Yoder Piles It On As Panthers Down Raiders
NAPPANEE — There aren’t a lot of ways NorthWood quarterback Bronson Yoder hasn’t scored a touchdown this year.
The senior standout has scored on runs, receptions and even a punt return. On Friday, he added to that impressive resume with his first pick six of the season — an 84-yard interception return with just 19 seconds remaining in the first half. That score pushed the Class 4A, No. 2-ranked Panthers out to a 35-10 halftime cushion, and the home team continued rolling in the second half on the way to a 63-30 win over visiting Northridge.
“I’ve been saying it for a long time — he’s a great player, but he’s an even better kid. We’re glad he’s on our side,” said NorthWood head coach Nate Andrews. “He’s a good leader, and he’s got great teammates around him, too.”
In addition to his pick six, Yoder scored a pair of rushing touchdowns on runs of 48 and 40 yards, threw for another on a 32-yard completion to Jaden Miller late in the second quarter, and hauled in a 6-yard TD pass from sophomore QB Nate Newcomer early in the third period. He needed only 13 carries to reach 178 rushing yards as part of a performance that saw him tally 406 all-purpose yards, and he was a perfect 4-for-4 passing for 91 yards and a touchdown.
All told, the Black Crunch (6-0, 4-0 NLC) put on an absolute offensive clinic opposite the Raiders (3-3, 2-2 NLC), piling up nearly 500 net offensive yards — 316 on the ground and 179 through the air — on the way to their highest points production since dropping 71 points in a Week 2 win at Fairfield.
“We battled early, but if we can’t stop them on defense and we give up 63 points, it doesn’t matter what we do. We’ve got to find some resolve right now,” said Northridge coach Tom Wogomon.
NorthWood scored its first touchdown with a little trickery when sophomore QB Nate Newcomer flicked the ball out to wide receiver Tanner Feenstra, then headed downfield, where Feenstra hit him for a 68-yard completion at the 9:21 stop of the clock. The play that put the Panthers on the board was actually drawn up by a local business during an athletic fundraiser, explained Andrews.
“The one for a touchdown was actually bid on and won by Burnworth-Zollars, a car dealership across the street at our Black Cat Ball, which is a fundraising opportunity for our athletics program. They won the “Call The Play”, and they came in on Monday and diagramed it, drew it up on the board,” said Andrews. “We switched personnel around a little bit through the week with their consent. We told them we’d call it when we wanted to, but we guaranteed we would call it. We got a situation where we crossed the midfield, and I said to Coach (Boonie) Boocher ‘We’d better call it now because I don’t want to keep it in my back pocket for the end of the game.’ They executed, and it was a lot of fun.”
Alongside Yoder’s heroics, Newcomer finished with 66 rushing yards and three touchdowns, all in the second half, and he was 5-for-5 passing for 20 yards and a score. The sophomore has seen increasing time rotating behind center with Yoder, which allows the Panthers to use Yoder’s explosive playmaking in a number of offensive roles.
“He’s slippery with the football, but when he’s out there it gives us another weapon. It keeps the defense from putting their eyes on Bronson the whole time, and that’s easy to do when he’s behind center,” said Andrews.
On the other side, Northridge quarterback Oliver Eveler finished with 102 rushing yards and a touchdown in 18 carries and threw for 208 yards on 19-29-2 passing. It was a strong performance by the junior backup, who filled in for usual starter Julius Graber, who watched from the sideline with a knee injury in Nappanee.
“I’m proud of him. We were hoping that he could play the game the way he needed to, and the offense was able to get a little bit of stuff. Oliver did a great job for us,” said Wogomon.
Also for the Raiders, Dominic Crowder ran for 70 yards, and Tug Modglin scored on a 15-yard carry early in the third. Crowder led the Northridge defense with six solo tackles. Ben Mestach led NorthWood’s defensive unit with 13 tackles, while Eddie Hildebrant and Jake Lone finished with 11 tackles apiece.
The Black Crunch remains unbeaten through six weeks and will host Elkhart Memorial next week.
“We knew we had a chance to have a pretty good group of kids and a fun team. I didn’t know how good we would be,” Andrews said. “I still don’t know how good we are, but they play together well, nothing phases them, good or bad, adversity or not. They stick together, and they maximize what they have.”