Purichia dominates as Ritter beats Paoli, advances to 2A final
By CLIFF BRUNT
ISL Editor
INDIANAPOLIS — If you ask Ritter coach Ty Hunt, Jake Purichia should already have Mr. Football wrapped up.
The statistics agreed on Friday night. Purichia completed 9 of 12 passes for 298 yards and five touchdowns and ran for another score, lifting Ritter past Paoli 49-16 in a Class 2A semistate game.
“Right now, I don’t think there’s anybody who’s close, but that’s my biased opinion,” Hunt said. “He is the ultimate football player right now.”
The Raiders (12-2) advanced to the final next Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium. Ritter lost the Class 2A title game to Fort Wayne Luers last season, and that memory has fueled the Raiders all season.
“We’ve been working all summer, all season to try to get back to Lucas Oil,” Purichia said. “Now we’re here, and now we’ve got to take care of business next week.”
It didn’t take long for Ritter to take control against Paoli (11-3). Purichia scored on a 2-yard run just under four minutes into the game, then Logan Beaman scored on a 5-yard run to make it 14-0.
Purichia then put together perhaps one of the greatest displays of his storied career. The state’s all-time leader in passing touchdowns threw four of them in a 10 minute, 31 second span in the second quarter — two each to Jake Hagan and Jeffrey Cmehil – to put the game out of reach. In the second quarter alone, Purichia completed 5 of 7 passes for 179 yards and the four scores. The Raiders gained 385 yards in the first half and led 42-0 at the break.
Beaman ran for all 99 of his yards in the first half to balance the attack.
“I’ll hand it off to Logan and there’ll be nothing there, and he’ll make positive yards out of nothing,” Purichia said. “He definitely opens up our passing game, being able to hand it off to a guy like him.”
All season, the two key receivers had been Jake Hagan and Kyree Hollis. Cmehil had caught just 20 passes for 329 yards entering the game, but he hauled in touchdown receptions of 10 and 44 yards. Hunt credited Vince Purichia, the offensive coordinator and Jake’s father, for finding ways to get other players involved.
“If you try to take away one, I’m very confident,” he said. “Coach Purichia does a great job making sure we spread the ball around because if they’re going to focus on taking away one or even two guys, the other guys have hands and quick feet and run really good routes, and that’s what we expect out of them.”
Hollis got into the act in the second half. He caught Purichia’s only pass after halftime for a 51-yard touchdown.
Hagan finsihed with four catches, 138 yards and two scores, and the Raiders finished with 482 yards.
Ritter’s offense has received much of the credit this season, but the defense was lights out on Friday. Paoli’s offense had been potent this season, but the Rams struggled. The Raiders sacked Paoli quarterback Brett Balsmeyer seven times and left him limping around for much of the game. Balsmeyer completed 9 of 17 passes for 87 yards before leaving the game in the fourth quarter.
“The guys have been a little inspired,” Hunt said. “The goal was to make sure as the playoffs hit, we were ready. We knew that during the season, we were trying to fine tune some things, and we had to get a little healthy. We played some quality teams in Brebeuf and Chatard and we took some knocks. That’s what you’re going to do in a 15-game season.”
Paoli 0 0 8 8 — 16
Ritter 14 28 7 0 — 49
CR — Jake Purichia 2 run (Lance Unland kick)
CR — Logan Beaman 5 run (Unland kick)
CR — Jake Hagan 72 pass from Purichia (Unland kick)
CR — Hagan 40 pass from Purichia (Unland kick)
CR — Jeffrey Cmehil 10 pass from Purichia (Unland kick)
CR — Cmehil 44 pass from Purichia (Unland kick)
P — Tanner Wroblewski 10 pass from Brett Balsmeyer (Tanner Kameda run)
CR — Kyree Hollis 51 pass from Purichia (Unland kick)
P — Luke Becht 1 run (Garrett Strange pass from Garrett Tolen)
