On the heels of last week’s heartbreaking overtime defeat to rival Western, Taylor’s football squad served notice that the Titans wouldn’t let that loss affect them as they pounded Peru 40-0 Friday night at Taylor on homecoming night.
“After that loss last week the team just was ready to get out on the field against anybody,” stated a happy Titan coach Josh Ousley. “We’re too good a team to let one loss ruin our season. We feel like we really have a chance to do something really special this season with this group.”
Taylor wasted little time getting back on the right track.
On just its second play after taking over on downs in the first quarter, senior quarterback Jake Leicht threw a perfect strike to a streaking Shawn Fogleman down the west sideline for a touchdown toss that covered 40 yards. Following an interception by Tommy Monroe, Leicht and Fogleman hooked up again to make it 14-0, this time from 26 yards out and the rout was on.
“That was a heck of an interception there by Monroe,” noted Ousley. “I still don’t know how he pulled that one in but that play pretty much set the tone for our defense. They [Peru] got some yards against us, but we have the ‘bend but don’t break’ philosophy.”
Freshman speedster Gordon Jenkins made it 20-0 with just 2:23 remaining in the first stanza when he burst around the corner and outran the Peru secondary on a 64-yard scoring jaunt down the east sideline. Leicht again showed his prowess under pressure with less than two minutes remaining in the half as he darted through would-be tacklers to find a wide open Austin Conwell in the back of the end zone for a five-yard scoring toss.
Jenkins hit paydirt again with just 1:30 left in the half, this time bursting around the right side for a 30-yard jaunt that for all intents and purposes put the game completely out of reach. Things could have gotten even uglier for Peru after Jenkins bolted 47 yards for another TD, however a penalty nullified the score.
Josh Steward concluded the scoring with a five-yard scoring strike from Leicht with 2:49 remaining in the third quarter.
On the night, Leicht clicked on an impressive 15-of-19 passes for 226 yards and four touchdowns. Fogleman, in as fine of an all-around game as one could imagine, was on the receiving end of four of those tosses for 83 yards and the two touchdowns. Matt Williams hauled in three passes for 37 yards and defensively made an impressive one-handed interception, one of four the Titans picked off on the night. Jenkins finished with 89 yards rushing on just a half-dozen carries to anchor the ground game.
Fogleman also picked off a pair of Mason Zimmer passes in a stellar defensive outing and boomed one punt over 50 yards as well as another that pinned Peru inside its 10-yard line.
“Shawn played an outstanding game on both sides of the ball and he punted very well,” Ousley mused. “He came ready to play. But our entire defense was swarming to the ball and hitting hard. We missed a few tackles, but it was a wet field out there and that happens sometimes on nights like this. I was also very proud of the way the offensive line played. All in all the entire team played a very solid game.”
The 3-1 Titans visit Northwestern Friday night. Peru (1-3) hosts Cass next Friday.
Sports
Titans dominate Bengal Tigers
Taylor excels on both sides of the ball to thump Peru 40-0
- Sports
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Kats lose heartbreaker
Kokomo’s girls basketball team executed its game plan to near perfection against host Logansport in the first game of the Class 4A Logansport Sectional Tuesday.
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Tipton races by Taylor
Over the last two seasons, Tipton’s girls basketball team has been held under 40 points in just three games.
Tuesday’s sectional opponent — Taylor — held the Blue Devils down in two of those games. Tuesday was a different story.
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It’s tourney time
In the girls basketball regular season, Tipton and Logansport compiled gaudy records and conference championships while Taylor and Kokomo finished with sub-.500 records.
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What a kick for Hoosier native Weatherford
Indianapolis — While Steve Weatherford celebrated with his teammates in the New York Giants’ locker room after the 21-17 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, thoughts inevitably turned to Terre Haute — his hometown.
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Ice baths can improve your health
Several years ago, I applied to be a participant in the weekly television show “Survivor.” Disappointingly, I was rejected.
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Wiechmann comes up big in regional
Western senior wrestler Jake Wiechmann had lost twice this season to Kokomo standout Fletcher Miller, and was trailing 3-1 to Miller in the third period of the championship of the 182-pound match at the Peru Regional Saturday when the opportunity for vengeance struck.
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Wildkat wrestlers move nine onto Ft. Wayne semistate
The Kokomo Wildkats’ bus will need just a little bit more gas than usual next weekend to haul its cargo up to Fort Wayne for Saturday’s individual wrestling semistate at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
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Visitors down at tourism office
Since moving its office location from the Kokomo Event Center to downtown Kokomo, the number of walk-in visits for tourism information has dropped 77 percent in one year.
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Kokomo guts out a win at Lebanon
It didn’t take clairvoyance to deduce that Saturday night’s showdown between Class 4A No. 6-ranked Kokomo and Class 3A No. 3-ranked Lebanon in the Tigers’ Rosenstihl Gymnasium had the makings of a close affair.
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Western beats Taylor, secures shot at outright MIC title
Something Taylor coach Andy Lewman noted about Western’s boys basketball team early on this season was how well the Panthers share the ball.
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