1995 State Football Title Winner
Penn
Penn 35, Evansville North 13
Penn (14-0) won its first Class 5A state title and second football
state championship overall by claiming five Evansville North turnovers
and turning three into first-half scores to down the first-time
state finalist.
Fourth-ranked Penn was the Class 4A state champion in 1983 when
the IHSAA Football Tournament format consisted of four classes.
The Kingsmen were the Class 5A state runner-up in 1989 and 1991.
The Kingsmen, who entered the 1995 state tournament after extending
their state-record regular-season winning streak to 83 games,
were coached in all of their state finals appearances by Chris
Geesman.
Penn's opportunistic defense authored five shutouts during the
1995 season and Evansville North (13-1) was only the third team
to score two touchdowns. The Kingsmen finished the year at plus-36
in turnover ratio.
Penn built a 22-7 halftime lead as Josh Jordan ran for touchdowns
of five yards and one yard. Jordan added a six-yard rushing touchdown
early in the third quarter to give the Kingsmen a 28-6 advantage
that proved to be insurmountable for Evansville North. The fifth-ranked
Huskies were the first Evansville public school to reach the IHSAA
Football State Finals since Evansville Reitz in 1977.
Deke Cooper led Evansville North with 110 rushing yards, highlighted
by a 75-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. He also added
51 receiving yards on three catches.
The Executive Committee selected Matt Geesman of Penn High School
as the 1995 recipient of the Phil N. Eskew Award for Mental Attitude
in Class 5A Football. Geesman, the son of Penn Coach Chris Geesman
and the team's starting quarterback, ranked No. 1 academically
in his senior class. Farm Bureau Insurance, corporate sponsor
of all IHSAA tournaments, presented a $1,000 scholarship to Penn
High School in Geesman's name.
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