KEYSER ON A ROLL
Boone Grove junior scores his first 2 TDs ever in first-round win vs. Bishop Noll
In nine years of football, Cole Keyser hadn’t scored a touchdown.
Until Friday night.
The Boone Grove junior ran for a pair of touchdowns and 103 yards on 15 carries in a 44-7 win against Bishop Noll in the first round of a Class 2A sectional in Valparaiso.
Keyser entered the game having rushed for 124 yards on 40 carries this season.
“I could not have imagined this,” he said. “It was insane, surreal. I had my eyes on the end zone. I was beaming for it. I was beaming for it.”
Keyser transferred from Arkansas before the season. Boone Grove coach Dan Kukulski praised him for learning the system so quickly.
“He’s a good, solid runner,” Kukulski said. “He’s come into his own. The last couple of weeks, he’s been someone we’ve been keying on, making sure he’s carrying the ball. He does everything we ask of him. He’s a great kid. He’s definitely a leader on this team.”
Keyser also had an interception. And when the Wolves punted on their final possession of the game, he was the one who did it, for the first time this season.
“He’s a good athlete, a good kid,” Kukulski said. “He has his head on straight. He just wants to do the job. Everything we give him, he does.”
With its win against Bishop Noll (1-7), Boone Grove (2-6) advances to a sectional semifinal against Whiting (3-6) or Bowman (0-8). The Wolves lost 7-6 to Whiting on Oct. 15 in their regular-season finale.
Boone Grove has won eight straight games in the series with Bishop Noll. The teams were scheduled to play a Greater South Shore Conference game Sept. 10, but it was called off because of COVID-19 protocols with the Warriors.
“I felt fired up,” Keyser said. “I was hoping to win for this team, especially the seniors. I didn’t want it to end so soon for them. I wanted to keep going.
“I feel great. My line blocked really well. We worked together as a team, and we’re going to keep moving on. We’re finally clicking. We’re hoping to move on farther.”
Boone Grove scored on all four of its firsthalf possessions, mixed in with a fumble recovery for a score, to lead 31-7 at halftime.
The Wolves opened the scoring on Logan Fast’s 2-yard TD run with 2:46 left in the first quarter. It was the sophomore’s first TD of the season.
The Warriors answered with senior Willie Feagin’s 58-yard TD pass to freshman Holland Harris to tie the score at 7-7 with 1:35 left in the first quarter.
But Boone Grove took control from there. Mark Rowland connected with Daekwon Coleman for a 34-yard TD just 42 seconds into the second quarter. It was the freshman QB’s second TD pass of the season. Coleman, a senior tight end, entered the game with one catch for 2 yards.
“We need to get him in the weight room,” Kukulski said of Rowland. “It was a big change for him coming from eighth grade football to varsity football.”
Keyser scored his first TD, a 1-yard run, to make it 19-7.
Freshman Nick Ratkovich added a score when he recovered a fumble in the end zone, falling on the ball after an errant punt snap by Bishop Noll.
Sophomore Tyler Torbeson’s fumble recovery set up the final points of the first half. That turnover led to junior Nate Hilty’s 40-yard TD on a screen pass from Rowland with 54.9 seconds left in the half, which ended with a Keyser interception.
Sophomore Hunter Noonan added a 14-yard fumble return for a TD just 25 seconds into the third quarter.
Keyser scored on Boone Grove’s fifth possession with a 6-yard TD run with 5:16 left in the third quarter to make it 44-7.
The Wolves’ roster is filled with sophomores and freshmen.
“We started out the year with some rough spots,” Kukulski said. “It was a learning process for us. We showed them the scoreboard (Friday), and we said, ‘Obviously you’re believing in the process, and it’s working for us.’”