'You have to be able to adapt': Monroe Central battles the elements for big win at Wes-Del

GASTON, Ind. — Forrest Gump spoke of "little-bitty stinging rain and big old fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath."

The Wes-Del Warriors and Monroe Central Golden Bears experienced each of those types of rain and then some on Friday night. Hurricane Helene sent all of that rain and winds up to 55 mph into Indiana, forcing games in the central and southern parts of the state to be canceled or rescheduled.

Not this game, though. Wes-Del and Monroe Central battled through the nasty conditions in an absolute slugfest that Monroe Central won in the trenches. The Golden Bears picked up their third straight win with a 36-0 road victory in the Harvest Helmet Classic to improve to 5-1.

More ECI Football: Check out the Muncie-area high school football scores from Week 6

ECI High School Sports: Top performers from East Central Indiana high school sports for September 23-27

"It's tough for everybody. It changes a lot about the game, but it's just part of it," Monroe Central coach John Hochstetler said of the conditions. "You have to be able to adapt, and it's not an excuse because everybody's dealing with it."

Senior running back Jerimiah Ullom got the scoring started with a 74-yard touchdown run on the Golden Bears' first drive. His brother, Justus Ullom, set the Monroe Central offense up at the goal-line with a 40-yard run on its next drive, which was finished off with a QB sneak by Lane Wilson.

"I think everyone felt their best in this game," Jerimiah Ullom said. "We all went out with really good energy."

Both Wes-Del and Monroe Central employ run-heavy offenses, so the conditions didn't change the respective game plans too much. However, passing the ball was nearly impossible for the first half. Wes-Del only attempted one pass, which fell incomplete, while Wilson went just 1-for-3 for Monroe Central, with that one completion coming on a touch pass sweep play that got blown up for a loss of 4 yards.

Wilson didn't let the conditions rattle him, though, and he bounced back in the second half when the rain eased up for a while. On the Golden Bears' second drive of the second half, Wilson connected with Justus Ullom on a third down to get Monroe Central inside the Wes-Del 20 yard-line. Wilson finished off the drive with a touchdown pass to Carter Duncan.

"Second half, we came out and I was able to just hold onto the ball a little bit and get the offense moving," Wilson said. "The defense did a really awesome job shutting down their offense, so props to them for giving us good field position."

Much like they have all season, the Ullom brothers led the way for the Golden Bears' offense. Both recorded a rushing touchdown and ripped off huge chunk plays to set up scoring drives. Jerimiah also made his presence felt at linebacker with multiple tackles in the backfield. Justus went down with what looked to be a lower body injury on the first drive, but he battled through it to make a big impact in the game.

"It's hard because you've got to have the mental toughness part of it," Justus Ullom said on playing through the injury. "Once I started moving again and stopped thinking about it, I kind of go into a mode of 'Man, this is worse than it really feels,' so it's really just getting my mind straight and pushing through it."

For Wes-Del, the offense couldn't get much of anything going on the ground. Monroe Central's defense controlled the trenches, and the Warriors' explosiveness was capped by the game's conditions.

"Weather like tonight, it took away a lot of our kind of explosive plays," Wes-Del coach Matt Nuckols said. "A lot of our explosive plays are based off of our design, and so with what we're dealing with, a lot of those thing's we're just not able to do. That forced us to be more ground-and-pound and get it up the middle to see if we could get some of those chunk plays, which against a really good defense like that, it's hard to do that sustainably."

Monroe Central (5-1) returns home next week to take on Eastern Hancock in a Mid-Eastern Conference matchup. Meanwhile, Wes-Del (2-4) will look to bounce back at home against Park Tudor.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: 'You have to be able to adapt': Monroe Central battles the elements for big win at Wes-Del