AROUND TOWN � INDY BRINGS HOME TITLE
PHOTOS BY RICK BARBERO , THE REGISTER-HERALD
Clockwise from top , team members pose with the Class AA football championship trophy ; offensive lineman Parker Withrow gets a hug from a cheerleader after he and his teammates had won the championship game at Wheeling Island Stadium ; a Patriot fan shows and shouts her support ; Coach John Lilly , on the headsets during the game , would go on to win his first state championship .
PATRIOTS RETURN AND CONQUER
The Independence High School Patriot football team was denied a state title last season , falling to Fairmont Senior in the Class AA title game . Well , enough of that noise . In 2022 , with the exception of a 20-12 win over Bluefield in the first round of the playoffs , Indy steamrolled the competition all season long , including a 42-7 clobbering of Fairmont Senior in a nice piece of payback .
It was the first football title for Independence and the first for coach John H . Lilly .
The Patriots put up a perfect 13-0 season record while scoring an average of 52.5 points a game and giving up an average of 5.8
– helped along by six shutouts . Running back Judah Price literally rewrote parts of the record book , setting state records for points scored in a single season ( 396 ), for rushing yards ( 376 ) in a playoff game , for longest run ( 94 yards ) in a playoff game and school rcord for rushing yards in a season , 2,587 .
30 � SOUTH � JANUARY-FEBRUARY ’ 23