Brownstown’s Joe Roberts (66) forced the fumble and recovered it for the Braves on Friday night in the sectional win over Paoli.
BC’s Greg Hutcheson runs free for the Braves on Friday night in the sectional win over Paoli.
Brownstown’s Preston Garrison ran this play over 50 yards and for a touchdown on Friday night in the sectional win over Paoli.
BC’s Brock Dean carries the ball for the team on Friday night in the sectional win over Paoli.
BC Quarterback Micah Sheffer scrambles for the Braves on Friday night in the sectional win over Paoli.
BC’s Greg Hutcheson follows his blockers on Friday night in the sectional win over Paoli.
BROWNSTOWN — A relentless run offense allowed Brownstown Central’s football team to wear down and defeat a feisty Paoli squad, 48-25, in the Class 2A Sectional 40 semifinal on Friday night.
The Braves ran for 464 yards, their best showing since a 521-yard effort against Salem seven weeks ago. Three different runners topped the 100-yard mark, led by junior Preston Garrison’s season-high 141 yards on nine carries.
Junior quarterback Micah Sheffer also had his season-best running game, finishing with 131 yards on 14 carries. Senior Gregory Hutcheson, meanwhile, enjoyed his sixth 100-yard performance with 119 yards on 13 attempts.
Garrison and Hutcheson each scored three touchdowns while Sheffer crossed the goal line once.
“At halftime, I told our offensive linemen, ‘We’ve got to attack, attack, attack,’” Brownstown head coach Reed May said. “We wanted to keep pounding them. Eventually, I think we wore them down. They had nine guys playing both ways, which is tough.”
Paoli coach Neil Dittmer said May’s plan worked as the second half wore on.
“At the end of that third quarter, you could just kind of see we got gassed,” Dittmer said. “(Brownstown) exposed us on that quite a bit in the fourth quarter. They just kind of leaned on us and put it to us.”
With Friday’s victory, the Braves earned a spot in next week’s Sectional 40 championship game where they’ll take on Tell City (6-5), a 30-16 winner over Salem in the other semifinal matchup. Brownstown will travel to Tell City hoping to win its first sectional title since 2018.
Of course, next week’s final was a distant thought for the Braves for much of Friday’s contest. Early penalties and two first-half turnovers aided an early surge by Paoli and pulled BC into the kind of dogfight it has rarely experienced this season.
After scoring the game’s first touchdown on a 10-yard run by Hutcheson and forcing Paoli into a three-and-out punt on its first drive, BC’s Sheffer threw just his second interception of the season after being hit on a first-down pass.
Brownstown’s defense appeared to contain the damage, but Paoli running back Dane Padgett’s 53-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-4 play shifted the game’s momentum and narrowed the score to 7-6.
On the ensuing kickoff, Brownstown’s Lindan Lanier lost control of the ball on his return and the Rams recovered the fumble at BC’s 27. Padgett again found the end zone, this time on a 21-yard run, to push Paoli in front 13-7.
The deficit was just the second faced by the Braves all season. Six weeks ago, North Harrison enjoyed a brief 3-0 second-quarter lead before BC sailed to a 41-3 win.
“We just had to face reality,” BC junior offensive lineman Drew Shelton said of seeing his team fall behind. “Our coaches had a great game plan, we just had to execute it. We felt like we were the better team and we knew what we were capable of.”
Hoping to grind down Paoli’s two-way players, May committed the Braves to the run. Of their 53 offensive plays, 45 were on the ground. In the second quarter, BC regained a 14-13 lead by running the ball nine times on a 10-play drive that Hutcheson capped with a 13-yard run.
Brownstown’s defense, stout against the run all year, frustrated Paoli’s potent triple-option ground attack. The Rams entered Friday’s contest averaging over 360 rush yards per game. The Braves limited them to a season-low 173 on 48 carries (3.6 per carry).
“All summer, we did a thing called ‘No Ball,’ where we worked on the dive, the quarterback, the pitch and the play-action pass without a ball,” May said. “We also did it last week and felt like our option defense was pretty good.”
Senior defensive tackle Joe Roberts said that preparation paid off.
“We have a great coach and we’ve been practicing (defending the triple option) for a long time,” Roberts said. “We all have specific rules. In practice, if you make the wrong step, you run a 100-yard dash. We knew (Paoli) was going to have some breakout plays. They’re a good team. They’re 10-0 for a reason. Our goal was to limit them.”
