White's arm a major reason Northview playing in sectional semifinal

There’s no denying Northview’s high school football team’s offense is built around the run game.

And with a three-headed backfield consisting of Donavin Cherry, Imer Holman and Vinny Bonomo, which has combined for 1,468 yards and 20 touchdowns, that game plan makes a ton of sense.

But going into last week’s Class 4A sectional opening round game at No. 3 Jasper, Northview head football coach Mark Raetz and his staff knew they’d need to have quarterback Dillon White throw the ball more than he had on most nights during the regular season to walk away victorious.

Raetz had a conversation with White during the practices leading into the game to let him know that he’d likely be calling for more plays in the passing game.

“We’ve been running the ball all season mostly. He just told me that the run game might not work against good teams like this and there’s going to be a lot more weight on my shoulders,” said White.

“Honestly, anytime we get into big games against tough opponents, we know we’re going to have to be balanced,” said Raetz. “We talk about throughout the week how we’re not going to be able to just line up and run the ball 45 times and throw it five times. We prepared for that all week, and we took the mindset of, ‘We’re going to be aggressive and mix things up.’”

It didn’t take long for the ninth-year Northview coach to dial up his first pass of the night against Jasper.

Having gained one yard on its first two plays to begin the game, Raetz sent in a play to White that gave him a couple of options in terms of receivers he could throw to in order to pick up the first down.

The play called for White to hit one of the running backs coming out of the backfield for the nine yards to move the chains and keep the drive alive. However, White saw Bonomo had beat his man down the right sideline and gave his fellow senior a chance to make a play.

The ball fell right into the arms of Bonomo who never broke stride as he crossed the goal line for a 63-yard touchdown pass to put the Knights out in front two minutes and two seconds into the evening.

“I think it set the tone of the game. It gave me a lot of confidence,” said White of the opening series touchdown pass to Bonomo.

White continued to spin the ball well the rest of the game. The dual threat quarterback completed 10 of his 14 passes for a career-high 244 yards and two touchdowns.

“I think it kind of started with that third play of the game when we hit that long touchdown pass. That just relaxed everybody and put us in the right mind set and we just rolled from there,” said Raetz. “He just continued to make good decisions and good throws and our receivers made good catches. Overall, our passing game was key and it’s going to continue to be key for us in the playoffs if we want to keep going.”

“I think I played pretty well. It was my best game as a quarterback,” stated White.

Now, White and the Knights will look to carry over the momentum they picked up with last week’s win over Jasper into Friday night’s sectional semifinal matchup with Evansville Reitz.

Both he and Raetz know the Panthers will come to Brazil looking to pull off the upset, just as Northview did to Jasper. If the Knights are able to take care of their business and leave the game with a victory, it will mark the first time in school history they’d play for a sectional championship.

White said that, along with keeping the seniors’ high school careers alive, are what’s motivating them.

“We’ve talked a lot about what’s gotten us into the position where we could win a game like that. It was working hard at practice, staying focused on our job and then executing,” said Raetz. “Evansville Reitz is one of the more storied programs in state history. They’ve won state championships, they’ve won all kinds of championships over the years. They probably have the nicest stadium in the state. Football is very important there. I know they’re going to come here expecting to win.”

“We obviously want to make history with a win,” said White. “We just want to play better than last week. If we play like that, we’ll come away with a win.”