Michael D. McElwain UP THE MIDDLE — Indian Creek’s Ian Starkey finds room in the middle of the Brooke defense on Friday night. Creek pulled away for a 41-14 victory for its first 5-0 start since 2000.

WINTERSVILLE — The Indian Creek football team capitalized on some Brooke miscues leading to a big win on homecoming night.

The Redskins turned two interceptions, a fumble and a blocked field goal into 27 points on the way to a 41-14 victory against the Bruins Friday night at Kettlewell Stadium.

“Our kids were opportunistic,” Indian Creek (5-0) head coach Andrew Connor said. “You want to be an opportunistic football team. Our kids played hard. Brooke is tough. Our kids battled. It was a great effort.”

The interceptions led to Indian Creek’s first and last touchdowns of the night.

“Great teams capitalize on your mistakes,” first-year Brooke (1-3) head coach Frank Sisinni said. “Andrew has a great team. They are coming off an 8-2 season. They were able to take advantage of our miscues. Indian Creek is a great team. They are senior laden. You can’t make mistakes against them.”

The game was scoreless at the end of the first quarter.

On the first play of the second quarter, Indian Creek’s Jorden Hines intercepted a pass and returned 50 yards down to Brooke’s 28. Three plays later, Indian Creek senior quarterback Ian Starkey ran for the first of his three touchdowns in the game to give the Redskins a 6-0 lead. Starkey’s run covered 14 yards. The hosts faked the extra point, however, the attempted 2-point pass was broken up in the end zone keeping the score at 6-0 with 10:33 remaining to be played in the quarter.

Indian Creek’s defense rose to the occasion on Brooke’s next drive as the Redskins forced the Bruins to punt. The punt covered 28 yards, and the hosts took over at their own 32.

Starkey capped off the seven-play 68-yard drive when he plowed in from the 1, and this time Franco Barcalow booted the extra point to increase Indian Creek’s advantage out to 13-0 with 5:41 left to play in the first half.

The Redskins’ defense came up with another big play on the ensuing drive as Bruce Mazar ripped the ball out of the hands of Brooke’s ballcarrier, and the senior returned it 51 yards for the first of his three touchdowns on the night. Barcalow split the uprights with his extra points to extend the Redskins’ advantage to 20-0 with 3:40 left to play in the half.

The visitors from Brooke County countered with a touchdown of their own to cut their deficit down to two scores. Brooke quarterback Ty Sperringer hooked up with Grant Yost for a 12-yard touchdown on 4th-and-3 to cap Brooke’s 77-yard march. Rocco Sacripanti kicked the extra points to pull the Bruins to within 20-7 with 56.9 seconds still showing on the scoreboard clock.

Ethan Fisher intercepted a pass on the first play of Indian Creek’s ensuing drive, however, the Bruins were unable to take advantage of it as they entered halftime down by 13.

The Bruins seemed primed to cut into their deficit on their opening drive of the second half as Brooke marched down to the Indian Creek 11 before having to settle for a 31-yard field goal attempt. Unfortunately for the visitors, Indian Creek was able to block the kick and Caiden Canestraro picked up the live ball and returned down to the Bruins’ 35.

Mazar capped off the ensuing drive with a 4-yard run, and Barcalow booted the PAT to give the Redskins a 27-7 advantage with 4:13 remaining to be played in the quarter.

Down by 20 points for the second time, the Bruins once again answered with a touchdown of their own.

A 15-yard penalty after the touchdown forced the Redskins to have to kick off from its 25, and following the return, Brooke began its next drive at the Indian Creek 49. The Bruins responded with a 49-yard scoring drive capped off by a 12-yard pass from Sperringer to Michael Gibson on a third down play. Sacripanti’s extra point was true pulling his team to within 27-14 with 1:50 left to play in the quarter.

The hosts tacked on two more touchdowns in the fourth.

First, Starkey scored his second 14-yard touchdown of the night, and Barcalow came through with the extra point to make the score, 34-14, with 11:10 left to play in the ballgame.

Then following an interception by Jabari White, Mazar scored from 10 yards out on the next play, Barcalow capped the scoring with his fifth extra point of the night to make the score, 41-14.

“Every game we have shown flashes of success,” Sisinni said. “We have some young guys, but they have started to play a lot of quarters. We are going to continue to coach them up, and we are going to continue to work hard. We played an excellent team tonight. They are going to be in their tournament.”

