Turnovers derail Cougars

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Greenfield-Central’s Kirk Knecht prepares to deliver a stiff arm to a Yorktown defender Friday.

Mike Brown | For The Daily Reporter

By Brady Extin | Daily Reporter

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GREENFIELD — Turnovers, penalties, injuries, you name it and it went wrong for Greenfield-Central on Friday night.

In a battle of two tough Hoosier Heritage Conference teams, the visiting Yorktown Tigers (6-1) defeated Greenfield-Central (5-2) 40-29.

“We shouldn’t have lost,” Greenfield-Central head coach Travis Nolting said. “The turnovers and penalties were killers tonight for us.”

The high-scoring potential of the two teams reared its head immediately, but disappeared just as quickly.

Kirk Knecht got the Cougars on the scoreboard in just one play when he took the opening kickoff up the right sideline for the early touchdown.

From there, both teams failed to score until nearly midway though the second quarter.

On back-to-back drives it was Yorktown punching in runs to take a 14-7 lead.

Jalen Thomas – the HHC’s third leading rusher coming into the night —was responsible for both scores.

The first from 1-yard out, and the next from 20 yards.

The Cougars defense limited him, unofficially, to just 57 yards rushing, but he found other ways to beat them. Along with the two scores on the ground, he added 74 yards receiving and another touchdown.

In a back-and-forth second half, the Cougars penalties and turnovers took main stage.

On the opening drive of the half, a drive that reached the Yorktown 13-yard line was stalled by a Dallas Freeman fumble.

Halfway through the fourth quarter, Will DeJarnett intercepted Yorktown QB Mason Moulton but fumbled the ensuing return. The Tigers recovered the fumble and returned it down to the Cougars 7-yard line before eventually punching in a 1-yard touchdown.

And then, on the final two Greenfield-Central drives of the game, Freeman was stripped after a big gain, and then threw an interception to close things out.

“We can’t turn the ball over,” Nolting said. “You go back and look, and we have the ball inside the 10-yard line and fumble going into score after we’ve been running it down their throats. Those things just can’t happen.”

The deciding factor in the game came with 5:42 remaining. Down 33-29, Nolting decided to go for it on fourth-and-three from his own 27-yard line. The Cougars were stuffed on the run attempt.

“I thought we could get it. It’s one of those situations where there’s only four minutes on the clock. That’s my call,” Nolting said. “Maybe we should have punted it away, but we were having trouble slowing them down. That’s all on me. With four minutes to go anything can happen. I thought we could get it and we didn’t, so it’s on me completely.”

The Tigers immediately put the game out of reach with a 27-yard touchdown pass from Moulton to Kolton Nanko.

The offense just put the defense in bad spots all night,” Nolting said. “Not having Brodie Mayberry hurt us too cause we don’t have a mike linebacker out there, and (injured fullback/linebacker Andrew) Zellers is the same. So not having the number one and two back there is a bad situation to be in and it puts us in a bind.”

For an injury-riddled team the Cougars bright spot on the night was the return of Owen Anderson.

Anderson ran in two 1-yard touchdowns and recovered a fumble.

Even with the return of Anderson, the Cougars were still without leading rusher Zellers which left defensive end Brad Allen to fill in his spot in the backfield.

“You get one back and you lose one. Not having Andrew Zellers tonight was critical. You take an all-state 1,000-yard rusher and he can’t play in the game and we’ve got to put guys that aren’t Andrew Zellers back there,” Nolting said. “It’s a lot to ask a guy like Brad Allen to play two ways at the 4A level. To pass rush every time, and give us everything he has and then run the ball and not run out of gas. It’s a tough situation to put someone in.”

For now, it’s next man up for the Cougars as Nolting looks to get his team healthy in the final three weeks of the season.

“We just have to buckle down the next three weeks and see who we get back,” Nolting said. “But that’s part of high school football, and you’ve got to overcome that adversity. And that’s what I preach to the kids. Someone’s got to step up and make a play.”