For The Tribune
CLARKSVILLE
Brownstown Central’s football team scored 48 first-half points to make quick work of its contest with winless Clarksville on Friday night.
A running second-half clock kept the final score at 48-0, giving Brownstown Central its second defensive shutout of the season and its third consecutive shutout against Clarksville (0-7).
Brownstown has outscored the Generals 181-0 over the past three years. The win was Brownstown’s 13th straight against Clarksville and the 23rd in the two teams’ past 24 meetings.
“We wanted to get ahead tonight and play a lot of people,” Braves head coach Reed May said. “Everything was working; we had the perfect script. Then, North Harrison beat Silver Creek.”
Indeed, North Harrison’s 6-0 win against Silver Creek on Friday night puts the Mid-Southern Conference firmly in the Cougars’ control and almost certainly out of reach for Brownstown.
The Braves had hoped for a Silver Creek win, which would have kept the MSC title in play next week when Brownstown Central hosts the Dragons.
“Silver Creek is still a big game for us,” May said. “They have a great defense, which will be a challenge for our offense. We’re still playing for second place. And we’re still getting ready for the tournament; that’s the most important thing. And, it’s homecoming, which is always interesting.”
Thoughts of future games were difficult to suppress thanks to Brownstown’s overwhelming performance against Clarksville.
The Braves scored touchdowns on five of their first six offensive possessions. They also scored on two of Clarksville’s possessions.
A 15-yard fumble return by Braeden Walker on a Clarksville kickoff return and a 14-yard interception return by Luke Hines transformed Generals possessions into Brownstown points.
Clayton Barger also provided a special teams highlight when he danced in and around Clarksville tacklers along the right sideline during a 52-yard punt return for a touchdown.
The Braves threw exactly one pass and it, too, went for a touchdown. Quarterback Gus Hogan found Colton Ritz behind the Generals’ defense for a 58-yard TD pass.
The Braves’ four conventional rushing touchdowns were scored by Ritz (22 yards), Walker (15 yards), Derek Thompson (13 yards) and Grant Stuckwisch (36 yards).
Defensively, the Braves spent a large amount of time in the Generals’ backfield. Thompson, Hines, Braden Neal, Lendon Underwood, Sam Huber, Logan Overshiner and Mikel Bruemmer each recorded a tackle for loss.
With the contest decided well before halftime, perhaps the second half’s most exciting moment came when a sprinkler on the Brownstown Central 25-yard line popped up and began doing its work. No players were harmed during the incident.