October 16, 2010
Gabbard leads North to winning season Andy Proffet Tribune-Star Correspondent INDIANAPOLIS — Terre Haute North’s Patriots came into the season with one goal as a team: finish the regular season with a winning record. Mission accomplished. Daniel Gabbard ran for 183 yards and two touchdowns, and returned an interception 78 yards for another score, as the Patriots held off North Central 20-13 on Friday in the regular-season finale. North will enter next week’s sectional showdown against Zionsville with a 5-4 record — the first time since 1997 that the program has won more than it has lost during the regular season. “I wanted our players to pick out our team goals [before the season]; well, we only had one,” said North coach Chris Barrett. “We set out to achieve it and we did it tonight.” The Panthers (1-8, 1-6 MIC) certainly didn’t play like a one-win team against the Patriots, who finished with a 3-4 conference record. North Central’s Alex Stowers intercepted Chad Holler to end North’s first drive, setting up a seven-play, 66-yard touchdown drive for the Panthers. Jarrett Thomaston capped the drive with a 35-yard TD run, but the Panthers failed to convert and led just 6-0 with 4:22 to play in the first quarter. The Patriots answered with a seven-play scoring drive of their own, as Gabbard scored the first of his three touchdowns on a 31-yard run with 24.3 seconds left in the first quarter. Cam Grim’s extra-point kick made it 7-6. But neither team would score again until the third quarter, with North losing a fumble on their next possession and mismanaging the clock to close out the half. “The fumble going into the end zone, Charles [Dillahunt] was trying to make a play, so I’m not going to fault him for that. He’ll learn from that,” Barrett said. “Our time management at the end of the first half wasn’t good either. But none of that matters because we got the win.” Gabbard’s second touchdown run put the Patriots ahead 14-6 with 4:39 left in the third quarter. And it looked as if he had sealed the win when he intercepted Gavin Alexander’s pass deep in North territory. But Alexander answered with a drive in he twice converted fourth downs with passes to tight end
Michael Raby. And Alexander found Jordon Williams in the end zone with 3:15 remaining to make the score 20-13. North recovered the onside kick but fumbled the ball away at the Panthers’ 33-yard line with 1:01 left. The Panthers couldn’t make the comeback, however, as Alexander threw incomplete twice, was sacked for an 8-yard loss by Luke May, and threw incomplete again on fourth down. “North Central did a great job of getting us out of our game plan, but every time we get out of that spread offense we go to that I-formation, and it really worked tonight,” Barrett said. Indeed, Holler attemped just eight passes, all in the first half, as the Patriots relied on the running game to dominate the clock. Brother Scank added 56 yards as North gained 269 yards on the ground. Although the win was a team effort, there was no denying Gabbard’s impact on the result. “He’s such an explosive player, and he’s just now starting to figure it out,” Barrett said. “I’m not sure how much defense he wanted to play, but with them passing the ball, we had to stick him in there. And he made a play and that’s why we had him in there; it was just a great return. And one more minor goal achieved while reaching the big goal. “We’ve been talking about getting a defensive touchdown all year and we finally got one,” Barrett said.
