Undisciplined Owls gut out win over Jennings County

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NORTH VERNON

By any means necessary.

It took a little more scratching and clawing but the Seymour Owls kept their unbeaten record intact on Friday night. A disjointed effort by both the Owls and Jennings County, as well as a myriad of penalties from both teams, told the story of Friday night’s Hoosier Hills Conference showdown.

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Still, the Owls overcame another slow start and 17 penalties to gut out a 42-21 over Jennings County.

Though Seymour remains unblemished, coach Mike Kelly was not happy with the faults committed by his team. All told, the Owls committed more than 200 yards worth of penalties, three of which nullified touchdowns while others set up the Panthers for good chances to score.

And these were not five-yard penalties committed by the Owls.

Of the 17 accepted infractions, 13 resulted in a loss — or a Panthers’ gain — of 10 yards or more. It’s a far cry from the week before against Madison when the Owls were penalized just three times for 15 yards.

“To come out tonight and have that kind of performance was frustrating to say the least,” Kelly said. “We took 14 or 21 points off the board because of penalties and moving down the road we can’t do that to be successful.”

There were 25 penalties called in the game, only eight were called against Jennings County.

Defensively, the Owls had no answer for the Panthers’ Jared Corya, who torched the Seymour secondary for more than 150 yards receiving and two touchdowns.

Jennings County isolated the Seymour cornerbacks, found No. 81 and tossed up the ball and hoped he’d come down with it.

More often than not he did.

“Jennings County has a great offense,” Kelly said. “That [run-pass option] they have was run really well by their quarterback.”

In the middle of all of the mishaps and miscues, the Owls found a lot of bright spots in the new two-headed monster of Chandler Drummond and Colin Greathouse.

The duo accounted for over 300 yards of rushing with Drummond churning out 214 and Greathouse carrying the ball 12 times for 100 yards and two touchdowns. It’s the fourth straight game for Drummond where he’s rushed for more than 100 yards.

Greathouse got a few snaps last week against the Cubs but really had more added to workload this week. That’s going to be a big boost to the Owl offense going forward as they’ll be able to give Drummond some extra chances to catch a break.

“It gives us a great one-two punch,” Kelly said. “I really saw some great things from them tonight especially in the second half.”

Drummond and Greathouse each scored twice with three of their combined scores coming in the final six minutes of the fourth quarter. Those scores coupled with a game-clinching interception from Drew Schroeder sealed the win for the Owls.

Going back to last year’s season finale against Madison, Friday’s win over Jennings County puts the Owls’ regular-season winning streak at five. It’s the longest regular-season winning streak for the Owls since 2016.

The Owls will look to keep up their winning ways when they finally return home to face HHC rival Bedford North Lawrence at 7 p.m. Seymour lost to the Stars last year, 27-19, in Bedford. The teams have split their last two meetings since Kelly took over at Seymour. The Stars lost to Madison 21-20 in Bedford on Friday.

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Owls;42

Panthers;21

Seymour (4-0);0;21;0;21 — 42

Jennings County (1-3);7;7;0;7 — 21

First Quarter

JC-Lance Bailey 80-yard pass to Jared Corya (Jaydan Vanosdol kick good), 5:50

Second Quarter

S-Brendan Smith 25-yard pass to Brayden Barker (Joshua Guevara kick good), 11:53

JC-Bailey 32 pass to Corya (Vanosdol kick good), 6:13

S-Colin Greathouse 10-yard run (Guevara kick good), 4:32

S-Smith 2 run (Guevara kick good), 0:41

Fourth Quarter

JC-Bailey 2 run (Vanosdol kick good), 11:56

S-Drummond 21 run (Guevara kick failed), 6:31

S-Colin Greathouse 8 run (Smith 2-pt conversion good), 4:02

S-Drummond 38 run (Guevara kick good), 3:14

INDIVIDUAL SHS STATISTICS

Rushing: Drummond 23-214-2, Smith 10-49-1, Colin Greathouse 12-100-2

Passing: Smith 5-12-61-1

Receiving: Brayden Barker 3-34-1, Ryan Elmore 1-10, Drew Vehslage 1-17

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