Josh Ringer runs wild as East Central beats New Prairie for Indiana Class 4A championship
By Phillip B. Wilson
INDIANAPOLIS — East Central wanted simply 53 seconds to realize management in Friday’s Class 4A state closing at Lucas Oil Stadium.
That’s when Eli Ashton, who has a penchant for making affect performs in a very powerful video games, ran 59 yards round the correct finish for a landing.
Then it was assist galore from Josh Ringer, who tied a Class 4A state finals file with 4 dashing touchdowns as the Trojans blanked New Prairie 37-7 to have a good time their third state championship. The different titles got here in 2017 and 1994.
It’s becoming that Ashton was the preliminary catalyst. The senior vast receiver performed an necessary position in East Central reaching the finals. He caught a go-ahead TD move within the fourth quarter of a semistate showdown with Roncalli, then blocked a probably decisive 30-yard discipline aim within the closing seconds to power additional time, as the Trojans held on 24-21 has.
After Ashton’s bounce begin, Ringer scored on TD runs of 32 and 24 yards to provide East Central a 20-0 result in open the top of the quarter. The Trojans had 193 dashing yards with out a move try within the first quarter.
Ringer, a junior operating again, scored on a 3-yard TD rush within the third quarter to make it 27-0, then added a 6-yard rating within the closing quarter.
He completed with 167 yards on 23 carries. Ashton rushed for 114 yards on simply 5 carries. Junior Ryan Brotherton added 100 yards on 18 carries.
East Central (13-2) outgained New Prairie 395-116 in dashing yards and 459-275 in complete yards.
“It was just a total effort,” East Central fourth-year coach Jake Meiners mentioned. “I couldn’t be prouder of this program.”
Meiners, a 2009 East Central graduate, improves his file to 42-9.
The Cougars’ solely rating got here with 2:43 remaining, when quarterback Marshall Kmiecik scrambled in from 21 yards out.
Cougars senior linebacker Tayvion Ortman and sophomore linebacker Hayden Scott every had a game-high 11 complete tackles. Ortman had eight solos, Scott 5. Senior defensive again Carson Koelling led the Trojans with 9 complete tackles, together with six solo.
New Prairie (13-2) was trying for its first state title in any sport. In the one earlier state closing look, the Cougars misplaced 77-42 to New Palestine in 2014.
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