The 107th clash between Sullivan and Linton was yet another in a long line of intense hitting and big plays. Once again, The Miners defense shone bright through four quarters shutting down a multi-faceted Arrow offense. And once again The Miners came out the 2nd half to dominate for a 34-21 win. It was the third win in a row for Linton in a series dating to 1909. That has seen both schools have periods of domination come and go. Linton has won 22 of the last 26 meetings, including last year’s overtime 22-16 win at Sportland Field.
The 2021 edition started out with a bang for The Miners, as a high-snap to Arrow punter William Newby forced him to tuck and run on a 4th-and-15 as several Miner defenders boxed him in quickly. Gabe Eslinger and Jackson Lynn — who was seeing his first action on the Roy Williams Field in 2021 — knocked him out at the Arrow’s 15. The golden opportunity was shut down in a show of force by Sullivan as 3 plays produced a 4th-and-11. Then Miner QB Hunter Gennicks tried to hit Hunter Johns inside the “5” only to have Luke Adams step in for the interception seemingly all in stride. Adams returned the ball 24 yards out to the 28, re-establishing the momentum and certainly making a statement defensively.
The Arrows would reel off a couple first-downs on runs by Newby of 11, then a 13-yard scramble by junior QB Rowdy Adams to the Miner’s 48. Eslinger was in on the next two stops off Newby, the second along with Jr DE Aiden Giles leaving a 3rd-and-3. Adams was reeled in for a loss of 15 yards by Hunter Johns, forcing a Newby punt that rolled dead at the Linton 20.
The Miners got their first big play of the year from the passing game. First, Gennicks escaped a sack from Arrow DE 6’5″ Jackson Hills to hit Eslinger to an 11-yard pass that moved the chains. After a holding penalty on he 1st down, Gennicks lobbed an aerial to a Johns running free down the middle of the field. Johns made a terrific over the shoulders catch in stride at the Miner 48 and was finally tracked down by Randy Kelly at the Arrow’s 18 yard line; a game of 58 yards.
Miner Senior RB Drew Smith bulled 2-yards on 4th-and-1 giving Linton a 1st-and-goal at the Sullivan yard line; however the Sullivan defense proved stiff. Runs by Gennicks then Smith gained just a yard as the 1st quarter ended scoreless. Another Gennicks scramble away from Connor Hughes found Smith open in the end zone, but the pass sailed high. The 4th down was unsuccessful, as Eslinger was stopped on a power run at the “5” by Hills. It was the 2nd Red Zone trip for Linton, but still a goose egg on the scoreboard.
With “mighty mo” firmly in hand, the Arrows proceeded to begin a 15 play drive, consuming nearly 8 minutes of the 2nd quarter. Heavy doses of Newby, including a 10 and a 16-yard run, put the Arrows in Miner territory. A Rowdy Adams pass to Randy Kelley, followed by a 15-yard facemask penalty, got them to the “21”. Back-to-back runs by Junior RB Lane Deckard moved to the 11-yard line. The Miner defense rose up with stops by senior DE Cameron Goodman, and a 2-yard loss on a big hit from Junior DE Wrigley Franklin.
A third down run by Newby was strung out by Smith and Goodman, resulting in a 5-yard loss back to the “18.” It looked like the Miners would make the stop as Adams threw into double coverage on a wheel route inside the “5” on the Arrow sideline. Newby made a one-handed catch at the “2” snatching the ball out of the air with his left hand, though, then crossing the end zone to the joys of Sullivan fans. Junior Giuseppe Leone drilled the PAT, and Sullivan broke the deadlock, but more importantly they seized control with the 95-yard drive.
With 3:53 left in the opening quarter and down seven-to-nil, Linton would start from their own “35.” Things however, were going no better offensively when Senior Bracey Breneman was stopped by Newby for one yard, and then a pass intended for Senior Wideout Eli Poe was too wide.
