BLOOMINGTON — Big plays by the defense and special teams helped Bloomington South bury rival North, 44-6, in the football opener for both schools in front of nearly 3,000 at Dennis O. Martin Field on Friday, Aug. 21.
A blocked field goal by Ezra Ostler, an interception return 45 yards for a score by Tristan Wilson and a blocked punt by Quincy Brahaum helped build a 28-0 lead by halftime as South scored three times in 4:06 to spoil the debut of North coach Andy Harding.
“Those three touchdowns, it’s hard to recover,” South coach Gabe Johnson said. “It’s had to keep your kids up. I’ve been on the other end of that and it’s not fun. We just wanted to keep after it then make sure we came out in the third quarter and established it and continued to establish ourselves.
“We’ve got things that we need to work on and get better at and things we’re not great at right now.”
Jonathan Winstead, who caught three passes, had a long punt return, then eventually had a 77-yard pick-6 off a tipped pass with 1:28 left in the third that set the running clock in motion.
“Our defense has been getting after it all week,” Winstead said. “Coach Johnson is really hard on the defense but that’s what makes us great. Us corners, we felt like we had a lot to prove coming into this game. Their guys, Rashon (English), Nate (Walker), Blake (Davis), they’re amazing but we just felt like if we did what we know how to do, we’d be all right.”
The Panthers needed just 234 yards of offense as Hayden Clark, waiting in the wings last year, gained 78 yards on the ground while scoring three touchdowns of 10, 7 and 4 yards.
North finally put together a scoring drive late, getting a four-yard TD plunge from Carter Matthews with two minutes left. The Cougars ran for 128 yards but three turnovers and seeing two kicks blocked took away any momentum they were able to build up.
“You get the block punt, pick-6, we were starting to have some success in the run game a little bit and that, we just lost a lot of it,” Harding said. “Again, it’s all correctable, Great job by (South), we’re going to come back and figure some things out.”
This story will be updated with more stats, info and new photos.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Special teams, defense help Bloomington South football wear down North
Reporting by Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times | USA TODAY Network
