FOOTBALL: Tigers dominate Comets

GREENTOWN — When Northwestern traveled to Eastern for a high school football game Friday night, most in attendance expected a competitive game. The Tigers entered with a 4-4 record and, while Eastern was just 1-7 on the season, the Comets were a fun team to watch, averaging just over 25 points per game.The game was anything but competitive. Northwestern dominated all aspects of the game, pounding the Comets 48-7.Eastern’s potent offense managed just one first down and 11 yards in the first half, while Northwestern piled on 28 points.Tigers’ head coach John Hendrix thought a tough 24-21 loss to Peru last week may have motivated his squad.“We weren’t very happy after last week’s game,” Hendrix said. “We felt like we had that game taken away from us. All week we stressed playing hard, with emotion. We’ve played a few games where for a quarter, or a quarter and a half, we’ve just felt our way through. We wanted to come out at 7 o’clock and start playing hard and executing, and we did.”Eastern couldn’t move the ball and they also lost the battle for field position. The Comets didn’t cross their 40 until after halftime.“Northwestern had a good game plan,” Eastern coach Josh Edwards said. “Their man-to-man coverage of our wide receivers was excellent and the rush they got from their front seven was the straw that broke the camel’s back. We had some receivers open, but we couldn’t get the ball to them due to the pass rush. Their front seven set the tone early on. We got outplayed by a better team.”Northwestern sophomore running back Derek Mumaw had a career night, rushing for 126 yards on 20 carries and scoring five touchdowns. Mumaw raced through the Comets for touchdown runs of three, 15, eight, 23 and eight yards. “Mumaw had a great night due to some help from our people up front,” Hendrix said. “We played about seven different linemen who played a very physical game. We didn’t throw as much as we usually do since they were coming after our quarterback so hard. We didn’t want to get Gibby [quarterback Trevor Gibson] hurt, so we decided to keep pounding the ball at them on the ground to keep him from getting hit.”Gibson did complete five passes, including a 14-yard scoring strike to Danny Turner who demonstrated great hands catching that ball in a crowd. Mitch Daily and Tanner Martin took most of the second half snaps for the Tigers. Joel Hoover finally got the Comets on the scoreboard on the first play of the fourth quarter, catching an 18-yard touchdown throw from Jonathan Keith. Keith completed 14 of 31 pass attempts for 127 yards.Kylan Dubbels closed out the scoring, displaying some speed with a 46-yard dash to the end zone for the Tiger in the final seconds of the game.Northwestern improved its record to 3-4 in Mid-Indiana Conference play, and 5-4 heading into next Friday’s sectional play. The Tigers will host MIC rival Taylor, a team they are eager to get second shot at after the Titans beat them 24-20 on Sept. 19.The 1-8 Comets dropped to 1-6 in the MIC and hope to regroup before Guerin Catholic visits Cogdell field in the first round of sectional play.