CORYDON—Gregory Hutcheson ran for a career-high 217 yards and added two touchdowns to lead Brownstown Central’s football team to a convincing 54-20 victory over host Corydon Central on Friday night.

Hutcheson, a senior, generated runs of 39, 61 and 71 yards to pace the Braves’ 388-yard rushing attack. Six of his 10 runs went for 10 or more yards.

“I just run as hard as I can,” Hutcheson said. “Our linemen always do a great job. Our fullback does a great job. Everybody blocks really well. I run as hard as I can, get to the open field and keep going.”

Hutcheson is nearly fully recovered from a summer basketball injury to his left shoulder, a circumstance that provided a strange boost to his production against Corydon. Not yet cleared to take up his linebacker duties on the defensive side of the ball, the 6-foot, 190-pounder conserved his energy for the offensive side.

“Greg ran the ball well today, and he was doing it last year as well,” BC head coach Reed May said. “He’s not released for defense yet, so we didn’t play him at all on defense and I’m not sure we’re going to. He’s a real physical kid and a hard runner. (Preston) Garrison’s a different type of runner. Jack (Pace) is a different type of runner. We’ve also got Brock Dean, (Trey) Sweaney, and Micah (Sheffer) can run. We have a lot of good running backs.”

Brownstown’s multifaceted running attack averaged 9.7 yards per carry on Friday and powered the Braves to eight touchdowns in their first nine possessions.

A defensive play kickstarted the Braves’ offensive onslaught. Junior linebacker Owen Wischmeier intercepted a pass by Corydon quarterback Bobby Sharp at the Panthers’ 16 and returned it to the 11.

Hutcheson quickly followed with a four-yard touchdown run to put BC on the scoreboard.

Sheffer (three-yard run) and Garrison (30 yards) added first-quarter TDs to expand Brownstown’s lead to 20-0.

Freshman Lindan Lanier came down with a contested catch on a well-thrown 18-yard pass by Sheffer in the corner of the end zone to swell the lead to 27-0. Hutcheson’s 71-yard burst set up a five-yard Sheffer scoring run before Hutcheson added his second TD to give BC a 40-6 halftime lead.

On the opening play of the second half, Hutcheson broke through for a 61-yard gain that led to a nine-yard Garrison touchdown run, a score that gave the Braves a 41-point lead and initiated the mercy-rule running clock.

Brock Dean closed out BC’s scoring with a 10-yard TD run that pushed the lead to 54-6.

Defensively, the Braves limited Corydon to minus-8 yards rushing on seven attempts. The Panthers’ offense leaned heavily on its passing game and managed to catch BC off-guard only once when speedy wideout Waylon Doblado got behind the secondary on a 67-yard pass play.

Corydon’s final two scores came after BC pulled its first-team defense.

“I thought our defense was pretty good tonight,” May said. “(Corydon) threw the ball a lot better this year. On the touchdown, we were blitzing and our DB (defensive back) is supposed to play cover zero. He did that, but he looked too long inside and (Doblado) blew by him. Part of it was his fault, but part of it was our blitz didn’t get to the quarterback.”

Joining Wischmeier with takeaways were Jaxson Johnson, who intercepted a Sharp pass, and Evan Stahl, who recovered a botched Corydon handoff. Isaac Hutchinson added a sack.

Pace led BC with five tackles, including one for loss. Garrison, Wischmeier, Cameron Markel and Roshaun Hehman also finished with tackles for loss.

Friday’s victory is the 19th consecutive season-opening win for the Braves, who have won 30 of 32 openers during May’s tenure. BC last lost an opening game in 2005 (to Mitchell, 22-20).

The win was also BC’s 13th straight over Corydon, the last loss coming in 2011 during the opening round of the sectional.

“It’s just the first step of the process,” Hutcheson said of his team’s victory. “We haven’t won a sectional since 2018, so we’ve been looking forward to this since last year’s Triton Central (loss). We knew we had to come out here and make a statement. We’ve got to keep building on top of it, keep winning games, and hopefully go all the way.”

Next week, Brownstown will host Charlestown, which dropped its season opener to Silver Creek, 41-26.

Braves 54, Panthers 20

Brownstown Central (1-0);20;20;14;0;—;54

Corydon Central (0-1);0;6;7;7;—;20

First quarter

BC-Gregory Hutcheson 4 run (Nathaniel Conyer kick), 9:45

BC-Micah Sheffer 3 run (kick failed), 6:33

BC-Preston Garrison 30 run (Conyer kick), 2:25

Second quarter

BC-Lindan Lanier 18 pass from Sheffer (Conyer kick), 10:04

C-Waylon Doblado 67 pass from Bobby Sharp (kick failed), 8:17

BC-Sheffer 5 run (Conyer kick), 7:18

BC-Hutcheson 2 run (kick failed), :29

Third quarter

BC-Garrison 9 run (Conyer kick), 11:36

BC-Brock Dean 10 run (Conyer kick), 6:10

C-Carson Lawyer 9 pass from Sharp (Bryce Gerlach kick), :06

Fourth quarter

C-Doblado 54 pass from Sharp (Gerlach kick), 2:07

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing: Brownstown-Hutcheson 10-217, Garrison 4-53, Sheffer 8-42, Trevor Branaman 5-20, Jack Pace 2-20, Dean 2-20, Landon Ault 3-9, Evan Stahl 1-7, Lanier 1-5, Eli Hutchinson 1-4, Isaac Hampton 1-1, Hunter Toppe 2-(-10), Team 40-388. Corydon-Lawyer 4-7, Sharp 3-(-15), Team 7-(-8).

Passing: Brownstown-Sheffer 5 for 10, 70 yards, 1 touchdown. Corydon-Sharp 12 for 26, 172 yards, 3 touchdowns, 2 interceptions.

Receiving: Brownstown-Lane Pendleton 2-28, Lanier 1-18, Easton Branaman 1-14, Hutcheson 1-10. Corydon-Doblado 5-134, Lawyer 6-29, Logan Scharrer 1-9.