Nate Schneider
Sports Scene
Down by 20 points in the fourth quarter of the Division 6 state championship game at Ford Field on Nov. 24, Ithaca senior quarterback Joey Bentley walked over to his head coach on the sideline and had a to-the-point message.
Yellowjackets head coach Terry Hessbrook says Bentley simply stated to him, ‘I’m about to go off.’
Bentley was true to his word as he threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Colton Campbell on the next drive, while a 17-yard TD toss to Adam Culp at the 2:27 mark brought Ithaca to within a six-point deficit.
Only a failed onside kick attempt and a lack of any timeouts left kept Bentley off the field, where it seems very likely he would have manufactured the game-winning TD drive as well if given the chance.
In the fourth quarter alone in the 40-34 loss to Jackson Lumen Christi, he was 8-of-14 passing for 180 yards and three touchdowns.
For his efforts in the state title game and the entire body of his work this season, Bentley is the High School Sports Scene Division 5-8 Player of the Year.
“The feeling we have is to always play as hard as you can,” Bentley said in the post-game press conference. “I’m very proud of my teammates for doing that. Unfortunately, we didn’t finish the way we wanted to but I’m so proud of these guys and everything we’ve done together.”
Bentley’s numbers this season were nothing short of phenomenal. He rushed 182 times this season out of the spread for 1,656 yards and 27 touchdowns. Additionally, Bentley completed 137-of-221 passes for 2,144 yards and 31 touchdowns against seven interceptions.
He guided the Yellowjackets to 602 total points this season, which comes out to an average of 43 per game.
“We’ve had some fantastic quarterbacks here and Joey’s one of the best quarterbacks we’ve had – there’s no doubt about that,” Hessbrook offered. “I don’t want to get into a numbers game and rank the quarterbacks we’ve had, but I’d put him right up there with any we’ve had.”
It was only a couple days before the state title game that Bentley found out that despite being a Division 5-6 First Team All-State selection, he lost out on AP D5-6 Player of the Year to Essexville-Garber’s Ben VanSumeren.
Hessbrook says losing out on the Player of the Year award didn’t motivate Bentley any more than he already was.
“Joey is not the kind of kid to be worried about that,” Hessbrook said. “He was motivated because he wanted to win the football game and win the state championship in his final high school football game.”
“As good of a football player as Joey is, he’s an even better person. He’s a winner. He wasn’t today, but he will be in life.I gave him a big hug and a kiss after the game and told him how proud of him I am.”