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Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter completed a perfect 15-0 campaign with a 34-27 victory over Sheridan (13-2) in the Class A state championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. It was the first state championship game played in the new venue which opened in August.

Ritter’s win ended Sheridan’s bid for a fourth straight Class A crown and also halted the Blackhawks’ 23-game tournament win streak. It was Ritter’s first win over Sheridan in three previous title game meetings including an overtime loss in 2006. It was Ritter’s third football state championships to go along with Class A crowns in 1977 and 2003.

Raiders quarterback Ross Hendrickson scored the go-ahead touchdown from four yards out with :40 seconds remaining in the game. Tied at 27-27, Sheridan seemed poised to take the fourth quarter lead taking possession on Ritter’s 40 yard line following a punt, but Ritter’s Kendall Moore recovered a Nick Zachery fumble two plays later at his own 25 yard line with 5:12 remaining. Hendrickson then marched the Ritter offense downfield including picking up a 14 yards on fourth and one from the Sheridan 32. Four plays later he punched it across the goal line.

Sheridan had knotted the game up with just under seven minutes left in the game. Zachary intercepted a Hendrickson pass and returned it 23 yards before he was knocked out of bounds at the Ritter 11 yard line.  On third down, Ty Perkins scored from eight yards out and Austin King’s extra point tied the game at 27-27.

Both offenses had their way in the first half combining for 47 first half points and a 27-20 Ritter lead at halftime.

Ritter’s Tyrone Walker, who set Class A game records with 11 receptions for 183 yards, caught a 20 yarder from Hendrickson on the game’s opening drive. Raider wideout John Shockley, who picked up 132 yards through the air, ran for one first half touchdown and caught two others from Hendrickson including a 33-yarder that put Ritter up 27-13.

Brent Hume answered for Sheridan on its first possession scoring from four yards away and later added a one yard score that cut the Ritter lead to 19-13. With 2:36 remaining in the half, senior Ty Perkins stepped in as quarterback for the Blackhawks on fourth and five and connected with Zachery from 23 yards out. The extra point made it 27-20.

Hendrickson set Class A championship game records with 27 pass completions and 423 yards and tied the attempts mark with 47. Ritter also set the new game record with 530 yards of offense and two teams combined for 899 yards of offense, a state finals record regardless of class.

Ritter was coached by third year leader Ty Hunt. Sheridan was coached by Larry “Bud” Wright, the state’s winningest active coach with a mark of 351-146 in 44 years.

SHERIDAN’S BRENT HUME NAMED ESKEW MENTAL ATTITUDE AWARD WINNER

Following the game, the IHSAA Executive Committee named Sheridan’s Brent Hume as the winner of the Phil N. Eskew Mental Attitude Award.

Hume played both ways for the Blackhawks as running back and linebacker and also has lettered in wrestling and track.

Hume has been vice-president of his class for four years, a four-year member of the student council, a three-year member of the National Honor Society and is the Spanish Club president. He also participates in the peer tutoring program reading to third grade students in the Sheridan school system.

Academically, Hume ranks second in his class with a 4.03 GPA on a 4.0 scale. He is undecided on his college choice but would like to major in biology with an eye toward optometry.

He is the eighth Sheridan football player to win the mental attitude award and second in three years following Taylor Scott who won in 2006.

Hume is the son of Perry and Cheri Hume of Sheridan.

The award is presented annually to a senior participant in the state finals who was nominated by his principal and coach and has demonstrated excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability. It is named in honor of the IHSAA’s third commissioner who served the association from 1962-76 and who helped initiate the state tournament in 1973.

Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance presented a $1,000 scholarship to Sheridan High School in the name of Hume.

Class A Game Quotes

Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter Head Coach Ty Hunt

“My hat’s off to our guys; they kept believin’.  I told them the ball was going to bounce our way, it did, and we’re state champs.  This was a great ball game; it was a great ball game last time we played Sheridan.  I told (Sheridan) Coach Wright we were looking for another great game and that’s what we had.” 

(On Quarterback Ross Hendrickson and Receivers) “They work hard in practice and that’s what made the difference tonight. They stayed after dark the other night going over and over the routes.  That’s where it gets done.”

 “My hat’s off to our players.  There at the end with that drive (that won it), I told Ross (Hendrickson) we were going to keep the ball in his hands and that we just had to get it done.  Wow … I can’t believe we’re state champs.”

 “Our ‘06 team had a lot of heart.  This group has a lot of heart and then some.  Not to take anything away from that group, but we got it done tonight.”

 (On Sheridan coach Bud Wright) “Bud Wright is a fabulous coach, you know they are going to have their i’s dotted and their t’s crossed.  (Nick) Zachery and (Ty) Perkins are great athletes, like a lot of their guys, and we just feel great about the game we had against them tonight.” 

Sheridan Head Coach Larry “Bud” Wright

“These kids have done a heck of a job for four years and I am very proud of what they have accomplished. We would have liked to go out as winners, but sometimes it doesn’t happen that way. Ritter has a good football team and we do to – they just came out on top.”

“Fumbles hurt us in the second half and we should have scored one more time but that was my fault. We had a couple of opportunities, but just didn’t cash in on them in the second half.”

“Both teams in the first half had to adjust to each others speed. They’re passing and Ritter had to adjust to our running. Both teams got settled in in the second half and that’s why there was less scoring.”

“Our accomplishments have been outstanding in the last four years. It hurts now, but they’ll look back and be proud of the way they’ve played and it won’t hurt as bad as it does now.”

“We’ve fought back all year. We haven’t lost very often. We were going to play hard to the end. We just came up short because we had a couple of miscues. But we win as a team and lose as a team.”

(On quarterback Nick Zachery) “He’s had a great career. He is a player that has meant a lot to the program. When he was an eighth grader when we came off the field in a regional loss against Seeger, he said ‘Coach, it won’t happen again and it just about didn’t.’ ”

Quarterback Nick Zachery

“It was a great first half and we just kept trading touchdowns. We knew it would be a fight to the end. We lost this one, but if we look back, we had a lot of wins and three state championships.”

 “We had two opportunities there at the end to go ahead but they ended with fumbles. Ritter is a great team and played a great game. They went down and drove it and scored in the last minute to win.”