SHELBYVILLE — In search of an ever-elusive win, Greenfield-Central found itself down two scores on the road in less than a quarter.
Turnovers and penalties hurt, but the Cougars clawed back into the game against host Shelbyville, also in search of a first victory.
The Golden Bears took a 14-7 lead into the half and completed a late comeback of their own, capitalizing on two devastating Greenfield-Central turnovers and hanging on through a wild ending for a 28-27 win.
“They did everything they needed to do to win a football game,” Greenfield-Central coach Stephen Speer said. “That’s not on them. There were some poor decisions made by me, some poor clock management on my part, and it cost us the football game tonight.”
Speer, filling in for Cougars coach Adam Sherman — who was out for medical reasons for the second straight week — saw a winnable game slip away from his team.
Greenfield-Central (0-5, 0-3 Hoosier Heritage Conference) came out of the halftime break on fire, rallying to take the lead and holding it late in the game. With just minutes remaining, a big sack from Steven Gary put the Bears in a 3rd and 19 with 3:30 left, which the hosts couldn’t convert. The Cougars got the ball back on their own 17 yard line with 3:21 remaining and a six-point lead.
All they had to do was run some clock and hang on to their lead.
Neither team could hang on to the ball in the waning minutes, though. Greenfield-Central fumbled the ball away on their first play from scrimmage, giving the Bears the ball 15 yards away from the lead.
It took the hosts just two plays to take the lead back.
Greenfield-Central then fumbled the kickoff return, giving Shelbyville the ball at the Cougars’ 45 with 2:35 remaining and a 28-27 lead.
Shelbyville (1-4, 1-2) looked to seal the win with a big third down conversion with 1:36 remaining, only to fumble the ball right back to the Cougars.
With the ball at their own 32 and the game on the line, the Cougars needed at least a field goal to secure their first win. Greenfield-Central quarterback Gehrig Slunaker found Jake Vance open down the sideline, but the ball slipped off the receiver’s fingertips to give the Cougars a 4th and 5.
The 4th-down pass was imcomplete, sending Greenfield-Central to an 0-5 start to the season.
Slunaker, a freshman, had his best game of the season against the Bears. He finished 13 of 26 for 271 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT in the loss.
“He’s a resilient dude and the future is bright with him,” Speer said. “There’s no question there’s some special football coming to Greenfield-Central with that guy at the helm.”
With both offenses struggling in the first quarter, the first points of the game fittingly came from the defense. Shelbyville’s Jett Kolls intercepted a Slunaker pass near the Greenfield-Central goal line and fell into the endzone, putting the hosts up halfway through the first quarter.
Greenfield-Central’s defense looked to stall the Bears next drive, as a Josh Helle sack puts Shelbyville into 4th and 14 late in the quarter. The Bears converted on the 4th down and more, completing a 35-yard TD pass from Landon Watson to Matt Merritt.
The Cougars had a chance to get momentum back, returning the kickoff deep into Shelbyville territory, only for it to be called back due to an illegal block in the back, moving the Cougars backwards about 60 yards with the penalty.
That was one of 19 penalties called in the games, nine against the Cougars and 10 against the Bears.
Greenfield-Central got things going in the second quarter after a 53-yard pass from Slunaker to Vance, and after a holding penalty backed the Cougars up 10 yards, Slunaker found Emmet Houser for a screen pass that he took 32 yards for the visitor’s first points.
A 25-yard interception return for a touchdown by Gavin Rose gave the Cougars their first lead of the season just minutes into the second half, one of several big defensive plays for the visitors in the loss.
“We have key guys that are young, and we’re getting into situations where they are learning a lot and we’re starting to see that click a little bit,” Speer said. “I have no question that we only go up from here.
“It’s not just about this season. With these kids, with this nucleus of young guys that we’ve got, it’s about what the future is going to be.”