High school football: Shawnee's big plays turn tide in win over LCC

It was 671 days between Shawnee’s 33-19 win over Lima Central Catholic on the opening night of high school football Thursday and the last time the Indians celebrated a victory on the final night of the 2022 regular season.

But it was a mere 56 seconds that played a huge role in Thursday night’s victory, which Shawnee hopes means a brighter future after an 0-10 season last year.

With slightly more than three minutes left in the first half and LCC leading 7-6, Shawnee scored two touchdowns in 56 seconds to take a 20-7 lead at halftime and never lost the lead after that.

The first came on an 88-yard touchdown run by quarterback J.J. Spyker. The second, on LCC’s second offensive play after Spyker’s TD, arrived via an interception for a touchdown by Cole Sunderland.

“That was the biggest game changer in the game,” Spyker said about Sunderland’s interception. “Right after my touchdown a pick-six just helped carry the momentum the whole game.

“We worked all summer for this and we were hungry. We knew it was coming,” he said.

Shawnee got off to a shaky start with turnovers on its first two possessions, including a fumble, which set up Matthew Quatman’s 4-yard touchdown that gave LCC, a team that had returning starters at 18 positions, a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter.

“I think there were definitely some pre-game jitters. I saw how we warmed up tight. I thought we settled in during the second quarter. But that first quarter we did about everything as wrong as we could offensively. We turned the ball over, bad snaps, silly penalties,” said first-year Shawnee coach Shane Wireman.

“We’ve been harping on mental toughness a lot. We dug ourselves a hole but we found a way to stay in there and make a few plays and swing the momentum back before halftime.

“I think this was important for our football team and our community to get that confidence. Even though we didn’t play our best we still had enough to get the job done. I think that was huge to get off to a good start this year,” he said.

Spyker said, “These new coaches got a new mindset with us. It has just completely changed our football team. We’re a completely different football team this year.”

LCC battled back to cut Shawnee’s lead to one point, at 20-19 with four minutes left in the third quarter on a pair of touchdown passes by Brady Parker, a sophomore making his first start at quarterback.

The first of those scores came on a 61-yard connection with Lausen Flores and the other was a 25-yard play in which Mylon Cowens out-jumped a Shawnee defender in the end zone to get the ball.

Shawnee put the game out of reach with two fourth-quarter scores – an 8-yard run for a touchdown by Spyker to make it 26-19 and a touchdown pass from Spyker to Sunderland, his third touchdown in the game, that made it 33-19 with 2:50 to play.

Sunderland said, “It was a team win – everyone blocking, making holes, making plays, making it happen. We worked hard for it and we’ve got to stay humble. We’re ready to win this year.”

LCC coach Scott Palte said, “Obviously we didn’t have things go the way we wanted them to go. When we needed to make a play we didn’t. Give them credit. They made plays and really got after us. They earned that win. We didn’t give it to them. They earned it, they took it to us.”