Owls win thriller against BNL

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BEDFORD

The way the Seymour-Bedford North Lawrence football game was going Friday night, it looked like the team that had the ball last was going to win — and that’s the way it turned out.

The Owls trailed 36-28 with 10 minutes remaining before they rallied to score twice to spoil the Stars’ homecoming 44-38.

On BNL’s final offensive play, quarterback McCall Ray threw up a pass in desperation, and Alex Franklin intercepted for the Owls.

Owls coach Josh Shattuck said although the Owls scored a season high in points, it was the defense that deserves credit for the win.

“That’s our MO,” Shattuck said. “The nice part is, the thing they had the most was the short passing game and the deep passing game, which sounds funny but are one-man routes. When they got to the goal line, our interior defense was fine.

“One-man routes are hard, and you can’t get beat over the top. There’s only 12-13 yards behind you, so we were able to press up and not worry about getting beat deep. We made a switch and put Gavin Blanton at safety, and he and Evens Cribs did a good job in coverage over there on their split end, who made a lot of plays.

“We got to their quarterback, and usually, when you answer problems with your aggression, it works out in your favor. It was a good program win for us, but the defense was the story of the night.”

The Owls tackled BNL backs for losses seven times.

Alan Perry had another big night, as he rushed 25 times for 91 yards and scored touchdowns on runs of 3, 5, 1 and 2yards. He also passed 36 yards to Tyler Bullard for a score late in the second period.

Seymour’s final touchdown came on a 19-yard run by Nathan O’Mara.

Extra points were also a big factor in the win, as the Owls failed to convert following their first two touchdowns before Tiller Cummings, Perry, Jackson Morris and Matt Fourman scored 2-point conversions to put the Owls over the top.

After Perry scored for the Owls with 8:52 left in the fourth to give his team a 38-36 lead, the Owls executed an onside kick, Alex Holt recovered the ball and that set up O’Mara’s touchdown.

“We were down a touchdown and coach said we were going to onside it,” Holt said. “I told myself, ‘I’m going to beat everybody to the line, and I’m going to get the ball,’ and Todd Kiewitt had a great kick. That is one of the best onside kicks I’ve ever seen. It just happened to land right there, about the 50 or 48, and I got it and got a nice little spin move out of it.”

The Owls had to overcome some early adversity, as they fumbled on their first two possessions.

Those turnovers resulted in two touchdowns and a 12-0 lead for the Stars.

The Owls had a strong running game throughout, netting 326 yards on the ground that went a long way in helping them post a season high in points.

O’Mara had 74 yards on 10 carries along with the big score.

“It was a handoff, and I started to the left, and I ended up going right,” O’Mara said. “This win was good for the players and the coaches. I want to thank my offensive line and the perimeter guys for blocking out there. If they weren’t blocking, I couldn’t have got that last touchdown.

“We’ve improved offensively the last three weeks. We’ve had ups and downs, but we’ve improved a lot, just executed a lot better.”

Zach Carpenter easily had his strongest rushing performance of the season, as he had 96 yards for 13 carries in the first half and finished with 119 on 20 tries.

The Owls have won two in a row to stand at 2-2 in the HHC and 2-3 overall.

“We weren’t competitive against anybody in 2013,” Shattuck said. “We have four kids out here tonight that played in those games. It’s incredible, four-year starters. We’ve got more kids out, and for us to beat Floyd and Bedford, we know that’s the path we want to take, and when we get in the tournament, we’re 4A. We can draw off (the big schools). We feel really good about our schedule. We feel really good about playing those really tough games early.”

The Owls will travel to Brownstown on Friday night.

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