Maconaquah Schools

The West Lafayette Red Devils scored on their first eight possessions Friday night and went on to knock the previously undefeated Maconaquah Braves out of the IHSAA Class 3A tournament by posting a 54-26 victory in a high-scoring affair. Coach Ethan Robbins' Braves close out the season with a 10-1 record, while the Red Devils improved their record to 4-7 and will host Hamilton Heights for the Sectional 28 championship Friday night. Maconaquah took the opening kick and steadily moved downfield to start the game and reached the Red Devil six yard line . . . on a Aiden Robinson-to-Jorden Van Ness 10-yard pass . . . setting up a first-and-goal at the six. Robinson got three on first down and Marcell Sims was dropped for a yard loss on second down. After Sims got to the one yard line on the next play he was stopped for no gain on fourth down with 6:00 on the clock and the hosts took possession. The fired-up Red Devils went to work and methodically moved downfield in 14 plays, using 4:22 of clock to cover the 99-yard scoring drive for the first points of the game. MHS responded with their first lead of the night by taking the ensuing kick and marching 53 yards in seven plays with Sims scoring from three yards out. A Robinson keeper on the two-point conversion put the Braves on top, 8-6, with 10:40 left in the first half. After WL scored again at the 7:35 mark, the Braves fought back and took their last lead of the game, 14-13, when Sims darted in from 27 yards out with 3:10 left, capping a 10-play, 80-yard drive. Robinson, who completed his first 11 passes of the game, tossed a pair of passes to Alexzander Martin and one each to Sims and Van Ness to keep the drive alive before Sims scored. West Lafayette would close out the half with a score and added two more to start the second half, stretching its lead to 34-14 with 7:20 showing in the third quarter. Sims quickly cut it to 34-20 with an electrifying 79-yard kickoff return on the next play as he took the kick and went the distance untouched. He became only the third player in school history to return a kickoff, punt and interception for touchdowns in a career . Carter Little and AJ Kelly are the other two, with Kelly adding a fumble recovery TD return as well. After the Red Devil lead ballooned to 41-20 with 2:36 left in the period, the Braves lit up the scoreboard for the final time when senior speedster Nolan Tarrh took a short pass from Robinson . . . got nice blocks by Evan Blake and Tyler Adams . . . juked a TL defender at the 50 and scampered 54 yards to paydirt. Twin Lakes would score two more times, on shovel passes of seven and three yards, in the first 90 seconds of the last stanza to close out the scoring at 54-26. For the game, the Red Devils completed 25 of 31 passes, good for 232 and five touchdowns. They added another 226 on the ground in a balanced attack that netted 458 total yards. Robinson completed 22 of his 32 passes, finishing with 213 yards and the TD pass to Tarrh. He was intercepted in the third quarter, ending his school-record streak of 173 consecutive passes without being picked off. Sims led the Braves ground attack with 130 yards on 20 carries. He caught five passes for 52 yards. Tarrh led Mac receivers with 91 yards on five receptions. Tarrh spearheaded Mac's defense with a game-high 14 tackles. Sims and Jayden Fitzpatrick added 11 each, while DaKoda Dauenhauer was credited with 10. Eli Grzegorski and Blake followed with eight tackles apiece and Van Ness added six stops. Getting four tackles each were Aiden Ousley and Tre Rader. > > > SIDELINE NOTES > > > . . . . Sims, who entered the game as the state's second-leading scorer this season, finished his brilliant career at MHS as the Braves career-scoring leader with 488 points . . . . Sims set a new single-season scoring record at MHS by scoring 192 points this year . . . . Sims finished with 1071 rushing yards in 2026 and finished #3 all-time at MHS with 3431 rushing yards . . . . Robinson capped his record-setting career with 9490 passing yards during his four years in a MHS uniform That ranks #11 all-time in the state of Indiana for quarterbacks . . . . Robinson also a set school record for career pass attempts (1003) and career pass completions (652) . . . . Robinson finished 2026 with 3547 passing yards after entering the game as Indiana's leader in yards passing . . . . Robinson finished with 47 TD passes this year and 116 the past four seasons . . . both school records . . . . Tarrh (who transferred from Northwestern HS along with Robinson in 2023) finished with 209 receptions in his career at MHS . . . moving past AJ Kelly into second place all time. Fuddy Kile leads with 275 . . . . Tarrh's 80 receptions this year ranks #3 all-time for most passes caught in a season at Maconaquah . . . . Tarrh had 1221 yards receiving this year . . . ranking #3 all-time at MHS for most yards in a season . . . . Tarrh entered the game at the state's second-leading receiver (yards) in 2026 and ended his career at Maconaquah with 2960 yards receiving, trailing only Fuddy Kile's school-record 4236 . . . . Tarrh had 16 TD catches this year (ranking #2 all-time) and 34 in his career (tied with AJ Kelly at #2 behind career leader Kile who caught 54 TD passes) . . . . 80 combined points scored in the game ties the school record for most combined points in an IHSAA tournament game (Fort Wayne Harding 49 MHS 31 in 1994) . . . . 538 points scored by the Braves in 2026 eclipses the previous record of 522 set in 2024 . . . . 10-1 season record is the second best in school history and the players in the senior class became the winningest senior class in Maconaquah's 64-year history . . . winning 37 games the past four years . . . . Members of the senior class: #1 Jorden Van Ness, #2 Marcell Sims, #3 Jaxon Sullivan, #4 Nolan Tarrh, #7 Alexzander Martin, #8 Treson Ambrose, #15 Aiden Robinson, #22 James Stambaugh, #26 Aiden Ousley, #51 Evan Blake, #52 Chase Washburn, #55 DaKoda Dauenhauer, #56 Eli Grzegorski, #58 Tru Brown, #65 Brayden Tabler, #70 Tyler Adams, #77 Cooper Powell . . . . Congratulations to the Seniors and the 2026 Braves . . . "IT WAS A GREAT YEAR TO BE A BRAVE!" . . . . THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE MANY RECORDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 2026 SEASON MORE WILL BE PUBLISHED LATER