Fishers High School

The Fishers Tigers hosted the Pike Red Devils in their home opener, and the Red Devils came away with a 35-34 win after weather delayed the finish until Saturday afternoon. The Tigers played well on Saturday after the weather delay, but a 48-yard game winning field goal fell just short as time expired. The Tigers again attacked through the air in the loss as Gage Sturgill threw for over 250 yards including 15 receptions and 181 yards from JonAnthony Hall. The defenses were strong to start the game, but Pike got on the board first led by a couple long runs by Chase Shurn before Dohnavin Ward found Latrell Morton for a 3-yard touchdown. After a punt by Fishers, the Tigers defense was able to step up with a big defensive stop as Emmanuel Cowherd recorded a tackle for loss to force a turnover on downs. However, the Tigers could not take advantage of good field position and turned it over on downs. Pike put together a 11-play, 80-yard drive as Ward connected to Pierce Collins for a touchdown to give the Red Devils a 14-point lead. A weather delay paused the game until Saturday afternoon. The Tigers came out of the locker room after the delay and answered quickly as Sturgill scored on a 5-yard QB keeper with just under 4 minutes remaining in the first half. However, Pike would answer as Ward again found Collins with 5 seconds in the half as the teams went to the locker room with Pike holding a 21-7 lead. Fishers again brought energy out of the locker room as the Tigers marched down the field on the opening drive of the 3rd quarter. The big play was a 32-yard pass to Hall to get Fishers into the red zone. After a couple penalties, Sturgill found Ryan Thembulembu on 3rd down for a 16-yard touchdown. Pike drove all the way down the field before Emmanuel Cowherd came up with an interception at the 1-yard line. However, the Tigers were not able to take advantage of this turnover and had to punt. Shurn quickly answered for the Red Devils with a 58-yard run to again give Pike a 14-point lead going into the 4th quarter. A bad snap early in the 4th quarter on a Red Devils punt gave the Tigers great field position. Sturgill found Thembulembu for a 13-yard touchdown, but the point after was blocked to make the score 28-20 in favor of Pike. The Tigers defense stepped up and forced a fumble at midfield that was recovered by Lincoln Bass. A quick drive by Fishers resulted in another touchdown pass from Sturgill to Thembulembu, but the 2-point conversion was no good and the Tigers still trailed by 2 with just under 4 minutes to play. For a second consecutive drive, the Tigers defense was huge as Josh Wilkins came up with a tackle for loss before intercepting a pass on 3rd down. Sturgill scored to give the Tigers the lead with a great run as he bounced off and ran through defenders on a 16-yard scramble with 1:44 to play. However, the Red Devils answered right back as they drove down the field, and Ward found Morton with 27 seconds left for a 27-yard touchdown. Fishers tried to mount a comeback, but the potential game-winning field goal fell just short to give the Red Devils a 35-34 victory.