Few teams in Indiana welcomed the arrival of the postseason tournament as enthusiastically as Brownstown Central’s football team.

After barreling through an undefeated regular season – a campaign that featured a shutout of county rival Seymour and an outright Mid-Southern Conference title – the Braves are now eagerly focused on their next goal: the program’s first sectional title since 2018.

The six-year drought is the longest BC has endured between sectional crowns since winning the first of its 13 titles in 1995.

“For the last three years, I’ve been saying, ‘We haven’t won it since 2018,’” Brownstown head coach Reed May said. “All winter they heard that, so it’s embedded in their minds. It’s kind of a thorn in our side. Now, a lot of it had to do with being in Lawrenceburg’s sectional and then being with Triton Central the last two years. It’s not like we’ve been beat by easy teams.”

To win the Class 2A Sectional 40 tournament, the Braves will have to defeat the field’s best or hottest teams.

The road starts at 7:30 p.m. this Friday when Brownstown travels for a first-ever meeting with Switzerland County, a young program that started varsity competition in 2015 but just completed its best-ever regular season with a 6-3 record.

If the Braves get past the Pacers, they will likely have a semifinal showdown with Top 10-ranked Paoli (9-0). If they survive and advance to the final, they will likely face either Tell City (4-5), which was ranked for much of the season, or long-time conference rival Salem (4-5), which will have a five-game winning streak if it reaches the final.

Of course, preview-story speculation is meaningless. The Braves’ first task is Switzerland County.

“They’re 6-3, so they’re a team that obviously has won some games,” May said. “It’s an hour, 40-minute bus ride and it’s a 7:30 game. It’s also a grass field and we haven’t played too much on grass this season. So there are some variables that you have to weigh into it. Hopefully we go down there and take care of business.”

Since starting up in 2013, the Pacers’ program has had one head coach, Ryan Jesop. A former wide receiver, defensive back and kicker at Evansville Reitz who later preferred-walked on at Ball State, Jesop has watched his teams progress through the walk-before-you-can-run stages. Last season, the Pacers won their first sectional game.

“We played junior varsity for a year and then jumped into varsity,” Jesop said. “It was too much too fast. But all the hard work that we put into the youth leagues, those players have finally matriculated to the high school. Having players that move instinctually, it’s a night and day difference. I’m hoping that I’m the losingest coach in Switzerland County history. We hope to someday get to the level that Coach May has brought Brownstown to.”

Football recently took a back seat in Jesop’s life when he volunteered to donate a kidney to Brian Craig, a long-time friend. The procedure occurred in May and forced Jesop to take a step back this season as he has recovered.

“My liver took a lot of punishment those first few years of coaching football in Switzerland County, but somehow my kidneys were still okay,” Jesop joked. “It took about a month for me to feel better. I equate (the surgery) to a really hard (abdominal) workout as far as the pain. But energy-level and blood-pressure issues came along with it and caused me to take a backseat. I turned the heavy yelling over to my assistant coaches.”

Jesop’s team responded to his calmer demeanor. The Pacers scored 31.7 points per game while the defense allowed just 13.8. Both are easily the best marks in the program’s history.

“This season was kind of a turning point” Jesop said. “We feel like we’re about to turn in the right direction where six wins is just an average season, not one that we’re going to hang our hats on. But, you know, it’s baby steps.”

Jesop said his offense is run-heavy, employing a double-wing formation that will look familiar to Brownstown fans.

“Finesse is not our deal,” Jesop said. “Our kids grew up on rural farms and aren’t afraid to push and move things. We have kids that are gritty runners.”

The Pacers’ running attack consists of junior quarterback Alex Bailey (5-foot-9, 165 pounds), junior wings Keaton Mosley (5-10, 175) and Matt Young (6-0, 165), and junior fullback Kolvin Beck (6-0, 195). Beck is a sectional champion hurdler who Jesop called a legitimate college prospect.

On average, Switzerland County’s offensive linemen are 6-foot-2, 223 pounds, highlighted by sophomore left tackle Corbin Craig, who is 6-4, 240. He’s joined by senior left guard Mike Woods (5-10, 226), freshman center Grayson Levell (6-3, 220), senior right guard Trevor Reed (6-4, 250) and junior right tackle Ezra Gray (6-1, 180).

Defensively, Jesop said, the Pacers run a 4-3 with most of the offensive starters turning around to play defense.

“That tends to hurt us when we play teams the size of Brownstown Central in the second half, for sure,” Jesop said.

SC’s defense is anchored by linebackers Hunter Smith (senior, 6-3, 175) and Ethan Weaver (junior, 6-1, 160), and by Young at the safety/rover position.

May said last week’s preparation for Scottsburg will help Brownstown this week against Switzerland County.

“The good thing is we worked against 4-3 all last week,” May said. “By this time of year, you’ve kind of worked on about everything and your kids should be pretty well adapted. Our linemen are pretty experienced kids. They’ve seen about everything.”

Few teams will enter the postseason more confident than Brownstown. The Braves knocked down every challenge put before them during the regular season. Their closest game was the 27-point shutout of Seymour.

Brownstown’s offense (46.8 points per game) and scoring defense (6.9) each rank sixth in the state. The offense has relied on the run game but has been effective throwing the ball when necessary.

Behind an offensive line consisting of senior left tackle Jaden Disque (6-2, 225), junior left guard Sloan Stuckwisch (6-1, 235), junior center Drew Shelton (6-2, 245), senior right guard Jairdyn Kiser (5-9, 235) and junior right tackle Ty Brown (6-0, 225), the Braves have run for 2,768 yards (307.6 per game) and 48 touchdowns this season.

Senior slotback Gregory Hutcheson leads BC’s running attack with 1,059 yards and 19 touchdowns on just 93 carries (11.4 average). Juniors Jack Pace (326 yards, seven TDs), who may be available after nursing an ankle injury, and Trevor Branaman (299 yards, five TDs) follow.

The Braves also look to junior Preston Garrison (274 yards, four TDs), junior Evan Stahl (195 yards, four TDs) and sophomore Brock Dean (103 yards, two TDs) in the running game.

Junior quarterback Micah Sheffer has run for 219 yards while also throwing for 663 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception on 37-for-67 passing (55 percent). His favorite targets are senior wide out Easton Branaman (16 receptions, 265 yards, three TDs) and junior tight end Lane Pendleton (nine catches, 171 yards, two TDs).

Brownstown’s defense, meanwhile, has been outstanding. The Braves allowed just nine touchdowns and recorded three shutouts during the nine-game regular season and, thus far, have put forth the best scoring defense since the 1979 team’s 7.0 average.

The defensive line is composed of senior Cameron Markel (6-0, 200), junior Joe Roberts (6-2, 255), junior Isaac Hutchinson (6-5, 285) and junior Caden Wischmeier (5-11, 200). They’re backed by Stahl (5-9, 170) and Branaman (5-10, 170) in the outside linebacker positions and junior Grayson Cassidy (5-11, 190) at middle linebacker.

BC’s defensive backfield consists of senior Roshaun Hehman (6-0, 175), junior Jaxson Johnson (5-11, 150), Garrison (5-9, 145) and Dean (6-1, 155).

As it has all season, Brownstown remained well-regarded in the final Class 2A polls. The Braves will head into the postseason ranked No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll, No. 2 in the USA Today poll, No. 3 in the coaches poll and No. 3 among Class 2A teams in the Sagarin Ratings.

Switzerland County is unranked in the human-based polls and is rated No. 45 in the Class 2A Sagarin Ratings. In the overall Sagarin Ratings, regardless of class, Brownstown is rated 57th (up from 73rd last week) while Switzerland County is 233rd.