It was a Brownstown Specialty of the House. Just like the reliability of your favorite menu item when you drop by the neighborhood diner, the Brownstown Central football team provided what the fans expected Friday night.
Running up 456 yards rushing and 527 total offensive yards, the Braves moved to 2-0 on the season with a 50-8 thrashing of visiting Eastern (Pekin) at Blevins Memorial Stadium.
From their first possession until the clock mercifully ran out at high speed — the game was played with running time after the Braves built a 35-point lead — the Braves meant business.
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And when Brownstown talks business, the setting is the line of scrimmage. While ball carriers reveled in collecting notable statistics, they knew who to thank.
“The linemen did a great job,” said back Lucas Hines, who scored two touchdowns, “and the backs did our job.”
It was forward march at all times for Brownstown when the ball was snapped. The Braves showed no hospitality to the visitors, leading 14-0 after the first quarter and 28-0 at halftime.
When the Braves emerged from intermission to score another TD on possession, the game clock switched to running time. Teams with the low score do not rebound when they find themselves in that predicament.
That made the second half gallop by, and coach Reed May went to his bench early and often.
While the Braves established clear control of the line of scrimmage, this was the type of scenario 0-3 Eastern has encountered all season. The Musketeers have not had much chance to swashbuckle, They previously lost 49-0 to West Washington and 48-8 to Clarksville.
As evidence of how stingy the Braves were on the defensive line, as well as how forceful they were on the offensive side, Eastern gained just 13 yards on the ground.
“Our linemen dominated,” said Brownstown quarterback Kiernan Tiemeyer.
If there was a flaw in the Braves’ performance — and coaches will always find some behavior to point out as less-than-perfect behavior — the home team did commit too many penalties that in a close match could have been bothersome.
“We definitely had some mistakes,” Tiemeyer said.
Eastern might have wished for a few more errors, but none of those errors amounted to much.
The offense shared the ball, which meant sharing the wealth. If a Brave got the chance to lug the pigskin, that gave him a chance to score because the holes that were accessible were both handy and large.
Hines had gains of 25, 29 and 58 yards and amassed 160 yards on the ground. Whenever Jayden Steinkamp ran right, he seemed to turn that turf into his personal property. He totaled 73 yards rushing on just five carries, not a heavy day’s work.
Nicholas Robbins, always a threat to haul a punt back all the way, scored two touchdowns, both on 11-yard runs. Eli Wischmeier scored on a 2-yard run.
It was a comfortable evening, the type of weather called excellent for football and the game really sped along because most plays were ground plays and because of that running clock that automatically kicks in for Indiana High School Athletic Association football once a lead reaches 35 points.
Tiemeyer’s arm was not needed much in the passing game, but he found Brandon Reynolds free twice. Reynolds’ biggest catch of the day, however, was an interception thrown by Musketeer Nathan Teusch.
While Teusch handed off in futility and could not do much more damage with his feet than his running backs could, Eastern’s biggest play was on a breakaway completion to Justin Carr late in the third quarter.
It was second-and-10 from the Eastern 29-yard-line when Teusch saw Carr edging behind the defense. Carr gathered in the throw for 71 yards and six points.
But it was already 42-6, and that didn’t even dent Brownstown’s sense of control.