Giants ready for semistate

Kirschner taking nothing for granted

Staff report

Mike Kirschner has been here before. A year ago in fact.

The Ben Davis football coach will be coaching in his third semistate game in the past four years when the No. 1 Giants face No. 7 Avon in a Class 6A semistate game Friday at Giants Stadium.

Just one year ago the Giants were coming off a 30 point regional win over Cathedral and were hosting Center Grove with a shot to go to state before Center Grove left Giants Stadium with a 42-22 win.

This year, the No. 1 rated Giants are 12-0 and coming off a 50-7 win at Fishers. The game against Avon is a rematch of a 52-20 Ben davis win the second week of this season.

“The keys are we  must stop their explosive offense,” Kirschner said of the Orioles. “They have a power running back (Sampson James) and a great wide out (Isaac Gurendo). We must tackle really well and keep them from having big plays on offense.”

Kirschner likes how his team is playing right now but knows it has to happen on the field if the Giants are to return to the state championship game next weekend.

“So far  we have handled a really tough sectional fairly well, rising up and handling two very tough opponents,” he said. “We followed that with a good road win at Fishers. It will be interesting to see how we handle the emotion of the semi state game on Friday.”