BROWNSTOWN — Brownstown Central’s football team took care of a second consecutive take-care-of-business game with a 47-0 victory over Salem on Friday night. The win followed a similarly lopsided result against Eastern (Pekin) the week before.
Now comes the fun part.
The Braves (4-0) take on a tough North Harrison squad next week and then face a high-flying Seymour offense the week after in contests that figure to liven up after-school practices.
“The next two games are pretty big for our conference and for our rivalry,” BC head coach Reed May said. “The kids will be focused. They may not have been focused the last couple of weeks, but they’ll be focused now.”
Salem actually got the Braves’ attention at the start of Friday’s game. The Lions (0-4) received the opening kickoff and proceeded to pick apart BC’s defense, moving 59 yards on nine plays.
The Braves’ defense recovered, however, when Salem quarterback Adam Mull tried to force a pass into double coverage. Brownstown’s Preston Garrison tipped the pass and teammate Chick Tiemeyer secured the ball for an interception in the end zone.
“(Salem head coach Brian Glesing) is a good coach and he took advantage of some of the things we were doing,” May said. “We had to make an adjustment during the game. After that, our defense started playing really well. Even though they were moving the ball, they weren’t scoring.”
Indeed, after the Lions’ solid start, the rest of the game belonged to the Braves.
BC’s offense scored on all four of its first-half possessions while generating 279 offensive yards. The Braves then scored on their first three drives of the second half, setting off the mercy-rule running clock for the third time this season.
Brownstown’s offense finished with 503 total yards, including 384 on the ground.
Quarterback Micah Sheffer continued to stretch his arm, throwing for a season-high 119 yards and two touchdowns on 7-for-8 passing.
Sheffer’s first aerial TD was a 42-yard strike to senior Hudson Fritz down the left side line. The second TD throw was even prettier, with Sheffer lofting a pass to the far corner where Fritz fought off his defender with his right arm while catching the ball with his left.
Enhancing the satisfaction of the second Sheffer-to-Fritz touchdown was its context: a two-minute drill that the Braves needed just 72 seconds to complete. The drive covered 80 yards in just six plays and didn’t require a timeout.
“That’s something you want to work on because in big games you may need it,” May said. “Fritz made a helluva catch in the end zone. Fritz is a great track runner who hasn’t played a lot of football. So every week he gets better and better. That was a good catch for him. It was a confidence builder, and it was a confidence builder for Sheffer. That will help us down the road.”
The second scoring pass gave BC a 28-point lead with just 28 seconds left in the first half.
In between Fritz’s touchdowns, the Braves relied on the run game. Following a 24-yard run by Garrison and a 19-yard jaunt by Gregory Hutcheson, Sheffer sneaked in from a yard out to push Brownstown ahead, 14-0, with two minutes left in the second quarter.
BC’s third TD was set up by 11- and 10-yard runs by Lane Zike, followed by a seven-yard scoring run by Isiaah Engle on a double handoff.
In the second half, Brownstown got touchdown runs from Chick Tiemeyer (16 yards), Hutcheson (34) and Trey Sweany (27).
Defensively, the Braves recorded their second consecutive shutout for the first time since 2014 when BC blanked Corydon, 31-0, in the regular-season finale and then did the same to Washington, 74-0, in the opening round of the sectional.
Brownstown has achieved consecutive shutouts just 11 times in its 59-season, 625-game history. The program record is three straight by the 1969 team that authored six shutouts in that season’s 10 games.
Owen Wischmeier led the Braves with seven tackles, including three for loss. Grant Killey ended with five tackles and two sacks. Joe Roberts and Hutcheson also add tackles for loss, while Ernest Harrison tallied a fumble recovery late in the fourth quarter.
Friday’s win is the 295th of May’s career as the 31-year coach inches closer to the 300-win milestone.
Braves;47
Lions;0
Salem (0-4);0;0;0;0;—;0
Brownstown Central (4-0);14;14;13;6;—;47
Score Sheet:
First quarter
BC-Hudson Fritz 42 pass from Micah Sheffer (Bryce Peak kick), 6:50
BC-Sheffer 1 run (Peak kick), 2:34
Second quarter
BC-Isiaah Engle 11 run (Peak kick), 8:03
BC-Fritz 20 pass from Sheffer (Peak kick), :28
Third quarter
BC-Chick Tiemeyer 16 run (kick failed), 9:00
BC-Gregory Hutcheson 34 run (Peak kick), 6:40
Fourth quarter
BC-Trey Sweany 27 run (kick failed), 8:30
INDIVIDUAL BC STATISTICS
Rushing: Hutcheson 4-80, Preston Garrison 4-66, Engle 5-53, Lane Zike 4-44, Sweany 3-36, Tiemeyer 3-28, Landon Ault 2-26, Sheffer 3-19, Brock Dean 1-13, Hunter Toppe 1-8, Trevor Branaman 3-5, Jack Pace 1-4, Evan Stahl 1-2, Team 36-384.
Passing: Sheffer 7 for 8, 119 yards, 2 touchdowns.
Receiving: Fritz 3-83, Tiemeyer 2-21, Grayson Cassidy 1-11, Zike 1-4.