The Braves kept the Rams scoreless on three straight possessions after falling behind. When Garrison broke off a 35-yard touchdown run on BC’s first drive of the third quarter, it gave the Braves just enough separation at 21-13 to force Paoli to chase them on the scoreboard the rest of the game.
Stymied, Paoli abandoned its run game in favor of a pass-centric spread offense and got an immediate response. The Rams scored on another fourth-down conversion, this time fourth-and-9, when quarterback Cole Fletcher connected with Padgett on a 54-yard scoring pass.
On its next possession, Paoli struck again, orchestrating a 50-yard TD pass from quarterback Cooper Spires to Trey Minton that kept the Rams within reach.
The Braves kept scoring, however. Hutcheson scored BC’s fourth special teams touchdown of the season when he fielded Jareth Nunez’s kickoff at the 21 and returned it 79 yards for a score. Sheffer then scored on a 10-yard run to push BC in front, 35-25.
Teetering, Paoli’s spirit broke moments later when Roshaun Hehman intercepted Spires on BC’s 24 yard line with nine minutes left in the game.
Garrison, as he did last week with a 40-yard interception return, sealed the Braves’ win with a 65-yard touchdown run that increased the lead to 42-25. Garrison later closed out Brownstown’s scoring with a six-yard run.
“Our offense is like no one’s ever seen before,” Shelton said. “It’s hard to prepare for, and our slots run the ball so hard. It’s amazing seeing a big play break out. It’s awesome.”
Defensively, the Braves welcomed the return of middle linebacker Owen Wischmeier, who broke his right wrist against Salem seven weeks ago. Playing with a heavily wrapped right forearm, the junior finished with five tackles, including one for loss.
Jack Pace also returned after working through an ankle injury and, in addition to two tackles, sacked Paoli’s Cole for a key 12-yard loss. Juniors Grayson Cassidy and Isaac Hutchinson paced BC with six tackles each. Roberts, who recovered a fumble, and Hehman followed with five stops each.
While handing them their first loss of the season, the Braves held the Rams 18 points under their season average 43 points.
“The game was what I expected,” Paoli’s Dittmer said. “We were right there and had a chance. It was 14-13 at halftime, 28-25 to start the fourth quarter. (Brownstown) did what great teams do. They continued to play. I thought our kids fought all night long, we just didn’t quite get the job done.”
IHSAA Sectional Semifinal
Week 10 — Blevins Memorial Stadium
Braves 48, Rams 25
Paoli (10-1);13;0;12;0;—;25
Brownstown Central (11-0);7;7;14;20;—;48
First quarter
BC-Gregory Hutcheson 10 run (Nathaniel Conyer kick), 8:56
P-Dane Padgett 53 run (kick failed), 3:04
P-Padgett 21 run (Jareth Nunez kick), 1:30
Second quarter
BC-Hutcheson 13 run (Conyer kick), 7:07
Third quarter
BC-Preston Garrison 35 run (Conyer kick), 8:10
P-Padgett 54 pass from Fletcher Cole (run failed), 3:55
BC-Hutcheson 79 kickoff return (Conyer kick), 3:41
P-Trey Minton 50 pass from Cooper Spires (pass failed), 1:15
Fourth quarter
BC-Sheffer 10 run (Conyer kick), 10:15
BC-Garrison 65 run (Conyer kick), 8:20
BC-Garrison 6 run (kick failed), 4:14
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: Paoli-Padgett 12-125, Tyler Hannon 18-36, Minton 5-12, Spires 2-3, Willam Baker 1-3, Cole 10-(-6), Totals 48-173. Brownstown-Garrison 9-141, Sheffer 14-131, Hutcheson 13-119, Brock Dean 3-40, Grayson Cassidy 3-17, Lindan Lanier 1-8, Isaac Hampton 1-4, Landon Ault 1-4, Totals 45-464.
Passing: Paoli-Spires 6 for 11, 104 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception; Cole 2 for 4, 74 yards, 1 touchdown. Brownstown-Sheffer 4 for 8, 18 yards, 1 interception.
Receiving: Paoli-Padgett 2-73, Minton 2-66, Hannon 1-19, Baker 1-9, Cole 1-7, Justin Thornton 1-4. Brownstown-Garrison 2-8, Lane Pendleton 1-8, Cassidy 1-2.