GREENFIELD — A beautiful night for Hoosier Heritage Conference Football began with 3 skydivers gliding down to midfield during the National Anthem.
And then from the kickoff, Shelbyville quarterback Landon Watson demonstrated his multi-dimensional talents. The Golden Bears put three touchdowns on the board, all from the air, before Greenfield-Central could answer en route to a 41-14 win.
Greenfield-Central senior running back Braden Brown warded off a couple tackles and broke free for a 65-yard run to the end zone to get the Cougars going on homecoming night, but it wasn’t enough.
Greenfield-Central got on the board 21-7 thanks to Brown, but the first quarter score ended in favor of Shelbyville 27-7 after Sam Lewis hauled in a touchdown reception with less than a minute remaining.
The second quarter became more of a grudge match with both teams losing yards to penalties and turnovers. The only sack in the first half came from Greenfield-Central freshman linebacker Turk Faitele, when he brought down Watson for a loss of yards.
Both of Greenfield-Central’s turnovers resulted in Golden Bear touchdowns. Prior to the end of the first half, Greenfield-Central junior Jaden Brown tore his way up field for a long punt return to set the Cougars up for a Braden Brown touchdown to end the first half at 41-14.
The third quarter was a continual see-saw battle. Watson and Greenfield-Central quarterback Andrew Leslie each threw two interceptions, and each team had to punt it away on downs twice each.
The third quarter ended with the ball in the hands of the Cougars and assistant coach, Josh Holden, down on the sideline after an apparent collapse. Following a 15-minute delay and coach Holden alert as he was driven away by ambulance, the third quarter resumed and seconds later ended with the Golden Bears still ahead 41-14.
Shortly after the start of the final quarter, younger, less experienced players took the field and were able to gain some quality minutes in the game as the margin never changed.
“From top to bottom I don’t think we were prepared for this. I did not like our game plan and what we thought would work, didn’t, and we just didn’t do a very good job,” Greenfield-Central head coach Adam Sherman said.
But when asked what player performances stood out to him, he replied, “Mike Hoskins (linebacker and receiver) gives us everything all the time, Orlando Mojica played both ways in the second half and made a difference for us. Grant Hinton came back for the first time this week and made some big plays/tackles for us tonight and I think he will be a guy that helps us.”
The Cougars will host rival and HHC foe, New Palestine, next week.
