‘Gonna sting for awhile': South Putnam pulls away from Pioneer

INDIANAPOLIS — The Pioneer Panthers had another tremendous season but the Panthers met their match on Friday.

After playing South Putnam to a 14-all tie at halftime, the Eagles took control in the second half.

They ended up pulling away for a 55-29 victory in the Class 1A state championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium.

The Eagles (13-2) won their first state championship since 1986 and second all-time. The Panthers (13-2) dropped to 3-3 all-time in state title games.

Things were looking good enough for the Panthers at halftime when it was a 14-14 game.

“I thought we had the ball control. I thought we had the yards in the first half,” Pioneer coach Adam Berry said. “We gave up that quick first play on defense and then gave up a jump ball. But I thought first half our defense played really well and we were doing what we wanted to off offensively. And then we just talked about how we had to have a quick start in the second half and they come down and score fairly quick. Then running our counter crisscross, looking at the replay, the hole was there, but just got tripped up a little bit, the ball gets on the ground, scoop and score. Football, sports is all about momentum and when you’re going against the great team, it’s hard to come back from. I thought our guys fought until the end. It wasn’t because of lack of effort. Obviously South Putnam earned it. But we also didn’t help ourselves.

“This one’s gonna sting for awhile. But as we move on, we’re gonna look back and realize what this group did. A lot of these guys played on Friday nights a lot of games, and they put Pioneer football back on the map. And so hopefully our younger underclassmen see that, hopefully our middle school, elementary kids see that and realize it can happen. I’m proud of this group. They’ve been through a lot. Losing a classmate, losing a football brother (Tuff Uebler, who tragically died in June of 2024 at the age of 16 from injuries sustained from an automobile accident), battling through a lot of injuries and they fought till the end.”

Following a balanced first-half battle, it took just two minutes for South Putnam to take a two-score lead against Pioneer after halftime. South Putnam utilized five consecutive runs by standout running back Ty Benton – the first coming for 39 yards, his longest carry of the day – to take a one-score lead.

One the ensuing Pioneer possession at the Panthers’ 37-yard line, a recovered fumble by defensive end Kahlil Jefferson was taken back for a score to make it 28-14 with 8:27 left in the third.

The Panthers were forced to go to their passing game on third-and-12 and had a drop which led to a punt on their next possession.

Back-to-back holding penalties set up a second-and-29 from the Pioneer 39. But the Panthers still couldn’t get a stop. There was an 18-yard pass completion followed by a controversial pass interference in the end zone that led to another score by the Eagles as they took a 34-14 lead after three, outscoring the Panthers 20-0 for the quarter.

Noah Van Meter scored from 33 yards out on the first play of the fourth quarter to give the Panthers some life at 34-21.

But the Eagles had a good kickoff return to near midfield and were again unstoppable on offense to go up three scores again.

The Panthers got stuffed on a fourth-and-1 play near midfield and it took just two plays for the Eagles to extend their led to 48-21 with 6:17 remaining.

Starting quarterback Drew Cline came up with an interception on defense for South Putnam. The Eagles struck quickly with a 14-yard TD run to push the lead to 55-21.

Phillip McFatridge broke a 65-yard TD run and Cole Franklin’s 2-point run got Pioneer to within 55-29 with 3:53.

But South Putnam recovered the ensuing onside kick and was able to run out the rest of the clock.

“I think their size got to us a little bit, their offensive line,” Berry said. “They across the board were just bigger than us and they’re able to get the push and we just weren’t closing as hard. And he got out in the open a little bit and he’s hard to tackle in the open field.”

Bentle finished with 134 yards and a TD on 19 carries to lead the Eagles, who rushed for 272 yards and 5 TDs on 40 carries as a team.

Cline was 8 of 9 passing for 189 yards and 2 TDs and spread the ball around to five different receivers.

Keenan Mowery-Shields had 14 tackles to lead the South Putnam defense.

Van Meter finished with 151 yards and 2 TDs on 20 carries for the Panthers. McFatridge had 112 yards and a TD on 11 attempts. Shiloh Rine had 31 yards on six carries. Micah Rans added 20 yards and a TD on 11 carries.

Rans was 2 of 7 passing for 35 yards, with both completions going to McFatridge.

Eli Guffey led the Pioneer defense with nine tackles.

Pioneer rushed for 314 yards on 48 carries for a 6.5 yard average per rush.

“Obviously when we get down a little bit, we have to stray away from our game plan a little bit,” Berry said. “But I thought our line blocked extremely well. We challenged them this week. They didn’t have their best game last week. I thought they were firing off well. I thought we were getting our kickouts. I thought our backs ran hard, just wasn’t quite enough.”