By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – The Mull Man delivered, a swift completion of an appointed round, for Floyd Central.
Locked in an emotional, chippy, flag-fest battle with Bedford North Lawrence, Floyd quarterback Jack Mull directed a momentum-turning touchdown drive with three straight completions during the final minute of the first half. That allowed the Highlanders to catch their breath and suck the air out of BNL’s serious upset threat.
Mull threw four touchdown passes, and the Stars were guilty of five turnovers as Floyd conquered mistake-prone BNL 48-20 on Friday night. The Highlanders (4-2 overall) also scored a defensive touchdown, keeping their Hoosier Hills Conference title defense in the spotlight rather than doomed to the gloom of night.
The biggest series was the final Floyd possession of the second quarter. BNL (1-6) had just scored to force a 14-14 deadlock with 1:27 before intermission, and the first two Mull passes of the answer drive were harmless. On the next play, another off-target throw was saved by a BNL pass interference penalty in front of the Floyd bench. Seconds later, the Highlanders were in the end zone.
Zip. Mull found receiver David Pennington for 11 yards. Rip. Mull connected with sophomore Jaxon Stone for 27 yards. Boom. Mull went back to Stone, who was wide open in the end zone for a 19-yard score with 34 seconds left. So in all the craziness of a half smudged by 17 penalties, Floyd escaped with a touchdown lead.
After regrouping during the break, Floyd regained its composure and its dominance. BNL’s first four drives in the second half ended with two punts, a pick and a fumble in the end zone. The Stars never recovered.
BNL wore pink as part of its uniform accessories for Breast Cancer Awareness month, a noble cause. But with all the flags on the turf, the Stars should have worn yellow for Penalty Flag Awareness as well. Two infractions kept Floyd touchdown drives on track. The Highlanders were flagged 11 times during a confusing, bizarre first half. Nobody was happy. Floyd adjusted first.
“We just took a big, deep breath,” Floyd coach James Bragg said. “We were going to relax for a minute, wait until everything calmed down. We had to control what we could control. We were letting our emotions get the best of us. That’s not Floyd Central football.”
The other factor was the injury to BNL quarterback Dayson Kirby, who was sacked on third down to stall the first series of the third quarter and left with a dislocated knee cap. Floyd took advantage with Ashton Tackett’s interception of a Lucas Ira pass (setting up Stone’s 1-yard score) and a fumble recovery in the end zone by Justice Braid (when a snap escaped from Ira).
“The turnovers really killed us,” BNL coach Derrick Barker said. “We were the only ones that really stopped us. It’s pretty tough to overcome that.”
When flags weren’t fluttering all over the field in the first half, the battle was furious. BNL blasted to a first-and-goal at the 8, but a high shotgun snap sailed away from Kirby for a 26-yard loss, and his next pass was intercepted by Floyd’s Nolan Lippett. Five plays later, Mull hit Pennington in the right corner of the end zone from 23 yards.
The Stars responded as Kirby scrambled from pressure to hit Dax Short for 28 yards, then found Parker Kern alone in the end zone from 21 yards. The next Floyd aerial theft set up Mull’s 39-yard bomb to Garver Kelly for a 14-7 lead, but BNL came back with a gorgeous Kirby-to-Jaden Gilbert deep ball for the 14-14 deadlock.
Then came the key series that took only 53 seconds.
“We knew we had to score, we were trying to be aggressive,” Bragg said. “We took it – bang, bang, we’re in the end zone. That was big.”
“We were playing too conservative, giving them too much ground,” Barker said. “That’s what makes them dangerous. They have the capability to run it down your throat, but they have good receivers out there.”
The Highlanders pulled away. Sebastian Robertson bulled over from 6 yards for a 41-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter. Ira came back with 4-yard touchdown run (after Gilbert exploded for 52 yards) only 79 seconds later, but Mull finished his special night with a 9-yard touchdown strike to Isaac Kaiser.
“We kind of wore out,” Barker said. “They were the more physical team.”
Mull was 10 of 20 for 172 yards and the four scores, while Robertson finished with 110 yards rushing.
“Mull is still young, this was only his seventh varsity game,” Bragg said. “But he’s getting better, and he’s not afraid to rip it.
“On defense, we could pin our ears back, be more aggressive up front. And it loosened up our offense. We weren’t clicking, so that let our offense take a step back.”
Gilbert totaled 92 yards rushing and added 63 yards receiving for the Stars. But the bad snap on the promising first drive and the five turnovers marred a lot of positive gains.
“We had to control the clock, not be in a hurry. And we did a great job of that,” Barker said. “There’s a lot to learn from.”
BNL will visit Madison next week. The Cubs (3-4) fell to Brownstown 42-14.
Floyd Central 7 14 14 13 – 48
Bedford NL 0 14 0 6 – 20
First quarter
FC – David Pennington, 23 pass from Jack Mull (Nolan Kennedy kick), 2:51
Second quarter
BNL – Parker Kern, 21 pass from Dayson Kirby (Reece Sims kick) 11:32; FC – Garver Kelly, 39 pass from Mull (Kennedy kick) 4:20; BNL – Jaden Gilbert, 39 pass from Kirby (Sims kick), 1:27; FC – Jaxon Stone, 19 pass from Mull (Kennedy kick), 0:34
Third quarter
FC – Stone, 1 run (Kennedy kick), 4:27; FC – Justice Braid, fumble recovery in end zone (Kennedy kick), 2:47
Fourth quarter
FC – Sebastian Robertson, 6 run (kick failed), 8:48; BNL – Lucas Ira, 4 run (pass failed), 7:29; FC – Isaac Kaiser, 9 pass from Mull (Kennedy kick), 4:30
Team statistics
FC – First downs 16 (10 by run 4 by pass, 2 by penalty; Rushing 27-183; Passing 10-20-0-172; Total yards 355; Fumbles 0; Penalties 13-108
BNL – First downs 16 (7 by run, 7 by pass, 2 by penalty; Rushing 31-108; Passing 14-28-4-173; Total yards 281; Fumbles 2 (lost 1); Penalties 9-90
Individual statistics
Rushing – (FC) Mull 1-(-3), Robertson 15-110, Jones 5-27, Stone 1-1, Franks 2-15, Bricker 2-4, Qualah 1-29; (BNL) Kirby 4-(-31), Ira 4-3, Horton 10-38, Gilbert 11-92, Axsom 2-6
Passing – (FC) Mull 10-20-0-172; (BNL) Kirby 9-15-2–124, Ira 5-13-2-49
Receiving – (FC) Kaiser 2-33, Lawless 1-10, Pennington 3-40, Jones 1-4, Kelly 1-39; (BNL) Axsom 2-9, Short 4-49, Kern 5-45, Gilbert 3-63
