BROWNSTOWN — The beat goes on for Brownstown Central’s football team.

The Braves (3-0) demolished Eastern (Pekin), 62-0, on Friday night as the defense turned in another superlative performance.

Combined with last week’s 55-0 win against Charlestown, BC recorded consecutive shutouts for just the 12th time in the program’s 60-year history. In last week’s game, the Braves set a school record by limiting Charlestown to minus-23 total offensive yards.

On Friday, Eastern (1-2) finished with negative-5 yards of total offense on 35 plays.

“Our defense is pretty good, and we’re getting better,” Brownstown head coach Reed May said. “We’ve got some kids flying around and we’ve got good up-front people. Eastern actually came out in something different. They came out in a shotgun and they ran our wedge play against us a few times. Their fullback, Brayden Jones, is a good hard runner, but their big lineman (6-foot-9, 330-pound senior Aidan Miller) was out, so that hurt them. But, yeah, we played good defense tonight.”

Brownstown recorded back-to-back shutouts last season against Eastern and Salem. The 1969 Braves remain the only team in program history to achieve three consecutive shutouts.

“We have a lot of returning starters from the past couple years,” senior defensive lineman Joe Roberts said. “Almost three-fourths of our defense played last year. Me, Isaac (Hutchinson) and Owen (Wischmeier) have been playing since we were freshmen. We all work together. We do off-season workouts together. It’s just a lot of teamwork, a lot of family.”

Roberts and his teammates had regular reunions in Eastern’s backfield throughout Friday’s contest. The Braves stopped Eastern runners for zero or negative yardage 13 times. The Musketeers’ 29 rush attempts netted negative-8 yards.

The good work extended to special teams. On Eastern’s first punt, just three minutes into the first quarter, Roberts broke through the line and blocked Cody Banet’s kick. Wischmeier recovered the loose ball and appeared to return it for a touchdown but was ruled out of bounds at Eastern’s three yard line.

Roberts’ block set up BC’s first score of the night, a one-yard plunge by fullback Evan Stahl.

The Braves’ offense never looked back. Jack Pace scored on a 14-yard TD run and Gregory Hutcheson followed with a three-yard run, the first of his three touchdowns.

Brownstown’s fifth possession featured two highlight-reel plays. The first came on a run by Preston Garrison who pirouetted twice to avoid tacklers and turned a would-be short play into a 17-yard gain. On the next snap, a well-run stop-and-go route by receiver Easton Branaman and a perfect-touch pass by quarterback Micah Sheffer resulted in a 33-yard score.

Sheffer later backed up that throw by finding tight end Lane Pendleton, who got behind Eastern’s defense, with a 27-yard TD pass.

The junior QB ended the night with two TDs and 83 yards on 4-for-6 passing. With BC’s stout defense and productive running game, Sheffer knows adding an effective passing game could be a key ingredient as the team progresses.

“Whenever you can do both things, pass and run the ball, great things happen,” Sheffer said. “That’s when you get (deep tournament) runs is when you can pass the ball. So being able to add that to our arsenal, I think that will really help us. The more we play, the more weeks we get into it, it just comes more naturally. Every day, we’re throwing routes. The more time we get with our receivers, we get a better connection.”

For good measure, Sheffer showed off his blocking ability on a third-quarter 60-yard touchdown run by Hutcheson, who expertly used Sheffer’s lead to evade Eastern defenders along the right sideline.

Hutcheson ended with his second 100-yard game of the season, running for 124 yards on just seven attempts. The Braves finished with 308 yards on the ground and 391 yards of total offense.

Brownstown’s 41-0 lead at halftime forced the mercy-rule running clock during the second half for the third time this season. Despite fast-paced third and fourth quarters, the Braves added scoring runs by Hunter Toppe (35 yards) and Domanik Cody (11 yards).

With 171 points scored, BC is off to its best-ever offensive start three games into a season (the 2013 team scored 167). The Braves have outscored their opponents by 151 points so far this season, also tops in program history after three games (the 2001 team’s point differential was 134).

Of course, BC’s opponents thus far have a modest combined record of 2-7, a message May stressed last week as his team prepared for Eastern.

“I told the kids before the game, we’re not focusing on Eastern. We’re not focusing on anybody else. We’re focusing on us,” May said. “If we take care of us, then we’ll get better for the tournament.”

According to Roberts, that message has been received.

“We’re trying to just worry about sectionals. It’s been since 2018 since we last won one,” Robert said. “Our regular season isn’t the toughest around, so we’re focused on sectionals and getting better every week.”

Braves 62, Musketeers 0

Eastern (1-2);0;0;0;0;—;0

Brownstown Central (3-0);14;27;21;0;—;62

First quarter

BC-Evan Stahl 1 run (Nathaniel Conyer kick), 8:54

BC-Jack Pace 14 run (Conyer kick), 6:21

Second quarter

BC-Gregory Hutcheson 3 run (kick failed), 10:18

BC-Easton Branaman 33 pass from Micah Sheffer (Conyer kick), 7:51

BC-Hutcheson 7 run (Conyer kick), 3:47

BC-Lane Pendleton 27 pass from Sheffer (Conyer kick), :59

Third quarter

BC-Hutcheson 60 run (Conyer kick), 11:00

BC-Hunter Toppe 35 run (Conyer kick), 6:20

BC-Domanik Cody 11 run (Conyer kick), :15

INDIVIDUAL BC STATISTICS

Rushing: Eastern-Brayden Jones 6-25, Cody Banet 6-3, Christian Reschar 1-3, Cordell Hurst 2-2, Liam Moore 1-(-5), Marty Lewen 2-(-6), Eli Houghlin 3-(-7), Kaleb Bongibault 5-(-8), Garrett Dickey 2-(-15), Totals 28-(-8). Brownstown-Hutcheson 7-124, Pace 6-57, Toppe 1-35, Junior Miller 2-23, Landon Ault 1-22, Preston Garrison 3-19, Cody 1-11, Isaac Hampton 2-10, Prather Peters 3-8, Trevor Branaman 2-6, Stahl 2-5, Sheffer 1-(-12), Totals 31-308.

Passing: Eastern-Banet 1 for 5, 3 yards; Hurst 0 for 1. Brownstown-Sheffer 4 for 6, 83 yards, 2 touchdown.

Receiving: Eastern-Brody Temple 1-3. Brownstown-E. Branaman 1-33, Pendleton 2-32, Hutcheson 1-18.