Winamac football update: After Compton, Terry hook up for game-winning TD, Warriors wait

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Winamac football team does not have a game this week.

But unlike the other teams that don’t have a game, their season isn’t over yet either.

That’s because Winamac has already advanced to the Class 1A, Sectional 41 final after South Newton, this week’s opponent, has withdrawn due to coronavirus exposure at the school.

Winamac perhaps would have been a favorite against South Newton, who was 0-6 and hadn’t won a game since 2016.

The Warriors will play either Culver or North Judson on the road on Nov. 6 in the sectional final. Culver travels to Judson this week.

Winamac is coming off a 21-14 win at South Central (Union Mills) in the quarterfinals.

Russell Compton threw a 66-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Terry to break a 14-14 tie in the fourth quarter.

“We haven’t had a lot of those big, long touchdown plays, and it was nice to get one,” Winamac coach John Hendryx said. “Russell made a great read and throw. … I don’t know. That might have been the longest one we’ve had of the year. Good timing for it.”

South Central led 7-0 after one quarter before Winamac came back to lead 14-7 at halftime.

“We didn’t make a ton (of adjustments),” Hendryx said. “We were just a little bit undisciplined with our eyes, I thought. We knew they were going to come in, and they are just a huge formation team – just tons of formations, tons of motions. And we really had to get our kids’ eyes settled down. Don’t be watching all the pieces flying around. Just watch your piece.”

Compton also made a contribution from the defensive secondary.

“Really, the only adjustment we made was in the second half. We moved Russell from safety to a corner, and that made a pretty big difference for us. They were hurting us a little bit on the perimeter on one side. Once we made that change, he did a pretty good job of getting that shut off.”

Hendryx gave the team Monday off. The practice schedule was “pretty normal” for the rest of the week, according to Hendryx. He also said that he would emphasize special teams for Friday’s practice.

“This is the time of year that you get your special teams in, but you don’t get any extra time for sure with them, so it will be nice to use Friday to get some kinks out of some things. Our special teams have really been playing well lately. We definitely want to keep that up. They made some big plays last Friday. They did the week before (in a 10-9 win over Triton). There’s not a ton of special teams plays in a game, but they are always some of the biggest plays of the game, so we definitely want to keep those shored up.”