Maconaquah Schools

The Maconaquah Braves capped an undefeated regular season at home Friday night with an impressive 30-14 victory over the Rochester Zebras to claim the Three Rivers Conference championship. It was Maconaquah's first unbeaten (9-0) regular season in school history and fourth conference title since 1963. Mac's last conference crown was in 1991. "The kids excuted the plan", said jubilant first-year coach Michael Fenters following the game. "The kids, they're the ones that did this. And this is something that (former) MHS coach Tyler Campbell built . . . this was gonna be realized whether I was here or not." Fenters is the second rookie Brave coach to win nine games in his first year. Austin Colby, now head coach at Kokomo, led Mac to a 9-3 season in 2018. The Braves, ranked seventh in the latest AP Class 3A poll, treated the "Senior Night" capacity crowd to its best overall game of the year in finishing at 8-0 in league play. Rochester ended with a 7-1 league slate and is now 7-2 entering the IHSAA tournament. The Zebras were ranked 13th in this weeks Class 2A poll. Maconaquah will host Peru in first-round sectional 27 action Friday night. After losing the past three years to Rochester, the Braves now lead the all-time series, 5-4. Fenters praised his seniors following the behemoth win, the eighth-consecutive at home over the past two years... a new record. The Braves also set new MHS records for: Most consecutive conference games won (8) and Most games won at home in a season (6). "Were the best team in Maconaquah history," said senior AJ Kelly. "This is insane. Rochester has a good team and it took a team effort (to beat them). We were clicking tonight and now it's on to the next championship". Kelly set a single-season interception record with his seventh theft of the year with 7:28 left in the fourth quarter after taking an Aiden Robinson pass 74 yards to the endzone 15 seconds earlier for the final score, 30-14. Senior Fuddy Kile added, "It feels great to win the TRC. Rochester had a good season and they play hard." Kile caught a pair (11 and 65 yards) of TD passes from Robinson and became the third player in school history to score over 300 points in a career. He now sits in third place (310), trailing only Cody Hicks and Carter Little who sit at the top with 314 and 386 points respectively. Kile finished with 154 yards on eight receptions and moved to fifth place on the state's all-time receiving list with 3,783 yards. Rochester took the opening kick to start the game and took an early 6-0 lead at the 9:27 mark. The Braves responded and took their first lead midway through the opening act when Robinson hit Kile with an 11-yard TD pass. Max Sachse's PAT kick made it 7-6. The Zebras took a 14-7 lead with 4:13 showing after converting a third-and-14 situation into a 73-yard TD pass and converting the two-point conversion run. It would be their final lead of the game as Maconaquah scored twice in the second period and never looked back. Facing their own third-and-14 at the begining of the quarter, the Robinson-Kile duo teamed up with a 65-yard scoring strike. Sachse knotted things at 14-14 and the rest of the quarter was controlled by the Braves as they had done all year. After Mac's rock-solid defense snuffed out a Zebra drive on fourth down with 4:20 remaining the Braves took over and reached the Rochester seven before Sachse's 29-yard field goal gave MHS a 17-14 lead at intermission. Maconaquah's suffocating defense limited the Zebras to 188 rushing yards after they entered the game averaging 303 yards on the ground. Brant Beck, the TRC's leading rusher (1058 yards/132 ypg) entering the game, was held to 77 yards on 27 carries. The Braves have now outscored their opponents 157-0 in the second quarter this season. Rochester ran more plays (20-4) than Maconaquah in the third quarter... owned the time of possession (10:06 to 1:54), but fell behind 24-14 with 5:22 showing when sophomore Marcell Sims electrified the home crowd when he returned a Zebra punt 93 yards to paydirt for a 24-14 lead. It was the second-longest punt return TD in school history. "I'm glad to be a part of this team. I love my teammates. They've taken care of me and make my job easier," he said after the game. Sims was the workhorse in the Braves backfield, getting every MHS carry during the game and finishing with 95 yards on 20 totes. He carried the ball nine straight times to end the game with the Braves eating up precious time to preserve the win. Sims now owns the third-best single-season rushing total (862 yards) by a sophomore and moved up to 12th place on Maconaquah's career-scoring list with 126 points. Kelly took a Robinson aerial 74 yards to the house with 7:43 left in the game for the final count, 30-14. It was Robinson's third TD pass of the game and 30th of the season. The poised soph signal-caller finished with 339 yards through the air on 21 of 24 accuracy and became the seventh QB in school history to surpass 2,000 yards in a career. He now has passed for 2,111 yards and moved passed Nolan Kelly and Pete Bulmer into fifth place on the Braves' career-yardage list. He set the single-season record for most yards by a sophomore quarterback at MHS and has now thrown 100 consecutive passes without an interception, tying the Mac mark set by Braxton Birner two years ago. "This is awesome", said Robinson. "I'm beyond blessed with this team around me and our new coaching staff. I couldn't do this without them and especially our offensive line and wide receivers." Carsten Hollars had his usual monster game defensively, getting in on 17 tackles. Austin Ringeisen and Sims were credited with 12 stops apiece, while Dakoda Dauenhauer and Joe Butcher each had nine. Butcher also had the fumble recovery late in the first half that thwarted Rochester's potential go-ahead score in Brave territory. Also getting in some Zebra licks were Kelly (eight) and Landon Morgan (seven). 14 senior players honored prior to the game were: Gabe Jenkins, Kelly, Kile, Brady Dausch, Aiden Williams, Sachse, Ryley Rodkey, Isaiah Anderson, Ringeisen, Zaiden Butler, Darwin Santos, Matthew Wilkison, PJ Higgins and Nate Elliott.