Clear eyes, full hearts ...
Senior QB Billy Henry, who didn’t begin season as starter, tosses 2 TD passes as Andrean rolls in regional final
One quick glance was all Billy Henry needed.
As Andrean’s 6-foot, 180-pound senior quarterback escaped the pocket, his eyes went downfield and found another set of eyes belonging to senior wide receiver Patrick Clacks III.
Once their eyes met, Henry knew what to do.
“I was like, yeah, he’s got the open space,” Henry said. “So I put it right there.”
That connection resulted in a 33-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-13 play, the first of several scores in defending Class 2A state champion Andrean’s 30-12 win at home against Lafayette Central Catholic in a regional final.
But that play was also indicative of Henry’s development this season, a process that will continue when Andrean (9-3) hosts Fort Wayne Bishop Luers (8-5) in a semistate championship game.
Henry became Andrean’s starting quarterback when junior Scott Ballentine broke his collarbone in the season opener against Merrillville. Henry said it took until the 59ers’ Week 5 game against Highland before he started feeling comfortable.
“Reading defenses was the No. 1 thing I really focused on because that was my main weakness,” he said. “I started watching more film and had the coaches helping me in practice to recognize different coverages.”
Having a receiver like Clacks doesn’t hurt, and that connection was evident again Friday. Henry completed 7 of 8 passes for 132 yards and two TDs against Central Catholic — and Clacks caught all seven.
Clacks also pointed to that initial TD as a sign of their growing chemistry.
“I looked him in the eyes and thought, ‘Man, you’ve got to throw it,’ ” Clacks said
with a big smile.
There have been plenty of smiles from Clacks, who has 1,118 yards and 13 TDs on 70 receptions this season. That duo also connected for a 63-yard TD on the first play of the second half, helping Andrean build upon a 14-6 halftime lead.
“We’ve developed a good chemistry that’s been getting better and better,” Clacks said. “He slings that ball, and he gets it to me.”
Andrean coach Chris Skinner also raved about the way Henry has progressed this season.
“It’s been continual, which is nice,” Skinner said. “We’ve found some things that he’s good at and he’s comfortable with that still fit in with what we do. He’s made some big throws.”
While Ballentine has returned from the injury and has appeared in each of the past three games, Skinner said there’s a weekly evaluation of how the 59ers will use their two quarterbacks based on what they believe gives the team the best chance to win.
On Friday, that road to victory included a heavy dose of senior running back Drayk Bowen, a Notre Dame commit and Mr. Football candidate who romped for 217 yards and two TDs.
Bowen had a 57-yard TD run in the first quarter to put the 59ers up 14-0 and helped seal the win with eight carries for 47 yards and his second TD during a second-half drive that consumed about seven minutes of game time.
“We made some adjustments in the second half, and our offensive line went to work,” he said. “They took over the game, allowing those plays to happen.”
Bowen, a two-way starter, also had a pair of interceptions in the first half, halting back-toback Knights’ drives that reached the red zone.
Skinner said he challenged his top players before the game, and Bowen responded.
“That’s what we told them in the locker room: Our guys need to make plays,” Skinner said. “And I thought they did that.”
For Bowen, the win not only extended Andrean’s season for at least one more week, but also upheld the football-rich tradition of Northwest Indiana.
“We can play football up here too,” he said. “Everybody thinks about Indy and all the southern teams. But we’re from the north, and we can ball too.”