On the final down in many Indians’ final years, Van-Far football made sure 2000 wasn’t its final district championship.
Van-Far won its first district football title in 25 years with …
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On the final down in many Indians’ final years, Van-Far football made sure 2000 wasn’t its final district championship.
Van-Far won its first district football title in 25 years with a 22-18 victory at Grandview (Hillsboro) (7-4) on Friday night in the Class 1 District 2 championship game. The Indians (7-4) stopped Grandview five times on fourth down to maintain a lead they first grabbed 8-6 later in the first quarter.
Nobody on Van-Far’s roster was alive when the school won its previous district title so the moment was surreal for this year’s Indians, especially the seniors.
“It’s crazy being the first team to do it in 25 years,” senior Kasen Christian said. “I feel on top of the world, and I’m not ready to be done yet.”
Evan Utterback, who finished with 130 yards and one touchdown on 20 carries and a team-high six tackles on defense, is the senior son of assistant coach and 2000 team member Cale Utterback. He said he and his teammates were talking about winning a district title all season, and his father joked with him about it.
“All the time,” Utterback said with a laugh when asked if his father held his district title over his head. “It’s amazing that he gets to win one as a player and then wins one as a coach.”
Head coach Lucas Gibson graduated one year before the 2000 championship team but was committed to seeing this current generation make history for the school. When he took over four years ago, Gibson said Van-Far won only one game and couldn’t even play a district game because of a low number of players. That’s far from the case now.
Gibson said “all the nights, the mornings and the summers” they were in the weight room paid off for his players.
“They have been waiting for this for a long time,” Gibson said about how much it means to the community. “We had a police escort out of town, and people were lining the streets.”
Van-Far and Grandview were stuck in the middle with each other for most of the game. Both teams wouldn’t allow the other the advantage.
The Indians defense, especially, was relentless as it stopped Grandview five times on fourth down. Eventually, after Van-Far stopped Grandview the fourth time on a 4th-and-3 situation, Utterback dived in the end zone for a six-yard run. Gaven Gaston tacked on a two-point conversion on a running play for the first two-possession lead of the game with about nine minutes left in the game.
“We knew we had to stop the dive there,” Gibson said. “All week, that is what we worked on. We moved some guys around like putting Evan back at linebacker to try to get more beef back there and put Ty (Evans) at nose (tackle) and just told him to ‘Go disrupt the play.’”
Gibson said Van-Far succeeded by putting pressure up the middle and also by pressuring quarterback Brendan Martin, who completed two passing touchdowns in the fourth quarter to keep Grandview in the game.
Pacey Reading matched Utterback with a team-high six tackles and a tackle for loss, Jackson Fischer had five tackles and a forced fumble, Bryce Reading had four tackles, and Ty Evans had three tackles and a tackle for loss. They and the rest of the Van-Far defense had a standout performance after stopping Crystal City five times on fourth down the week prior.
“We always preach bend but don’t break,” Utterback said. “We’ve been doing it all season. We’ve always had teams score on us in the beginning and then we don’t break. We always come back, we build up and we stop them the rest of the half.”
Gaston was the leading rusher with 136 yards on 14 carries and ran for a 41-yard touchdown to extend Van-Far’s lead to 22-12 with about two minutes left to play. Christian ran for 82 yards on seven carries and ran a 14-yard quarterback keeper in the end zone for Van-Far’s first touchdown to respond to Grandview’s touchdown to start the game.
Christian said giving the team an early lead was important so the defense could go to work. Grandview scored 55 points in a 55-48 win over Louisiana last week, but this game was much different.
“Our defense rallied to the ball all night,” Christian said. “We were able to hold them to 18 points, which is amazing. They say defense leads to offense, and us getting stops and giving us good field position helped us all night on offense.”
Utterback and his father is just one familial connection between both district championship teams as senior Easton Sharp’s father, Darby, was on the 2000 team and Cayden Douglas’ father, Nay, played for the Indians back then. Gibson’s brother, Travis, was also on the 2000 team.
“It’s just special,” Gibson said. “It’s a whole family. It’s come full circle, and it’s really fun to see that.”
Van-Far hosts Hayti (6-5) at 1 p.m. Saturday for a chance to advance to the district semifinals. Christian said the backfield, including Utterback, were “able to feast all night long,” but the Indians are still hungry.
“We’re ready for next week,” Utterback said.
