Brownstown Central’s Kiernan Tiemeyer, left, gets forced out of bounds but not before setting up a touchdown during the first-round sectional game against Scottsburg at Brownstown on Oct. 22.
Greg Jones | For The Tribune
Brownstown Central’s Jake Pauley, right, runs the ball during the first-round sectional game against Scottsburg played at Brownstown on Oct. 22.
Greg Jones | For The Tribune
Brownstown Central’s Ryan Branaman, center, closes in on a quarterback sack during the first-round sectional game against Scottsburg played at Brownstown on Oct. 22.
Greg Jones | For The Tribune
Brownstown Central closed out its regular season with a 42-28 win over Scottsburg.
Head coach Reed May wasn’t happy with the way his team performed, and the Braves had a chance to redeem themselves last Friday during the first round of sectional when they played the Warriors again.
Brownstown dominated Scottsburg last week at home, shutting them out 41-0 to improve to 10-0 to advance in the postseason.
“I was very proud of our defense,” May said. “We improved quite a bit. More importantly, they just played with great intensity.”
When Brownstown wins and achieves objectives, the coaching staff gives out helmet stickers. Against Scottsburg two weeks ago, the defense earned zero stickers, but last week, the defense earned nine out of 10 stickers.
May credits defensive coach Shane Fallis for coming up with a good scheme and the players executing it.
Brownstown’s sectional semifinal matchup is this Friday at Batesville, a team they’ve played once before in 2018 in the sectional final, and the Braves came out on top.
The Bulldogs are 6-4 this season, but they play in a tough conference against a lot of solid opponents.
“Even though they’ve got four losses, two of those losses we probably would’ve had, too,” May said. “They played a really good schedule, and they’re a really good team. It’ll be a tough game.”
The Bulldogs run a similar offense to Scottsburg, where they like to air it out.
“They spread it out. They throw the ball,” May said. “They do a really good job with their offense.”
On the other side of the ball, the Bulldogs don’t run a real complicated defense, but they run and fly at the football.
Brownstown hopes to counter that with a lot of its motion and misdirection it does in the Wing-T formation.
“That’s the best thing about we do is we’re kind of unusual for them because no one else runs our offense,” May said. “We run an offense that’s hard to prepare for. All year, that has been a blessing for us, so hopefully, it’s a blessing Friday night.”
Batesville also has a grass field, and this Friday will just be the second time all season that Brownstown will be playing on grass.
The first time the Braves played on grass was at Scottsburg, which was the game May didn’t think his team performed all that well.
Brownstown is preparing for this by practicing on its grass practice field, and on Wednesday, May turned the sprinklers on so it was wet for practice, which the conditions for Friday forecast it to be wet and muddy.
“That’s something I’m concerned about,” May said. “I talked to the kids about it and told them you can’t let that affect you.”
The Braves and Bulldogs will kick off at 7 p.m. to determine who will advance to the sectional championship in Sectional 31. The other side of the bracket is Greensburg versus Lawrenceburg, which also square off Friday at 7 p.m.