It was a well setup WB screen to Hunter Johns that got just enough for a new set of downs at the Miner’s 45. It would be the passing game again with the big place as Gennicks found Eslinger across the middle in-stride at the Sullivan “38,” and he rumbled to their “27” before Luke Adams dragged him down to the ground. Suddenly, instead of just playing it safe and heading to the locker room down 7 points, the Miners had found life. Eslinger got 4 on an option play, then an Arrow breakdown left Senior Ayden Riggleman wide-open on the Linton sideline at the 3-yard line. The only question was Gennicks getting him the ball now, and he did. Jayden Miller got the ball over the crossbar just enough for the Miners to tie things up at 1:06 in the half.
Sullivan very nearly got right back on top. Kelley took Miller’s kick at the Arrow’s “25,” and he had an impressive effort breaking tackles and leaping over Miners almost going to the house until Riggleman’s diving tackle at the Linton “15.” But hold your horses! There was a yellow hankie at the Sullivan “36” that all but eliminated that last big play. One play later, the clock hit zero and both teams headed to the locker-room knotted up at 7.
The general vibe I felt was that Linton was once again counting on their defense, which had for the second week in a row had played a solid first-half. The Arrows did have the impressive 95-yard drive for their only score, but overall with Sack Yards included, Sullivan had 89 total yards, pretty much equally dispersed with 46 on the ground and 43 in air on 4 of 6 passing. Meanwhile, Linton had amassed 150 total yards with 6 of 9 passing producing 138 yards in the air. Sullivan had certainly shut down the Miner rushing game, holding Linton to just 12 yards on 13 carries, which is a highly unusual stat line for Linton Football. After going 2 of 2 last week in Red Zone appearances, Linton had failed with two possessions starting inside the Arrow’s ” 20″ coming away with nothing to show for it. William Newby had 13 carries for 38 yards in the opening half, and Adams was 4-4 on the big 15 play scoring drive, 4 of 6 over all passing. Hunter Gennicks had shown great patience in his passing, and his mobility in the pocket certainly had contributed to his 138 yards passing and the only offense Linton had been able to generate.
Linton came out passing from their own “27” to start off the second-half. Gennicks hit Riggleman on a quick out that gained 7 yards, then Eslinger took an option pitch battling Kelley, but getting 3-and-first down with it. As before, it was the legs of Hunter Gennicks, as well as the brain holding the ball in wingback Hunter John’s belly just enough to fool the defense, and then darting through the line into the secondary where he dodged Luke Adams. He then cut to his right to use a block from Riggleman, then streaked down the left sideline with Kelley, making the stop at the Arrow ‘s 13 yard line. This was yet another example of great downfield blocking from receivers, not to mention another fine effort from that offensive line of Franklin, Giles, Watson, Goodman as well as a combination of Cody Jackson and Jackson Lynn filling in for the injured Hank Gennicks.
The Miners caught some luck on the ensuing play as Gennicks rolled to his left and was helped by blocks from Jackson and Drew Smith, whereupon he spotted Gabe Eslinger coming left-to-right across the middle from his wingback position. Earlier, Gennicks has lofted the ball too high in the same situation, but this time he put it perfectly for Gabe to leap up, make the catch, and the 3-and-step in the end zone!
What you may not have seen was when Gabe made his cut to the inside, a referee was moving up to get a look at the line play, and in doing so, blocked William Newby enough that Eslinger got position and about 4 steps open! The PAT took a nose dive to the left leaving the dreaded 13-7 score just a minute five into the third quarter.
The Miner defense picked up on the offense’s uplift, and Newby was stopped by Johns and Franklin, and then Smith to set up 3rd-and-10. Adams tried a keeper, a la Gennicks, but was met by Senior Nose Tackle Donovan DeBruhl and Eslinger forcing a 4th-and-8. Newby’s punt was taken by Johns at the Miner “21” and he reached the Linton “34,” but a 15-yard penalty pushed Linton back to their own “18” with 8:44 in the third quarter .
