Menu
Northview dominates Sullivan to secure Raetz's 100th career win
Nearly everyone inside the Northview football program – and even more people on the periphery of it who were lining up different postgame celebratory options should the Knights handle their business against Sullivan on Friday night – knew what was at stake when they walked into Jerry Anderson Field for the Western Indiana Conference’s Gold Division opener for both teams.
Everyone except for Northview head coach Mark Raetz, who was notified about the number of wins he had accrued after beating Greencastle last weekend but didn’t give it much thought. Raetz remained laser focused on the task at hand against the pesky Golden Arrows.
“I wasn’t really keeping track, but [Northview assistant coach Jordan] Forquer said something about it last week. That was the first time I really even knew about it, but I was blocking it out,” said Raetz.
And just like the other 17 teams Raetz has led throughout his time as a head coach, Northview followed the game plan implemented by the man they hold in such high regard. It ended in a 35-0 win for the Knights, the 100th of Raetz’s career.
“Every win is important, and every win is special. I’m just glad we were able to win tonight,” Raetz said.
It didn’t take long for the Northview coaching staff to identify a weakness in the Sullivan defense that also played into their hands with 15-20 mph wind gusts halting the passing attack for different parts of the game.
Raetz and offensive coordinator Jonathan Bradshaw noticed early on that the Arrows would shift certain players to a specific side of the field in hopes of bottling up Northview’s running game. And after showing the same look on a consistent basis, the Knights decided to run the ball the opposite way, leading to 249 yards on the ground and three touchdowns – two coming from quarterback Colton Bath and the other on a jet sweep to wide receiver Avery Perry.
“It was really windy, and we were going into the wind during the first quarter and we didn’t feel real comfortable pumping the ball down the field a whole lot,” said Raetz. “We were kind of playing the wind, but the run game was working really well. They were loading up the box at times and getting a lot of extra guys in there, but we were able to play pretty well offensively.”
Playing off the ground game, Raetz opened up the playbook in the middle quarters.
Bath responded by having his most efficient game of the season, completing 11 of his 14 throws (78 percent completion percentage) for 122 yards and one touchdown, which went to Perry, his go-to target through the first three games of the year, for an eight-yard score to extend Northview’s lead in the third quarter.
Bath would remain in the game for seven more plays before leaving with a leg injury on an 11-yard run. Northview inserted freshman Cooper Schimmel into the game, who immediately found Perry on back-to-back throws, the second going for a five-yard touchdown, the first of Schimmel’s career.
After the game, Raetz said Bath could have returned had the score been closer and confirmed he should be good to go for next week’s game at West Vigo.
“I really think he could’ve come back in, but at that point in the game, there really wasn’t any need to do that,” said Raetz of Bath’s injury.
When the Knights arrive in West Terre Haute on Friday, they’ll be looking to shut down their third straight opponent. In the win against Sullivan, Northview shutout a Golden Arrow offense that entered the night averaging 36.5 points per game while holding them to 127 yards of total offense, which came on the heels of surrendering just seven points to Greencastle, a team that runs a completely different system than Sullivan.
“We’ve run the same defensive scheme since forever, and the nice thing about the scheme that we run is that it’s very flexible against teams that want to line up and run it on you or against teams that want to spread you out and throw it,” Raetz explained. “I think our players have done a great job of executing our defensive game plan all season.”
Northview 35, Sullivan 0
Sullivan 0 0 0 0 — 0
Northview 7 14 14 0 — 35
Nv — Bath 50 run (Whitman kick), 8:09 1Q
Nv — Perry 7 run (Whitman kick), 7:43 2Q
Nv — Bath 1 run (Whitman kick), :19.1 2Q
Nv — Perry 8 pass from Bath 57 (Whitman kick), 11:10 3Q
Nv — Perry 5 pass from C.Schimmel (Whitman kick), 3:32 3Q
S Nv
First downs 6 14
Rushes-yards 22-81 35-249
Passing 46 144
Comp-Att-Int 5-8-1 12-18-2
Return yards 88 14
Punts-avg. 5-31.4 1-23.0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-0
Penalties-yards 8-60 8-65
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Sullivan, Ridgway 2-23, Huff 15-56, Gaines 4-2, Taft 1-0. Northview, Bath 7-73, Fell 13-63, Perry 4-53, McCluskey 5-41, C.Schimmel 1-3, McLawyer 3-7, Stewart 2-9.
Passing — Sullivan, Wetzel 5-8-0 46. Northview, Bath 11-14-1 122 C.Schimmel 2-2-1 22.
Receiving — Sullivan, Granby 2-18, Taft 2-24, Gaines 1-4. Northview, Perry 11-127, Sutherland 1-11, Raetz 1-6.
Next — Northview (3-0) visits West Vigo and Sullivan (1-2) visits Linton Friday.