High school football: Mishawaka turns to unheralded passing game to rout Riley

SOUTH BEND - Running the football and running it really well with seemingly little regard for time or score and down or distance has become the Mishawaka calling card.

But when it was time to make an early statement on the road in Northern Indiana Conference play Friday against Riley, the Cavemen did so by doing something they don't normally do.

They passed the ball.

Junior quarterback Darian Phillips fired three first-half touchdowns, including one on his team's first play from scrimmage, as the No. 7 (Class 5-A) Cavemen (3-1, 2-0 NIC) rolled to a 55-20 victory at Jackson Field.

Phillips knows his main role is to engineer Mishawaka's machine-like option offense, either by keeping it on sweeps to the outside or handing off to tough-as-nails senior fullback Tanner Bradley, who continued to grind out tough yards (156 on 17 carries and two TDs). But on Friday, the Cavemen opened with Phillips noticing that the Riley defense was cheating heavily toward stopping the run, so he looked for tight end Jacob Schmatz.

That decision resulted in a 65-yard touchdown and a lead that Mishawaka never relinquished.

"We just wanted to start off strong, and the safety didn't come with me so I was wide open," Schmatz said. "It worked out well."

Phillips noticed right away that the Cavemen might be able to do some damage through the air. Then they did.

"They were backing off of our wideouts, and that gave us the opportunity to throw quick passes," he said. "We used this game to sort of work on our passing because of the opportunities that we had with it."

Phillips completed five of 10 passes for 76 yards and the three scores before calling it a night early in the fourth quarter. He also rushed for another touchdown.

"Since we run the ball so much, passing can really catch teams off-guard," Phillips said. "That's why they're usually big plays."

Winning another league game was nice for Phillips, but so was being able to show another dimension to his game. It's not just all Bradley right and Bradley left and Bradley up the middle. The Cavemen utilized some additional weapons Friday, and the Wildcats had no counter.

"It's nice to prove that we're not only an option offense," Phillips said.

Phillips and Schmatz connected again in the second quarter, this time from three yards out. The Cavemen scored on their first four possessions and five of their first six in the first half. The first four times the visitors had the ball, they racked up 185 yards and those four scores, all in 15 minutes of work.

Mishawaka's starting offense worked together for 11 possessions -- and scored eight touchdowns.

"Being a defensive player, it's great," said Schmatz, who also plays on the defensive line. "We get to have a little break. If we give up a score, we have confidence in our offense to come right back with a score."

The Cavemen have scored 104 points while allowing 27 in their first two NIC games.

"I'm very confident of our chances of making a run at the title," Schmatz said.

Riley (1-3, 0-2) opened the season with four-straight home games, but won only the first. The Wildcats showed they also could do something in the passing game (297 yards), but they were constantly bogged down by fumbles and negative plays.

"Little mistakes on offense hurt us," said quarterback Tyler Schweiss, who threw three touchdowns. "We really didn't step up like we should have."

Still, the Wildcats looked a whole lot better than they did the previous game out, a 35-6 loss to city rival Washington. Schweiss struggled to get anything going against the Panthers, but kept his poise long enough Friday to help turn broken plays into big ones.

Scrambling away from oncoming Cavemen defenders, Schweiss turned three into touchdowns, including two to wideout Reontre' Lawrence. One of them arrived on the final play of the first half, when he lofted the ball down the far right sideline before Lawrence outjumped a Cavemen defender for the ball in the end zone as the halftime horn sounded.

After working much of the Washington game as a decoy, Lawrence made four catches for 135 yards and two scores in Friday's first half. His score gave the Wildcats a little life, and Brien King gave them a little more with an 80-yard catch and sprint down the near sideline off a Schweiss scramble early in the second half. But it was all Mishawaka from there on out.

"We had to step up and keep playing hard," Schweiss said. "We have to look at the good things and build on them."

At Jackson Field

M - Jacob Schmatz 65 pass from Darian Phillips (Ben Kozlowski kick)

M - Phillips 12 run (Kozlowski kick)

M - Schmatz 3 pass from Phillips (Kozlowski kick)

R - Reontre' Lawrence 76 pass from Tyler Schweiss (Tristan Goering kick)

M - Daishawn Thomas 6 pass from Phillips (Kozlowski kick)

M - Tanner Bradley 2 run (Kozlowski kick)

R - Lawrence 29 pass from Schweiss (pass failed)

R - Brien King 80 pass from Schweiss (Goering kick)

M - Bradley 22 run (Kozlowski kick)

M - Phillips 1 run (pass failed)

M - Peyton Marshall 4 run (Kozlowski kick)

Officials: Michael Monahan (referee); John Walczewski (head linesman); Darin Metcalf (back judge); Chris Ronan (umpire); Bill Kuminecz (line judge).

TNoie@SBTinfo.com

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Twitter: @tnoieNDI