Linton converted 3rd-and-10 from their own 18 yard line on a swing pass to Johns that gains 14 yards out to the “32.” Gennicks quick reaction on the next snap averted a certain otherwise be a bad play, as he took a big blind hit from 6’5″ and 215 pound DE Jackson Hills. Somehow, he got the ball out on a strike to Gabe Eslinger, which netted nothing, but saved a possible big loss — or worse yet, a fumble. The Miners could not convert on a 3rd-and-6 and Johns was contained on a late option pitch by senior DB Carter McKee 5 yards short of the marker.
Sullivan nearly gifted Linton in another crazy way as the Miller punt was rolling to a stop at the Arrow “35” surrounded by four Miners. For whatever reason, Senior LB Luke Padgett approached the ball standing over it, which in itself is a coach’s nightmare! At the absolute last second he reached down, apparently either feeling he had to down it, or simply hand it to the official. Somehow, as he absorbed the smarm of Miner players, including Bracey Breneman, Sophomore Christian Shonk, and Freshman Jesse Voigtschild among them, he did not lose the ball.
It became the Rowdy Adams Show on Sullivan’s sixth possession of the game as he carried the first four plays of the drive. He scrambled for 8 yards after being chased from the pocket on a blitz from OLB Johns. He and his matching number 2 for Linton (Eslinger) collided on consecutive plays leaving a 3rd-and – at the Linton “47.” Adams jettisoned the third down pass to his brother, Luke, but it was too strong. As Luke made his cut, the ball hit his hand and deflected off , all as Jayden Miller put the hit that might have jarred the ball loose anyway. Newby would pin the Miners with a high-kick that Johns was forced to fair catch at the Miner “12” with 2:20 in the third quarter.
The Arrows needed to make a stop, but Eslinger busted for 13 yards on a first down. After McKee stopped Johns for 2 yards, and a pass intended to Poe was broken up by Kelley, Linton faced a key 3rd-and-7 from their own “28.” Once more, it was Gennicks on a pass/run option with pressure coming from Padgett and two other Arrows from the back side. Hunter tucked the ball up the gut, broke a couple tackles, and hit free space. Luke Adams would take the brunt of the tackle at midfield right in front of a fired-up Linton sideline.
To make matters worse, emotion got the best of an Arrow and a post play shove in front of officials led to another 15-yards tacked on. From the Arrow “35,” Hunter Johns took an inside counter that was wide-open, then he ran over a defender at the “20,” was hit by Luke Adams, then Lake Deckard then three more Arrows, but refused to go down churning from the 15 to the Arrow “5.” The effort juiced the Miner fans, including even Coach Brian Oliver with pumping fists on the effort. The play was set up with a fake pitch to Jayden Miller and Johns coming back left-to-right for the hand-off. Several key elements were involved in the successful play. Drew Smith on a seal block backside, Wrigley Franklin coming down on the inside linebacker, Jackson Lynn and Aiden Giles pulling from the right to the left with Giles proving the key block to spring Johns. Cameron Goodman coming down from tackle to seal was actually knocked down by Lynn in process; and it all starts with the snap from Junior Nathan Watson. One play later, Eslinger was pounding straight forward 5 yards into the south end zone fan base. Kaulin Padgett could not outrun William Newby to the outside end zone in a battle of speedsters on a 2 point conversion, but with 5 seconds on the third quarter clock, Linton had breathing room of 19-7 on the scoreboard.
Sullivan avoided a huge blow on the opening play from their own “36,” as Luke Padgett had the pigskin poked away by Drew Smith at the “30,” and credit Arrow QB Rowdy Adams for his effort in diving for the loose ball getting there ever so slightly ahead of Smith at the Arrow’s “24” with a loss of 12 yards. Adams got that, plus one more yard,, on a keeper catching the Miner backside defense asleep.
Third-and-8 was unsuccessful and two of the three Miner Captains (Smith and Eslinger) combined to stop Newby at the 40 setting up an Arrow roll of the dice on a 4th-and-5. Adams would look for brother Luke deep across the middle at about midfield, but Senior Eli Poe made the read and stepped in front of the aerial at the Miner’s “48.” He received a big Breneman block on the sideline and got to the Arrow “3” as Miner fans started to smell blood. A call at the Miner “19” would bring the starting point back to the Arrow “34” with under 10-minutes left in the contest.
