For the Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — The Greenfield-Central Cougars ran into a team at a different stage of development on Friday night.
Facing the Class 4A No. 11 Evansville Central Bears, a defending sectional champion, the Cougars lost 42-0.
Summing up the game as best as he could, Cougars’ coach Adam Sherman said simply, “We’re young; this is where we’re at.”
The quarterback battle, at least this week, appears to have been won by freshman quarterback Gehrig Slunaker.
Early on in the game, drops plagued the Cougars’ receiving corps, which led to three-and-outs and turnovers. On the first series of the game, a third down pass went through the hands of a Cougar receiver and forced the Cougars to punt.
On the Bears’ first offensive play, junior running back Clayton Graves took a handoff and went 68 yards for a touchdown. Groves would finish the game with 18 carries, 184 yards, and 2 TDs.
“Our defense played well in spots,” Sherman said. “But as the game went on they kind of wore us down.”
The Cougars defense kept the team in the game in the first quarter. The Bears continued to pound the ball on the ground, but the Cougars came up big on back-to-back defensive possessions to stop the Bears in Cougars’ territory. The second stop came at the Cougars’ 3-yard line.
The Cougars’ offense was simply never able to get in gear. In the first half, the Cougars only obtained one first down not via penalty.
“Offensively we just weren’t very good,” Sherman said. “Turk Faitele is amazing though. His stats probably weren’t that great, but he was running without much blocking most plays.”
Greenfield-Central graduated 24 seniors from last year’s team. Evansville Central returned a veteran team who finished 11-2 last season. The depth of the Bears wore on the Cougars in the second half and they cruised to a victory behind a seemingly endless supply of talented running backs.
The Cougars will seek their first win next week as they travel to Whiteland for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
