Springs Valley tried to play keep-away. Edgewood's football team was more interested in tag. The Mustangs laid plenty of blows on both sides of the ball against the Class 1A No. 6 Hawks in a 29-8 win on Friday and that's just what their head coach wanted to see in the opener. Springs Valley took an 8-7 lead after finishing off a nearly 20-play drive with its wing-T offense that chewed up most of the first quarter. But Edgewood dug in and kept the Hawks out of the end zone after that. More: Special teams, defense help Bloomington South football wear down North
Edgewood also kept it on the ground, pounding out 255 yards (7 yards per carry) with Braxton Carpenter gaining 129 and Eli Lirot 102 and kicker Kade Gilchrist had a good night as well. "Really complementary football," Edgewood coach Scott Fischer said. "The offense helped control the clock and we were physical on both sides of the ball. "We got good blocking from (junior) Kaleb Moore, who is stepping in as offensive guard and making his first start. Eli Lirot at fullback laid some licks. Our veteran guys did a good job as they should. Special teams was solid. Kade had two touchbacks and punt we stopped at the 1. " Five Mustangs had 10 tackles or more led by Rowan Heitink (17) and Toby Connors (15). Dylan Wickens also capped the scoring with an interception return for a touchdown. Getting the wing-T under control was key. "They have real good backs who block for each other and they moved it on almost every series," Fischer said. "We made a couple of adjustments that were necessary to contain it the rest of the way. They run a lot of unbalanced formations and once we got that figured out, I think that really changed the whole dynamic. "Wickens had a great game for us. Toby and Rowan were flying around hitting people. Evan Enghauser had a solid football game as well. " Up next is Beech Grove, which topped 6A Perry Meridian 26-14.
Owen Valley rumbles New head coach Troy Burgess' emphasis on establishing the run game was apparent in the 64-0 blasting of Brown County. The Patriots threw it just three times while rushing for 354 yards, with 120 from Jake Heidrick, who scored four times, and 92 from Walker LaGrange, who also had a team high 13 tackles on defense. It's OV's most points in a game since 2022 and biggest shutout win since 2021. It was 48-0 at halftime. OV forced three turnovers and Kelice Leger had two sacks and will to keep rolling next week at Southmont before an extremely tough run that includes Cloverdale, Edgewood, Northview and Sullivan. Fancy passing has Eastern 1-0 Eastern Greene looked at Pike Central's defense and thought quarterback Saxton Pennycuff could have a field day. The sophomore went 12-of-17 for 214 yards and five touchdowns, and, best of all, no interceptions in a 41-12 rout. Luke McNeal caught four balls for 123 yards and three touchdowns and Noah Coomer caught two TD passes. Eli Engleking had over 100 total yards as Eastern did struggle a bit in the run game. "From what we saw on film, we thought that would be open quite a bit," Eastern coach Shawn Nikirk said. "We wanted to try to run the ball more than we did, so that's something we'll fix this week. We couldn't run on the interior at all. Most of our yards came on the outside. "But any pass plays seemed to work all night long. We spread the ball around really well and if we do that week in and week out, we'll be hard to defend. " A year has made a big difference for Pennycuff, who led the T-Birds to a 27-6 halftime lead. "He made all the right reads," Nikirk said. "He didn't put the ball in harm's way. " The defense forced three turnovers and gave up just one score as the other scored on a fumbled lateral. Middle linebacker Landon Norris led the way with 11 solo tackles and 15 total. "We were bend but don't break," Nikirk said. "I think they crossed the 50 only three times. Special teams was also a plus as well. Ryder Crane is a soccer player who has never kicked before and he hit five of six extra points. "
BNL finally cracks home ice vs. Arties Bedford North Lawrence hung on for a 33-27 win over Martinsville, it's first home win vs. the Arties since 1992. That was the last year they played before picking up the series again in 2018 and it was all Martinsville until last year's road win by BNL. The Stars pounded the ball behind QB Cutler Chastain (166 yards passing) and RB Brody Horton, who each topped 100 yards. Christian Koons had 130 yards rushing and Chase Davis over 160 passing for Martinsville, which scored with less than five minutes left but saw BNL convert on fourth and 5 at midfield to seal it. BNL's next task is posting it's first 2-0 start since 2017 when it plays host to Bloomington North next week. Martinsville will come home to face 5A No. 3 Bloomington South. More: Bloomington area and statewide high school football scores for Friday, August 21 Around the area The Western Indiana Conference went 6-1 with Northview pounding Terre Haute North 46-0; South Putnam ripping its rival North Putnam 56-14 and Sullivan pounding North Knox 41-7 and Vincennes Lincoln topped Terre Haute South 7-6 after forcing five turnovers, including an interception by Colton York, who returned it 35 yards for a TD, The Alices will play their first WIC game at Northview this week. The Mid-State had some surprising results with Franklin (35-0 over Southport) and Mooresville (34-21 over Columbus East) the only winners. Class 5A No. 5 Plainfield took a 31-7 loss to Franklin Central, Decatur Central fell to Avon 31-6 and Columbus North held off Whiteland 14-7. Down south, Floyd Central served notice with a 31-24 win at 3A No. 2 Gibson Southern and 5A No. 8 Castle outlasted Evansville North 29-26. Up north, former Cougar coach Brett Cooper had a highly successful debut at Ben Davis with a 33-27 upset win over 5A No. 2 Cathedral. And the game of the night saw No. 4 Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger beat No. 1 Roncalli in a rematch of last year's 4A title game with a thrilling 15-14 win in three overtimes, winning it on a two-point conversion. And, if you're looking long-term, South's Week 7 foe Ironton, Ohio won it's opener 42-0. This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: 'Complementary football' gets Edgewood off to strong start in opener
