By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Aged and angry, grumpy old men in pads, Martinsville showed why its a sectional title contender worthy of its early state ranking. Much to its chagrin, Bedford North Lawrence got ran off its own lawn.
Experience and muscle powered the Class 4A No.13 Artesians to an impressive victory in the 2024 debut on Friday night. With an All-State candidate on the outside, with a new, tough running back on the inside, and a much-improved quarterback sharing the ball to both equally, Martinsville blasted to a 50-7 win over the overmatched Stars.
Austin Pryor, a former linebacker, was rough-and-tumble in the running game with 174 yards, slick receiver Hunter Stroud scored twice, and quarterback A.J. Reynolds threw three touchdown passes. Martinsville clicked in all phases while handing BNL its seventh straight loss in a season opener. The Stars unraveled during a brutal second quarter, and the Artesians triggered the running clock on the first series of the third quarter.
If BNL meets this opponent again in the postseason, which is possible, there’s a lot of ground to cover. But it’s also Week One, and the Stars suffered through some expected growing pains.
“That’s a really good team, and once they started rolling, there was no slowing them down,” BNL coach Derrick Barker said. “When you play a good team that’s physically committed to being dominant, we’re a little behind in the strength and conditioning aspect. And that shows on the field.”
It showed in one glaring statistic. Martinsville pounded out 255 rushing yards, thanks to Pryor’s pop, while BNL – which is going to throw the ball a lot this season – managed a meager minus-23 yards on the ground. That includes three sacks, but the Stars had only one rush for positive traction until the final play of the first half. BNL junior Dayson Kirby was impressive in his first start as a slinger, but the Stars didn’t score until midway through the final period, when the outcome was long decided.
“That’s who we will be,” Barker said. “We will have to rely on the passing game more than years past. It’s not that our backs aren’t good, it’s not that the line doesn’t have the potential to be good. Dayson can throw it when he has time, when he steps into it and lets it go. He did a good job.”
The Artesians were just better. They struck quickly when Stroud got behind the secondary, slowed to catch a Reynolds bomb, and won the race to the end zone for a 64-yard strike. They extended their lead to 15-0 on the first play of the second quarter, when Reynolds capped a 44-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown scramble.
That’s when the Stars suffered their multiple breakdowns. Failure to line up properly for a punt preceded a 7-yard kick, and two plays later Reynolds lofted a 40-yard scoring pass to Mason Dodson. BNL’s next series ended in disaster when a bad punt snap bounced past the punter and out of the end zone for a safety. Martinsville finished the period with a 65-yard march, set up by three Pryor bursts. With 10 seconds left in the half, Reynolds found tight end Josh Jones for a 1-yard jump pass touchdown and a 29-0 advantage.
“It happens with young, inexperienced teams,” Barker said. “One mistake becomes two, which becomes three. It kind of snowballs and avalanches from there.
“We couldn’t get a stop when we needed to. Offensively we went three-and-out too many times and couldn’t give our defense a break. We didn’t play complementary football, we didn’t help ourselves out in any phase of the game. And it got away from us.”
Martinsville made it 36-0 on the first drive of the second half, as Pryor exploded for a 52-yard burst before scoring on the next play from 4 yards away. That gave the Artesians the necessary 35-point lead to shorten the clock. Following a tipped pass for an interception, Martinsville went 87 yards on 10 plays, with Stroud zipping in from 5 yards out for a 43-0 advantage.
“I thought we started a little sloppy, had a couple of miscues that happen in the first game,” Martinsville coach Brian Dugger said. “After that, we played pretty well. Our offense was clicking, we moved the ball. We ran the ball well, threw the ball well. This group has a chance to be special, and that happened tonight.”
BNL got on the board when Kirby connected with Gavin Pedersen for a 21-yard touchdown with 9:29 left. Martinsville’s reserve unit added a late score.
Pryor, stepping into the void left when stud running back Brayden Shrake graduated, has made his way from a freshman quarterback, to a linebacker, to now the perfect complement to the skilled Stroud. Reynolds completed 10 of 14 passes for 191 yards as Martinsville totaled 480 yards. The only glitch was an interception by BNL’s Garrett McDuffee in the first half.
“We knew Austin had the experience to do it,” Dugger said. “He’s got the moxie and hard-nosed way to him. He had a great night. Stroud (4 catches for 103 yards) is an All-State kid for a reason. I think he’s one of the best in the state. He’s unbelievable.”
Kirby’s short passing attack was BNL’s highlight. He completed 15 of 22 for 198 yards. Dax Short caught 6 for 49 yards, Driven Axsom had two catches for 80 yards.
“The problem was making a good play, then we would have two bad ones,” Barker said. “We couldn’t string things together to get any momentum. We had some moments. At times we executed well. But we couldn’t make the two plays in a row.”
BNL will stay home to host Bloomington North next week. The Cougars opened with a 30-27 loss to Mooresville.
MARTINSVILLE 50, BNL 7
First quarter
M – Hunter Stroud, 64 pass from A.J. Reynolds (Stroud pass from Reynolds), 3:47
Second quarter
M – Reynolds, 5 run (Charlie Rawlins kick), 11:54; M – Mason Dodson, 40 pass from Reynolds (kick failed), 9:24; M – Safety, snap out of end zone, 7:50; M – Josh Jones, 1 pass from Reynolds (kick failed), 0:10
Third quarter
M – Austin Pryor, 4 run (Rawlins kick), 10:23; M – Stroud, 5 run (Rawlins kick), 1:48
Fourth quarter
BNL – Gavin Pedersen, 21 pass from Dayson Kirby (Reece Sims kick), 9:29; M – Landon Cazee, 1 run (Rawlins kick), 4:58
Team statistics
M – First downs 15 (11 by run, 4 by pass); Rushing 33-255; Passing 11-15-1-225; Total yards 480; Fumbles 0; Penalties 5-70
BNL – First downs 6 (1 by run, 5 by pass); Rushing 13-(-23); Passing 15-22-1-198; Total yards 175; Fumbles 2 (lost 1); Penalties 3-15
Individual statistics
Rushing – (M) Reynolds 2-8, Pryor 17-174, Stroud 3-16, Sanders 6-26, Cazee 3-27, LaFary 1-7, Davis 1-(-3); (BNL) Kirby 4-(-22), Horton 5-0, J. Gilbert 1-(-6), Engleking 3-5
Passing – (M) Reynolds, 10-14-1-191, Davis 1-1-0-34; (BNL) Kirby 15-22-1-198
Receiving – (M) Stroud 4-103, Jones 2-10, Dodson 3-53, Sanders 1-25, Hawkins 1-34; (BNL) Pedersen 2-35, Short 6-49, Kern 3-17, J. Gilbert 1-14, Axsom 2-80, Horton 1-3