At this point Gennicks wisely used every second of the play clock before Watson would snap the ball. Keeping it on the ground with a keeper for 2 yards, then Eslinger for 3 yards was followed by a stop by Padgett and Hills of Gennicks. This set up a 4th-and-1 that was converted by a tough Eslinger run to the Arrow’s “21.”
Linton went for it all, and nearly got it with a pass to the deep corner of the end zone, but Poe could not pull it off with good coverage from Kelley. Connor Hughes busted through the line dropping Gennicks for a 3-yard loss then. As had been the case all this night, the passing game was on-target. Facing 3rd-and-13, Gennicks outran backside pressure from Cody Adams, and he hit Eslinger again at the Arrow’s 14-yard line. Gabe broke a tackle and reached the Sullivan “6.” Hunter Johns would follow Drew Smith the last 6 yards untouched with 5:57 left on the clock. Afterward, Gennicks hit Johns for the 2-point conversion and a Miner 27-to-7 commanding lead.
Luke Adams took the Miners’ kick at the Arrow “21” and it looked to be stopped only to spin and break free on the Arrow sideline. Jayden Miller saved a possible return TD, though, and at the Miner’s “46.” Rowdy was able to get away from a Goodman sack and turn nothing into an 8-yard gain before Smith and Senior NT Jackson Fields brought him down. An Adams-to-Adams bubble screen netted 14 yards to the Miner’s 29 yard line.
Jackson Hills looked to have a pass across the middle in-stride at the Linton’s “14,” but Gennicks big hit knocked the ball away, and it was ruled incomplete and not a fumble (recovered by Linton’s Padgett). Adams lofted a pass to Luke Adams that was double-covered at the Miner “3,” but in the leap up it was deemed a little too much contact, and the Arrows would get a new set of downs at the Miner “15.” It was Newby on a leaping grab of a screen that seemed well-played by the Miner defense, but the sure tackling all game long seemed to disappear on this drive by Sullivan. Newby made an impressive run by spinning and breaking tackles into the end zone to keep Sullivan’s hopes alive. Giuseppe Leonne drilled the PAT as expected and with just 3:38 remaining it was 27-to-13 Miners.
The all expected on-side kick was perfectly done by Leonne, but Gabe Eslinger was Johnny-on-the-spot at the Sullivan “49” and narrowly missed a diving Hughes launch that would have been a very unpleasant collision. The Arrows defense needed a quick stop, and they forced a 3rd-and-11 from mid-field. An ill-timed offside pushed the ball to the Arrow’s 45-yard marker, where Gennicks went to the left, got a pancake block from Drew Smith, and then popped up the gut out-running Sullivan tacklers for a 45-yard touchdown, That sent Arrow fans packing for the exits. Jaydan Miller hit his second PAT kick for the Miner’s 34th point to Sullivan’s “14” with just 1:57 left in the game.
Sullivan went to the air trying to score quickly, and Linton certainly was giving up the middle of the field, as well as giving plenty of padding against the deep pass. Eight straight plays had Rowdy Adams looking to pass, and completing three of four, to put Sullivan at the Miner “36.” Two of those to TE Hills for a total 24 yards. Franklin’s pressure forced Adams to run for 4 yards, where Jackson Lynn from OLB made the stop. Luke Adams caught a long pass to the Miner “12” for 20 yards, then Newby made a quick out to the “9.”
Time was just about to hit zeros, as Adams scrambled once more, and Cody Jackson had him in his sights. Fields and Junior Linebacker Bradyn Cox stopped him at the Miner’s 6-yard mark. With 5 seconds remaining, Adams took the shotgun snap and run straight-up the middle for the final points of the night. Leonne hit his 3rd PAT for the final tally of 34-21. Leonne’s on-side kick broke through the initial line, but Riggleman chased it down to recover, and then Gennicks took one knee to end the game.