The Redskins left some points out on the field as Indian Creek drove down to the Brooke 4 on the first drive of the game before turning the ball on downs, and the Redskins drove down to the Bruins’ 6 in the fourth before another turnover on downs brought the drive to a halt.

“That’s on me,” Connor said. “We have to score points when we get down there. We have to be able to take advantage of our opportunities.”

Individually for Indian Creek, Starkey finished the game with 34 yards on the ground with three touchdowns while also throwing for 92 yards. Mazar recorded 124 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries, while also scoring on the fumble return.

Six players caught passes for the Redskins with Gavin Pownall producing two receptions for 41 yards.

For Brooke, Sperringer completed 19-of-29 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns.

“Brooke has a good team,” Connor said. “They made some plays. They had a lot of fight in them. They made some big plays, but at the end of the game, we were able to shut them down. We made some great adjustments at halftime, and it showed in the second half.”

Brooke struggled to run the football as the Bruins amassed just 35 yards on 27 carries. Connor Carte contributed 41 yards on nine carries to lead the way on the ground.

Yost was the man through the air as the junior tallied seven receptions for 172 yards and a touchdown.

“Sperringer and Yost did a great job,” Sisinni said. “Kudos to them. Yost has been hurt. He wasn’t able to play last week. He responded with a big game tonight. We showed flashes of what we could do.”

Also for the Bruins, Crosby Morris caught five passes for 35 yards, Fisher finished with two catches for 15 yards and the interception on defense, while Gibson hauled in the 12-yard touchdown in the third.

With the win, the Redskins are now 5-0 for the first time since 2000. That season, Indian Creek opened the season by defeating Bellaire, 29-6, Buckeye Local, 23-0, Rayen, 21-6, Bishop Hartley, 35-28, and Weir, 33-7. The Redskins ended the season with a record of 6-4.

The Redskins will look to go 6-0 next week as Indian Creek welcomes Bellaire to town. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday night. The Redskins defeated the Big Reds, 40-26, last season down at Nelson Field.

“This was a team win,” Connor said. “The kids played well in all phases of the game. The offense ran the ball well. The defense did a great job. It was a great win.”

Brooke is scheduled to play Lincoln County at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at home on Paul “Bud” Billiard Field inside Brooke Memorial Stadium. The Bruins defeated the Panthers, 33-14, last season on the road to give Brooke its first win of the season.

Indian Creek 41, Brooke 14

B 0-7-7 -0 –14

IC 0-20-7-14 –41

SCORING

First Quarter

None

Second Quarter

INDIAN CREEK: Starkey 14 run (pass fail), 10:33

INDIAN CREEK: Starkey 1 run (Barcalow kick), 5:41

INDIAN CREEK: Mazar 51 fumble return (Barcalow kick), 3:40

BROOKE: Yost 12 pass from Sperringer (Sacripanti kick), :56.9

Third Quarter

INDIAN CREEK: Mazar 4 run (Barcalow kick), 4:13

BROOKE: Gibson 12 pass from Sperringer (Sacripanti kick), 1:50

Fourth Quarter

INDIAN CREEK: Starkey 14 run (Barcalow kick), 11:10

INDIAN CREEK: Mazar 10 run (Barcalow kick), 3:58

RUSHING: Brooke 27-35 (Sperringer 7-(-7), Gibson 8-12, Carte 9-41, Sacripanti 1-(-12), Vizyak 2-0); Indian Creek: 39=218 5TDs (Starkey 11-34 3TDs, Mazar 15-124 2TDs, Pownall 8-48, Pitts 1-13, Romanyak 4-9)

PASSING: Brooke 19-29-250-2-2 (All by Sperringer); Indian Creek 7-9-92-0-1 (All By Starkey)

RECEIVING: Brooke 19-250 2TDs (Yost 7-172 TD, Morris 5-35, Drumm 2-8, Fisher 2-15, Gibson 1-12 TD, Carte 1-6, Reed 1-6); Indian Creek 7-92 (Mazar 1-(-4), Starr 2-21, Pownall 2-41, Christian 1-22, Salazar 1-12)

FIRST DOWNS: Brooke 16; Indian Creek 17

PENALTIES-YARDS: Brooke 7-50; Indian Creek 8-80

FUMBLES-LOST: Brooke 2-1; Indian Creek 0-0

PUNTS-AVERAGE: Brooke 3-23; Indian Creek 1-20