BY CHRIS GARNER
FORT WAYNE — For the third time in as many years, the Kokomo football team entered the IHSAA state tournament in search of respect but come away with disappointment.
Unranked Fort Wayne Snider rolled up 460 yards of offense on a sloppy Wayne High School field to clobber the No. 4-ranked Wildkats 42-7 in the first round of the Class 5A Sectional here Friday, ending an otherwise historic season.
“It’s not the way we wanted to go out,” said third-year coach Brett Colby, who’s turned around a program that had one winning record in nine seasons previous to his arrival.
“Those kids work hard and deserve to go out on a better note than this. [A final record of] 9-1 is very dissatisfying.”
Kokomo came into the game ranked second in the state in scoring behind all-time leading rusher Braxton Shelton and Colby’s unique double-wing offense.
But that offense seemed stuck in the mud Friday, unable to get any traction against the Snider defense as the Panthers, members of the powerful Summit Athletic Conference, showed why they are perennial 5A contenders.
Shelton was held to only 14 yards rushing in the first half, although he broke free for two long runs in the third quarter and finished with 82 yards and a touchdown on 14 attempts.
In Colby’s three-year tenure as coach, Kokomo has won 25 of 27 regular-season games, including all 21 in the North Central Conference.
But after a first-round loss in 2007 and a second-round defeat in ‘08, critics were lined up at the door to knock the unbeaten Kats’ schedule, ranked as one of the weakest in 5A.
“Our kids believe in what we do. We run [this offense] at every level and we win at every level, so we just have to get better at doing it. We get in big games and just have to stay on blocks and get a good push.”
The Panthers (8-2) pounced on Kokomo quickly as Colby eschewed his usual practice of taking the football first, deferring to the second half.
Snider went 80 yards in eight plays and 3 minutes, 31 seconds for the game’s first score, tacked on another first-quarter TD in similar fashion and never looked back.
Quarterback Tyler Bobilya was the catalyst for the Panthers. He was 7 of 10 passing in the first half alone for 175 yards and finished as Snider’s leading rusher with 85 yards and two third-quarter TDs on nine carries. The Panthers used nine different backs to rush for 285 yards.
“They blocked like crazy on the second and third level,” said Colby. “They had kids on our linebackers and our secondary guys all night. Give them credit; that’s what they do and that was the difference.
Kokomo did manage to drive to the Snider 21 on its first possession, but the drive stalled and Drew Marshall missed a 37-yard field-goal attempt.
Another key swing came late in the second period with the score still 14-0 when Kats quarterback Austin Colby —sick with the flu, filling in for a concussed T.J. Weir — fumbled on his own 13-yard line and Snider recovered the game’s only turnover.
A James Starks 1-yard TD run with just 1:07 left in the first half took any wind out of the Kats’ sails coming into the second half.
“Kokomo is a good team and they execute as well as any offense we played all year,” said Snider coach Kurt Tippmann. “Now, their starting quarterback was out and that’s a huge blow to them. They’re deserving of the accolades they had coming into this game.”
Casey Shipley led the Wildkats with 105 yards on 18 carries. He also completed two passes to Shelton for 41 yards. Dylan Green, one of 19 seniors on the Kokomo roster, led the defense with 10 tackles, including a tackle for a loss.
