Boone Grove gets ‘payback’ against Bowman for last season
By Tommy WIlliams Post-Tribune correspondent September 14, 2012 11:42PM
Updated: October 16, 2012 6:13AM
GARY — On the not-so-long road to respectability for Boone Grove, a road that has led them to again silence their critics in their second full season of varsity football, there was that one humbling moment that the Wolves had to overcome.
That was Sept. 17 of last year, when Bowman Academy, led by quarterback Antonio Pipkin’s six touchdown passes, torched Boone Grove 60-37.
Friday night was the rematch, and despite another strong first half by Pipkin, the Wolves came back from a 12-0 deficit to stay unbeaten with a 34-12 win at Roosevelt.
“Bowman is a really good team and they came out strong, but at halftime we made adjustments and came out and did a good job.” said coach Boone Grove coach Tony Tinkel.
Successful adjustments have been Boone’s hallmark in their two-year varsity run. After winning one game all of last season, the Wolves are 5-0 this year.
Appropriately enough, after trailing 12-0 on the brilliant play of Pipkin (9-of-13 for 175 yards and two TD passes, including a dynamic Randall Cunningham-like scamble to avoid two defenders before hitting James Taylor for a 37-yard TD pass), the Wolves took over momentum on a Dean Hill TD pass to Alan Espino with 10 seconds left in the half.
That’s when Wolves running back Cody Poynter took over, scoring twice in the third quarter with runs of 64 and 37 yards to put the game away.
“We struggle a lot in the first half but we got a ‘pump-up’ talk that really turned us around,” Poynter said. “We all thought about last year’s game and we wanted some payback and that’s what we came here to do.”
The “pump-up” talk also had a positive effect on the Boone defense, holding Pipkin to only 42 yards passing in the final two quarters.
“(In the first half)my receivers did a good job of running back to me every time I scrambled,” Pipkin said. “In the second half we had a mental break down, We thought they were going to lay down but their guys fought hard in the second half.”
