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East Central wins third state title

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana – The East Central Trojans laid claim to the IHSAA Class 4A state championship with a convincing 37-7 victory over the New Prairie Cougars Friday afternoon at Lucas Oil Field.

The Trojans scored on the fourth play of the game on 59-yard end around to Eli Aston and rolled out to a 20-point, first-quarter lead and cruised the rest of the way behind a power running game and a dominant defensive effort. They scored on their first four possessions and led at the half 27-0.

“We like to win, and we’ll take the one-point wins, but we like to dominate. That’s why it’s across my shirt right now. Our coaches wear it. Our players have t-shirts with it because we like to go out and put on those kinds of performances,” head coach Jake Meiners said in his postgame press conference. “We didn’t come into today thinking we were going to dominate. We came into today thinking we need to score one more point than New Prairie.”

East Central finished the night with 459 yards of total offense, including 395 yards on the ground.

Junior running back Josh Ringer led the way with 167 yards and four touchdowns on 23 carries. Aston also chipped in with 114 yards on the ground while Ryan Brotherton had 18 attempts for 100 yards as well.

Ringer’s four touchdowns tied an IHSAA 4A state championship game record shared with Brian Lewis (Jasper, 2001), Gino Gillum (Cathedral, 2011), Tyler Weller (New Prairie, 2014) and Gillum again (Cathedral, 2012).

This marked East Central’s fifth appearance in the state finals all-time and the state title is the third in program history for the Trojans. East Central also brought home the hardware in 1994 and 2015.

PHOTOS: East Central vs. New Prairie

SCORING BY QUARTERS
New Prairie 0-0-0-7-7
East Central 20-7-3-7-37

SCORING PLAYS
EC: Karson Dorsey 60-yard RuTD (Mcfee kick good)
EC: Josh Ringer 32-yard RuTD (Mcfee kick good)
EC: Josh Ringer 25-yard RuTD (kick no good)
EC: Josh Ringer 5-yard RuTD (Mcfee kick good)
EC: Nathan Mcfee 35-yard FG
EC: Josh Ringer 6-yard RuTD (Mcfee kick good)
NP: Marshall Kmiecik 25-yard RuTD (Chalik kick good)

RECORDS: East Central (13-2); New Prairie (13-2)

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+Image from Twitter (@IHSAA1)

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