night, talked about his team’s defensive performance.
“We worked on it all week in practice,” Jackson said. “We knew that Twin Lakes wasn’t gonna come in here and just give up. We had to be ready no matter what the score says, we always had to be ready.”
The Berries completed their first perfect regular season since 2005 and fifth all-time.
“That was my dad’s sophomore year, I think,” Quincy said of his father, Daniel Jackson. “We both got one undefeated season, so it’s a blessing. I’m very glad to be part of this team and we deserve it.”
The Berries got one of their big maulers back on the offense line as 6-foot-8, 285-pound left tackle RJ Clem played in his first game back from a high ankle sprain suffered in the West Lafayette game four weeks earlier.
Clem wanted to make sure he was back on the field for senior night.
“I felt pretty good,” he said. “It was a great game to come back. I can’t really finish off much better than that for the regular season itself. It was great.”
Clem said the plan was to just play the first half ahead of the sectional next Friday.
“I didn’t play the second half. I didn’t need to. I probably wasn’t going to anyways, but I just wanted to start because this team means a lot to me,” he said. “It’s a great team. It’s a family.”
The Berries are outscoring their opponents on average 46-9, with a lot of the points being allowed by the JV defense during the second halves with a running clock going. They’ve had at least a 35-point second-half lead in every game but one, a Week 2 27-0 win at South Bend Adams.
Some fans are worried about the lack of competitive games coming back to bite them in the tournament. Logansport previously was one of the smallest schools in the NCC by a wide margin, which is the biggest reason there’s only five undefeated seasons. Logan is now the largest school in the Hoosier Conference by a wide margin.
The Berries have won two Hoosier Conference championships in the last three years after winning seven NCC titles in football. Traditionally strong schools like West Lafayette, Lafayette Central Catholic and Western were a bit down this year.
The Berries host Delta (4-5) for a Class 4A sectional game Friday night.
“I think it’ll be a better competition,” Clem said. “We haven’t played the best competition all year, but I think we’ll be ready for it. I think some people are down on us, but I don’t think that matters to us. We’re a physical team and we want it. We started the game with pick six, we just want it more than a lot of teams.”
Jaxsyn Walker had two interceptions on the night, including a 26-yard interception return for a touchdown on the second play from scrimmage on a ball that was tipped by Elliot Baldini. Walker also scored on two of this three rushing attempts for the game and finished with 29 yards on the ground.
Baldini, a top five rusher in program history, added 66 yards and two TDs on nine carries. He also made a lot of plays from his linebacker position on defense.
As did sophomore Karsen Jackson, who rushed for 78 yards and two TDs on just four carries. He had a long touchdown run called back by a penalty late in the first half but the Berries still led 42-0 at halftime. Following his 5-yard TD run late in the first quarter, he forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff return, kept the ball alive colliding with another Twin Lakes player while eventually recovering the fumble that led to another Logansport score.
Kuper Jones was 3 of 7 passing for 28 yards and scrambled for 55 yards on four carries.
Christopher Curry, Louis Rozzi and Greyson Cottrell each had a sack on defense.
The Berries’ first-team defense held Dold to 10 of 25 passing for 54 yards and three interceptions and held the Indians’ running game to negative-10 yards on eight attempts though three quarters.
The Indians marched 67 yards on a drive that was capped by a TD pass from Dold to Coleman Ottinger in the fourth quarter against the Berries’ JV defense.
Reynaldo Hyppolite answered with a 70-yard TD run for the Berries.
The Indians lost one of their best athletes, Ledger Shaffer, to a broken arm earlier this year and they lost enough starters to injury overall that they had to call up some younger players and canceled Saturday’s JV game with Logansport despite having a 7-0 JV record.
“We matched up pretty well with them,” Clem said. “They had a lot of injuries late in this season, so that sucks for them. I wish them the best. But again, we just came out real hard and physical and that won us the game.”
The Berries are on Fall Break for school and will gear for their first-round sectional opponent, Delta.
“I’ve seen some comments already about Delta saying stuff, talking trash, but it’s all right,” Quincy Jackson said. “We don’t say nothing back. We’re just gonna let the game go and at the end of the day we’ll see who wins.”