By Pedro Velazco
RUSSIAVILLE — After the postgame huddles broke up, and after the winning team in white adjourned for a happy bus ride back to West Lafayette, Western football coach Alix Engle looked out at a few straggling Panthers, playing in the mud in the middle of Western’s football field.
Having made the Class 3A No. 2-ranked West Lafayette Red Devils work hard to come away with a 21-6 victory, Western’s players weren’t filled with the regret despite the end of the season.
“You’re looking at them out there, they’re having a good time,” he said. “Sometimes those guys afterwards, after they get beat, they’re in tears, just because they wish they would have gone back and done something [different]. I think [instead] we do have quite a few guys that gave it their all, that trained hard in the weight room, that ran. Looking back on this, they gave us about as much as they could give us.”
That was how Western (6-5) departed the football season, disappointed, but without regret after a tense loss to Class 3A heavyweight West Lafayette. The game wasn’t decided until WL scored its final touchdown with less than two minutes left in the game.
Western’s elimination was due to a gritty effort by West Lafayette’s defense, and a luminous effort by Red Devil quarterback Daniel Wodicka. The senior signal-caller was the X-factor, breaking off two long touchdown runs and racking up 191 yards on the ground in addition to 122 through the air — despite driving rain in the first half, and a muddy field that offered little footing.
Wodicka gave West Lafayette the early advantage with a 57-yard scamper around the right side that saw him accelerate away from Western’s secondary en route to the end zone with 9:08 left to play in the first quarter. That was WL’s only score in the first half.
Western nearly pulled even on two long plays to Logun Taylor in the second quarter. First, quarterback Quin Fields found Taylor wide open on a pass play and Taylor turned it into a 43-yard gain with a nice move and good blocking to extend the play. On the next play, Taylor exploded through the line of scrimmage and ran 33 yards to the end zone with 5:58 left before the break. West Lafayette blocked the extra point to make the score 7-6 at halftime.
Wodicka struck again on his team’s first possession of the second half. Running exclusively from the shotgun, he blazed around the right side again, this time for a 67-yard TD run to give Westside a 14-6 advantage.
“We did a lot of things right,” Engle said, noting that the weather favored Western since it limited West Lafayette’s passing game. “[Wodicka] is just real similar to [Cass’ Damon] Foreman here a couple weeks ago. He kind of put the team on his shoulders and broke tackles and outran people.”
On the other side, West Lafayette limited Western to just 119 rushing yards and 63 yards through the air. The Devils focused on Western runner Jake Askren, who finished with 47 yards on a dozen carries — both high marks for the Panthers.
“Askren is such a great runner,” West Lafayette coach Marshall Overley said. “I’m not kidding you, we were scared of him. We had to focus on him. All week we put a blue jersey on a [scout team] kid: ‘This is No. 8. We have to know where he is. Is he at fullback? Is he at tailback? Is he at wing?’ Now, we couldn’t leave the quarterback, the quarterbacks run well, [but] we had to stop him, absolutely had to stop him.”
Western quarterback/fullback Mike Jakubowicz added 31 yards on the ground and Taylor finished with 39.
West Lafayette was more effective, rushing for 217 total yards and passing for 122 but couldn’t put Western away until Amen Galley scored on a one-yard plunge with 1:51 left after a short drive. West Lafayette took possession at the Western 14 on a late interception of a trick play by Western. The Panthers had exhausted their go-to style of straight-ahead running, and had gambled at the end trying to get the equalizing score.
Engle raved about the improvement of the team and credited the seniors for leading that charge. He was heartened by the effort the Panthers put forth in pushing the Devils.
“We were in position to win championships,” he said. “We took it down to the wire with the No. 2 team in the state. [Western’s players] have got a lot to keep their chins up, they’ve got a lot to be proud of.”
