Driving toward another sectional championship was pretty much business as usual for more than 119 minutes of the Class 2A Sectional for Linton-Stockton High School’s football team.

But the Miners ran into several potholes and detours late in the second quarter and early in the third against North Posey in the championship game at Poseyville on Friday night.

The Vikings came up with several big plays in the second half to secure a 56-26 victory.

The Miners, despite their 1-8 regular-season record with a young team, opened sectional play with wins over Pike Central (62-0) and Tell City (54-37). They ended up scoring 142 points in the sectional, after managing 85 during the regular season.

Linton didn’t commit a turnover in its three wins this season but had three interceptions and allowed a punt and kickoff return for touchdowns against North Posey.

“It was the tale of two halves,” Linton Coach Brian Oliver said. “In the first half we looked similar to the team the week before when we played against Tell City.

“Once we started making mistakes that changed the game. You can’t do that against any team, especially a good team like North Posey.”

The key timeframe in the title game came late in the second quarter and carried over into the third.

The Miners cut their deficit to 21-20 with a minute and 20 seconds to play before half on a 90-yard touchdown pass from Espn Graves to Renn Cottingham. Tate Gamble ran for the two-points conversion.

That play slowed North Posey’s momentum after it had taken a 21-12 lead on a 36-yard touchdown run by Cade Mauck with 1:20 to go in the half.

But quarterback Carter Schickel’s passing accuracy moved the Vikings down field quickly and ended in a 12-yard touchdown pass with seven seconds left in the half to push their lead to 28-20.

“The end of the first half was big. We scored, but then they had that touchdown pass (late) and then came out and ran the opening kickoff back. That was kind of a dagger right there. Then they scored again, and they were able to start separating themselves,” Oliver explained.

The 70-yard kickoff return by Remi Johnson for a touchdown took just 10 seconds. That upped the margin to 35-20.

Graves was then intercepted on the next possession, and North Posey capitalized with a 22-yard TD pass from Schickel to Brody Fehn with 7:05 left in third to make it 42-20.

Graves was picked off again, and North Posey scored on its first play when Mauck found the end zone from 33 yards out with 6:59 left in the third. That made it 49-20.

Mauck scored on a 59-yard punt return with 4:41 left in the third to make it 56-20.

The only score in the fourth quarter was a 75-yard run by Linton sophomore Coltyn Andrews with 7:25 left.

“I’ve said it before, once that snowball starts rolling down the hill, it keeps getting harder and hard to stop it,” Oliver said, in reference to North Posey’s momentum. “We couldn’t get that snowball to stop and it was too late.

“Big plays are detrimental to momentum, and detrimental to the mental part of the game. It takes so much out of you. In high school, when you’ve got that momentum, you have to use it to your advantage. (North Posey’s) big plays took a lot of juice out of us. I would say the body language started to change a little bit too.”

Andrews finished with 194 rushing yards on 15 carries, and Gamble had 92 yards on 13 carries. Mauck led the Vikings with 115 yards.

Schickel had 275 yards passing for North Posey, completing 24 of 30 with three touchdowns.

“We knew Schickel could do a lot of things. He’s a really good quarterback, and they have good speed in their receivers,” Oliver said. “He has a lot of tools to work with.

“We tried to get pressure on him with different coverages, and he was throwing short and letting his receivers make some plays. He’s a tall, talented quarterback and we couldn’t get too many hits on him. When he rolled out, he threw some darts.”

Oliver isn’t into moral victories, but he is happy with the way his team performed after a tough regular season. He especially liked his team’s grit in the first half Friday.

“We came out with a lot of fire,” Oliver said. “They kept battling and some people didn’t give us a shot, but we battled and kept it close.”

Oliver said the key for Linton to return to its winning and championship ways starts in the offseason.

“We showed a lot of heart and grit at the end of the year and showed what potential we have. We will miss a lot of seniors who were role models. We have a lot of good kids coming back, and we have a good eighth-grade class. We started two freshmen this year. We’re only going to get better,” Oliver said.

“We need to have a great offseason and be ready to battle (next season). I hope they can use this as motivation. We watched (the Vikings) celebrate and reminded them if that’s what we want to do, we have to work hard. We have a lot of multi-sport athletes, and that’s what makes Linton so special. We share athletes. But they need to find the time. If you want to be a champion, you have to work as a champion. Some of our best athletes have played muliple sports, but they still found the time to make themselves better.”

North Posey, the No. 9-ranked team in 2A, is now 11-1 and will play at No. 2-ranked Brownstown Central (12-0) on Friday, Nov. 13.

Linton finished 3-9.