Heritage Hills Football wins the trenches, the ground game, and ultimately, the semistate

LINCOLN CITY, Ind. (WFIE) - What a weekend of high school football it was. Three, yes three Tri-State teams punched their tickets to the state finals: One of those is in Indiana, and that’s Heritage Hills.

The Patriots beat Pocket Athletic Conference rival Gibson Southern, 23-20, Friday at “The Jungle”, to advance to state. Todd Wilkerson’s squad won the war in the trenches and on the ground, rushing for over 230 yards, as they got out to a 23-0, 3rd quarter lead. From there, they survived a furious Titan rally, to win the semistate.

“We did exactly what we needed to do. We knew we needed to run the ball. Having Braydon Durham back this game was huge. Jett had some huge runs. Big pass play to Tyler Ruxer. O-line set us up pretty good against a really good defensive front seven,” said Patriots’ head coach Todd Wilkerson. “Then the defense man -- you shut out Gibson Southern in the first half, that’s amazing. To win one here in “The Jungle” for this fan base, it’s amazing.”

“We came out locked in. We weren’t letting up just cuz they beat us in the regular season. We wanted it all. We wanted to go to state. We pushed every moment in the offseason for this, and this is what it’s all about, so let’s go,” said Heritage Hills’ senior Braydon Durham. “I’ve been dreaming about this forever. I can’t wait to go play in Lucas Oil baby, let’s go!”

Heritage Hills will face Indianapolis Chatard, next Friday, in the class 3A state championship.

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