State Champs!
All season long, Indian River’s varsity football team had been offensively dominating opponents, never allowing their counterparts to finish within 14 points of their score, while a constantly-developing defense was progressing and maturing right before first-year head coach Ray Steele.
Coastal Point • Shaun Lambert
Indian River players celebrate with their fans after their 35-13 victory over Caravel on Saturday, Dec. 3, which gave the Indians their first state championship since 1988.
Both offense and defense, once again, came together this past Saturday, Dec. 3, as the Indians rounded out a perfect season, finishing 12-0, with a 35-13 victory over Caravel Academy in the Delaware District II State Championship game at Delaware State University in Dover.
Led by quarterback Jamie Jarmon, the Indians took it to Caravel early, with a running game anchored by Aarron Moore, who found the end zone for the first score of the game, putting the Indians ahead, 6-0 in the first quarter.
Jarmon displayed versatility, pulling in an interception on defense during a Caravel drive before capping off another Indian River score with a 3-yard scramble — the first of his three rushing touchdowns on the day. Careless turnovers on both sides kept the offenses at bay in the second quarter, and the Indians held the advantage, 13-0, as the first half of play drew to a close.
By the third quarter, the Indians were at it again, as Jarmon punctuated a 91-yard Indian River drive with a 2-yard spin into the end zone, nudging Indian River ahead, 20-0. But, the Buccaneers started answering back, as Christopher Wickes’ 10-yard touchdown run shortened the gap.
Just before the fourth quarter, Jarmon again made a dash for the end zone, putting the Indians ahead by 19. Wickes countered once more with another rushing touchdown for Caravel, but a mishandled snap in the end zone later in the fourth awarded Indian River a safety, and Marquel Knight, who has been a force through the air all season long, opted for a rushing touchdown to seal the 35-13 final score.
Coastal Point • R. Chris Clark
Indian River football coach Ray Steele celebrates with his team.
“This win really means a lot to me and the whole team,” said Jarmon, following the win. “I was debating at the beginning of the year whether or not I’d even return, and now I feel like I would have made such a big mistake if I didn’t come back and play with these guys.”
Throughout his varsity career, with emphasis on this past season, his senior year, Jarmon had been turning heads throughout the state and region.
An impeccable accuracy on his throws, an uncanny awareness on the field, and the wherewithal to turn what looked like a short loss of yards into a game-changing scramble on the ground, made Jarmon one of the most feared athletes for Indian River’s opposition this year.
He brought his talents, and a few other weapons, to Dover for the state title game on the Indians’ route to clench an undefeated season for the first time in the program’s history and their second state championship.
In all, the Indians gained 395 yards on the ground, on 62 runs. Moore finished with 178 yards on 23 carries, while Griffin’s nine rushing attempts added 68 yards. Jarmon, who has averaged nearly 200 yards threw the air this season, only completed seven of 22 pass attempts, but made up for it on the ground with more than 140 rushing yards on the championship evening.
“We prepared for this game like we have for every other one,” he said. “We’ve been playing our games all season long like it was for a championship. We had to come out here tonight and get the win.”
It was the first time since 1988 that the Indians returned to Dagsboro with the state title, and only the third time that they advanced to the Division II championship game.
Steele, who stepped in this year as the head coach of Indian River’s program, had put in over 30 years with former head coach, Jim Bunting. Saturday’s title win —the team’s first in 23 years — was a bittersweet way to cap off his debut season at the helm.
“These guys have worked so hard,” said Steele, immediately after the win on Saturday night. “They have been dedicated all year, and when they stepped onto the field, our fans were packed in the stands. The noise and excitement that they generated for us really picked us up to a new level.”
He noted that the season wouldn’t have seen the same success had it not been for his players’ ambition to prepare.
“These kids have displayed hard work and leadership all year long,” he said. “They came to practice every day and worked hard every day. They did everything we asked them to do, and then some.”
Although the Indians will be losing Jarmon and other notable seniors, like Tyler Dean and P.J. Kraushaar, Steele is fairly certain that the team will return next year with targets on their backs. “We’ve got 15 seniors that we’re going to miss very much next year,” he said, “but our underclassmen really stepped up and played well today, too. We’ll be right back in the hunt next year. We’ve got a good team returning.”
Indian River will also see several athletes moving up to high school next year from the Selbyville Middle School football team, which finished this season with an undefeated record.
As for the up-and-comers and the returning players to next years squad, Jarmon hopes that the tradition will continue.
“I really hope that us seniors had a big enough impact on the rest of these guys this year,” he said. “We want them to keep the legacy going. They have to keep this momentum going to bring the trophy back again next year.”
