Maconaquah Schools

The Maconaquah Braves rode the record-setting performance of sophomore quarterback Aiden Robinson to score a 34-7 Three Rivers Conference win at home Friday evening over the Southwood Knights. Just a year after Braxton Birner, Mac's all-time leading passer, passed for a school-record 406 yards vs Southwood, Robinson took over the signal-calling reins and torched the Knights for 427 yards. He had 291 in the first half, completing 19 of 22 passes. The Braves, now 1-0, gave first-year coach Michael Fenters his first coaching win and he liked what he saw. "Our team played fast and loud. We've got some guys that can make things happen", he said following the game. "I'm very proud of our defense (holding Southwood to 27 first half yards) and a lot of our young guys stepped up. It's great that we can retain the offense that was powerful under Coach Tyler Campbell (Mac's former coach now at Ben Davis). Maconaquah scored on four of its five possessions in the first half to take a 28-0 lead at intermission. Brady Dausch got the Braves on the board first with 3:34 left in the opening act with a two-yard TD pass. The Braves tacked on three more scores in the second period as AJ Kelly (84 yards), Fuddy Kile (44 yards) and Nolan Tarrh (18 yards) hauled in Robinson scoring strikes. Robinson becomes only the fourth qb in Mac history to throw four or more TD's in a game. Clark Chambers and Jeremy Large each did it once and Birner had nine games of 4+ TD's in a game. Robinson hit on 33 of 46 passes before exiting midway through the fourth quarter. His 33 completions are second most in school history. Kile led all receivers with 140 yards on six catches. Kelly (4-116), Tarrh (7-67), Marcell Sims (10-59), Dausch (5-42) and Conner Eldridge (1-3) rounded out the receiving corps totals. Kile, who led the state in receiving at the end of the 2023 regular season, has now scored in 21 consecutive games and surpassed the 3,000 yard mark in his career. He has grabbed TD passes in 20 of his last 22 games. With the big night he skipped past seven players and moved into 16th place on the latest published IHSAA list of all-time career receiving. He now has 3,075 yards. One of the players he jumped was former Purdue star Dustin Keller who later became the New York Jets first-round draft pick in the 2008 NFL draft. Unofficially, Landon Morgan led all Brave tacklers with eight stops and a pair of qb sacks. Carsten Hollars and Gibson Daily each had six tackles, while Dausch added five. Coach Fenters also praised the guys in the trenches who gave Robinson plenty of time to play pitch and catch with his receivers. Joey Butcher, Darwin Santos, Jakob Grant, Daily, Chris Rizzo, Dakoda Dauenhauer and Austin Ringeisen manned the offensive front. Maconaquah now leads the all-time series with Southwood, 12-7-1 and will host Indianapolis Shortridge Friday.