It was the second week in a row where Linton had gone until halftime struggling overall offensively, although this night they had gotten some momentum going in before the half with a score at 1:06 via the passing game. It was also the 2nd week in a row where the second-half is where we saw Linton really dominate. Linton put up 165 3rd quarter yards while holding the Arrows to just 23, and had a 243-to-139 second-half yardage advantage.
Overall, Linton ended with 393 total offense with a solid showing in the air (11 of 16 for 190 yards with 2 TDS passing from Hunter Gennicks) and 203 yards rushing on 34 attempts. Gennicks has his 2nd 100+ rushing game with 120 yards on 12 carries as a TD. He as 245 yards on 30 carries for the year.
Much of that success was due to another week of solid play from the Miner offensive line, as well as not allowing a sack of Gennicks in the opening two games. They were also playing short-handed as Frosh right tackle Hank Gennicks (at 6’2 235 & younger brother of Hunter) had gone down with a knee injury in Wednesday’s practice. Linton’s next man up attitude came to fruition as seniors Cody Jackson and Jackson Lynn (who moved from a TE position) were utilized to fill the spot. It was Lynn’s 1st varsity game since week one of 2020 due to injury. Anchoring that line was junior Center Nathan Watson with senior guard Wrigley Franklin, junior tackle Aiden Giles (moving over from guard), and senior tackle Cameron Goodman. Senior Donovan DeBruhl was also an extra lineman positioned at traditional tight end. Thru two weeks Giles has 4 pancake blocks, Debruhl 4, Franklin 4, Gennicks 3, Watson 1 and FB Drew Smith with 4. The passing game that was non-existent against Southridge was a game changer against Sullivan. Hunter John’s had 81 yards on 3 catches, Gabe Eslinger hauled in 5 passes for 73 yards and a score, Ayden Riggleman was two catches for 30 yards and a score with Eli Poe one catch for 6 yards.
The Miner Defense was once again dominant against the run holding the Arrows to 92 yards on 37 carries. Back to back weeks of holding the opponents to under 3 yards per carry. Sullivan’s William Newby had run for 140+ last week against North Knox, and had only 41 yards on 16 carries this night. It was Rowdy Adams with 50 yards on 16 rushes, 7 of those on scrambles for 39 yards, but he was sacked twice for 22 yards in the process. Adams was 11 for 17 passing and 136 yards and two scores. Both QB’s were picked off once each. Miner senior CB Eli Poe had a huge interception at midfield for Linton, while Luke Adams’ pick happened inside the Arrow 5 on a possible TD pass. Five Arrows caught passes with three each from Luke Adams (44 yards) and Newby (40 yards, 2 TDs). 2 each from Hills (24 yards) and Kelley (22 yards), and one for 6 yards from Randy Kelley.
It was another stellar effort from the Linebacker corps with Eslinger’s 14 tackles (9 solo) and Smith’s 10 (2.5 TFL). Johns finished with 4 tackles but 1.5 sacks and 2 hurries. Riggleman added 5, with 4 each from Breneman, DeBruhl (0.5 sack), Franklin (3 hurries) and Padgett. Luke Adams led the Arrows with 10 stops including 1 TFL, Hughes with 9 (1.5 TFL, 2 hurries), Hills with 8 (2 TFL, 3 hurries) and 7 from Newby.
Linton hits the road for the first time with the long trek to Monrovia to take on the resurgent Bulldogs. Coach Andy Olson’s second year already has matched their win total from 2020 with impressive wins over Cardinal Ritter (41-12) and Edgewood (48-12). Linton won a dogfight at The Roy last year 42-36, as well as a 35-0 drubbing 2 years back in Monrovia. In the last four meetings, Linton has won three of those, the only loss coming in 2017 (23-0). They faced off from 1999 thru 2003 with Monrovia having the edge 3-2. The game should be another great battle, and I sincerely urge all Miner fans to make the trip and support the program and kids. As always, it will be broadcast on the air at Sunrise 93.3 FM or via stream at www.wqtyradio.com with Kevin Raber and myself .
Featured photo by Austin Gordon Photography.