BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
OXFORD — Rochester freshman Brant Beck took a handoff on a dive play from Aaron Swango from his right halfback position at his own 7-yard-line and cut back slightly to the right through a gaping hole.
There was just him and wide-open grassland on a cool late October night ahead of him.
He was not about to be caught, and neither were the Zebras.
Beck ran for a career-high 172 yards on 11 carries, Colton Ferverda added a career-high 160 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries, and Alex Deming added 138 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries as the Rochester football team earned a wire-to-wire 50-26 win over Benton Central in a Class 2A, Sectional 34 semifinal Friday.
The Zebras finished with 499 yards of total offense.
Ethan Amezquita added a 4-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that made it 50-12 and instituted a running clock as part of the IHSAA Mercy Rule.
No. 7 Rochester improved to 10-1 and accomplished two feats that had not happened in the Zebra program in 22 years: They advanced to a sectional final and won their 10th game in a season for the first time since 2000.
Rochester will host No. 9 Lafayette Central Catholic at Barnhart Field next Friday. The Knights, who will be seeking their fourth straight sectional title, downed Lewis Cass 48-27 in their semifinal.
“It means a lot because it hasn’t happened in 22 years,” Beck said. “It’s very exciting.”
Joe Widmer threw three touchdown passes – two to Corbin Cooley and one to Dylan Musser – and Josh Etter had a 1-yard scoring run in the final minute for Benton Central, who finished 4-7.
“Pretty good,” Rochester coach Ron Shaffer said in assessing his team’s intensity and physicality. “I’d take it on most nights. They were able to move the line of scrimmage. … There were a lot of holes made tonight and big holes for our running backs.”
Benton Central had gotten within 12-6 on a 15-yard wide receiver screen from Widmer to Cooley for a touchdown with 6:57 left in the half.
Rochester’s Maddox Jewell slipped down on his own 7 fielding the ensuing kickoff.
On the next snap, a Benton Central defender dove at Deming and tackled him by the ankle after Aaron Swango stuck his hand in Deming’s gut.
But Deming did not have the ball. Beck did. Left guard Brady Beck, Brant’s older brother, bulldozed two linemen in his way to clear the path.
Once Brant Beck got to the 42-yard-line, Ferverda, trailing the play by seven yards, raised his index finger in the air as Benton Central defenders raced after Brant Beck.
Cooley chased Brant Beck from his cornerback spot and made a shoestring tackle attempt at the Benton Central 20 but missed, and Brant Beck wended his way to the end zone. A two-point conversion run from Ferverda made it 20-6.
“As soon as I got the ball, I was just running, and I saw open field, and I was just running as fast as I could trying not to get caught,” Brant Beck said. “It was like a dive play up the middle.”
After a four-and-out Benton Central possession ended with Widmer throwing incomplete on fourth-and-17 from the Benton Central 48, Rochester went on a four-play scoring drive with Ferverda scoring on a 6-yard run. A Brant Beck two-point conversion run made it 28-6.
Benton Central got within 28-12 at halftime and had the ball to start the third quarter, but the drive ended with another incomplete pass from Widmer on fourth down.
Rochester followed with a five-play, 54-yard scoring drive that included a 16-yard run from Deming, a 24-yard run from Brant Beck and a seven-yard touchdown run from Deming.
Then came a four-and-out possession that ended with Deming sacking Widmer for a four-yard loss on fourth down.
Rochester mixed their defenses, switching odd and even fronts and even featured some corner blitzes from Aaron Swango.
“They’re pretty good at what they’re doing as far as throwing the ball around,” Shaffer said. “And like I said, Widmer will extend plays, and he makes it tough when he’s on the run. We felt like maybe we were getting held a little bit up front, but you’ve got to fight through those if you’re not going to get the calls.”
Two plays after his sack, Deming scored from 30 yards out following a seam created by Brady Beck and center Austin Rogers.
Parker Wallace’s extra point made it 43-12.
“They play hard,” Benton Central coach Andy Standifer said of Rochester’s wing-T offense. “They play every single play with one of those kids wanting to hit somebody. … We watched a lot of film, and we tried to emulate it in practice … but they’re well-coached, and they do a really good job of what they do.”
Rochester got the ball to start, but the first possession ended in a fumble when Riley Wilkinson wrenched the ball out of Ferverda’s arms and Caleb Kawlewski recovered at the Benton Central 23.
Widmer completed his first four passes to four different receivers out of the spread formation, but the drive stalled on downs at the Rochester 43, and the Zebras answered with an 11-play-57-yard drive that included an eight-yard run from Deming on fourth-and-inches and an 11-yard run from Ferverda on third-and-7.
Deming’s two-yard touchdown run with 47.4 seconds left in the quarter opened the scoring.
After Benton Central’s next drive stalled on downs at the Rochester 30, the Zebras went on an eight-play, 70-yard drive with Ferverda scoring from the 1 one play after a 36-yard run.
Linemen like right guard Payton Young kept creating holes for the Zebra backs.
“I’ve got to work on my footwork but also I usually do a lot of scooping and hitting linebackers,” Young said. “And that’s just my job. It depends on what Shaffer wants.”
Rochester 50, Benton Central 26
Rochester 6 22 15 7 – 50
Benton Central 0 12 0 14 – 26
First quarter
RHS – Alex Deming 2 run (run failed)
Second quarter
RHS – Colton Ferverda 1 run (run failed)
BC – Corbin Cooley 15 pass from Joe Widmer (pass failed)
RHS – Brant Beck 93 run (Ferverda run)
RHS – Ferverda 6 run (Beck run)
BC – Dylan Musser 19 pass from Widmer (run failed)
Third quarter
RHS – Deming 7 run (Ferverda run)
RHS – Deming 30 run (Parker Wallace kick)
Fourth quarter
RHS – Ethan Amezquita 4 run (Wallace kick)
BC – Cooley 45 pass from Widmer (Cooley pass from Widmer)
BC – Josh Etter 1 run (run failed)
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