Brownstown Central’s Kiernan Tiemeyer runs past Scottsburg defenders last Friday. Brownstown and Scottsburg will meet again this Friday to open sectional play.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
Brownstown Central’s Carson Darlage runs past Scottsburg defenders last Friday. Brownstown and Scottsburg will meet again this Friday to open sectional play.
Jeff Lubker | For The Tribune
Brownstown Central head coach Reed May tells his seniors they are only guaranteed one game left in their high school careers.
The Braves have 16 seniors on the roster this season — every single one has played a big role in the team’s 9-0 regular-season record — and this Friday could be their last high school game or it could be the beginning of an exciting postseason run.
Brownstown opens sectional play Friday night with a home game against Scottsburg at 7 p.m.
“You win, you move on. You lose, you pack up and go home,” May said. “You’re only guaranteed this Friday, so the finality of it is there.”
May stresses to his players that football is the one sport that it is very unlikely to play again. Kids can always play intramural basketball or soccer, you name it, but unless someone is going to college for football, it’s rare to put the pads on again after high school.
That being in mind, May wants his seniors and all of his players to enjoy this season the Braves are having right now.
Brownstown hasn’t lost a game yet, and the team has only been held under 40 points twice this season. The Braves have outscored their opponents 391-187 en route to winning the Mid-Southern Conference outright.
The latest casualty to Brownstown’s offensive attack was, ironically enough, Scottsburg last Friday on the road. The Braves hung 42 points on the Warriors in a 14-point victory to close out the regular season.
“I think we moved the ball pretty good,” May said. “We were up and down the field.”
One of the negatives on the offensive side of the ball was when Brownstown was leading 35-21, driving the ball down the field once again to go up 42-21, but the Braves fumbled the ball.
May said that hurt his team and allowed Scottsburg to continue its game plan as opposed to putting the Warriors in an uncomfortable position down 21.
“We‘ve got to eliminate those things to play better Friday night,” May said.
Scottsburg likes to run a spread offense, where it can throw the ball a lot but also take advantage of the run with both the quarterback and running back.
The Warriors scored on their first three possessions last Friday, and May wasn’t happy with the Braves’ defense.
“We weren’t happy at all,” May said. “Give them credit. They did an excellent job executing their offense. They kept us off balance. They did some things they haven’t shown before, but defensively, we need to play a lot better if we’re going to be successful in the tournament.”
Film is a big part of Brownstown’s preparation, and now, the film they have of Scottsburg is one that is against their own team.
But every game isn’t going to be the same. Both teams are going to try to add in new wrinkles to catch the other team off guard. Even though Brownstown came out on top last week, it’s never easy in football to defeat a team twice in one season, especially in back-to-back weeks.
“The hardest thing is to beat a team twice in one year,” May said. “Tough situation to beat a team back-to-back.”
Brownstown is 57-38 all time in the postseason dating back to 1977. The Braves have 13 sectional championships in program history and three regional championships.
Brownstown hopes to get win No. 58 in the postseason this Friday to keep its season alive and advance to the following week.