Cougars finish regular season winless

0
287

GREENFIELD — The Greenfield-Central Cougars had a shot to make it a one-score game at the end of the first half against the New Castle Trojans.

But the Trojans ran away with the Hoosier Heritage Conference victory 28-0.

Their best shot came after four punts in the first two quarters. The Cougars got the ball on their 20-yard line and fought their way upfield with some runs from Lance McKee, a personal foul on the Trojans, and a key 30-yard pass from Gehrig Slunaker to Jake Vance.

With 22 yards to go, there was first a sack then an interception off a fourth-down haul to the endzone.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

This left the Cougars scoreless going into half and New Castle with two TDs on the scoreboard — thanks to the running duo of Luke Bumbalough and Gage Burk along with a few passes to Triston Chesher.

The third quarter was a Greenfield-Central defensive show.

First, they stopped the Trojan offense after a first down on the 15-yard line with a crucial sack from Bradon Nelson. The Trojan field goal attempt fell short. Then the Cougars forced a turnover-on-downs after New Castle had gotten the ball at the Greenfield-Central 37-yard line.

The defensive line found another sack, this time, from Steven Gary.

“Last week, we got put in a tough spot and we didn’t really respond,” Greenfield-Central head coach Stephen Speer said. “I thought tonight, a positive to take away is the fact that we did.

“There’s a resiliency to fight and try to keep these guys out of the end zone — something we didn’t do last week and I’m proud we did this week.”

Speer said the 13-play drive at the end of the first half that the Cougars could not capitalize on will be a learning experience for them.

“In the future, they’ll draw from all these situations we’ve found ourselves in and we’ll be a better team for it.”

Headed into the fourth quarter, the game took another turn for the worse for Greenfield-Central. Two plays were all it took. An interception on the first play of the first drive in the last quarter for the Cougars was followed by a 29-yard touchdown pass for New Castle.

Two more turnovers and a Trojan touchdown would lead to a New Castle victory.

The loss puts Greenfield-Central at an 0-9 finish to the regular season. The Cougars finished with 119 offensive yards. McKee ran for 74 of them and Slunaker passed for 76 of them on eight completions.

They head into sectionals against Anderson in two weeks.

“I just want to see them come to work over the next two weeks and we’ll give it our best shot to make a run at this,” Speer said. “This is what it’s about — you can be 0-9 and take your best shot.”