Late in the fourth quarter Friday night, Bloomington South and Columbus North each lined up for a punt.
Neither team ended up punting, and both times, it worked out in the Bull Dogs’ favor.
Leading 9-7 with about five minutes remaining, the Panthers fumbled a punt snap, and North threw punter Ethan Hensley for a 17-yard loss and took over at the Bloomington South 33. Four Blake Huffman runs later, the Bull Dogs were in the end zone, and after a 2-point conversion, led 15-9.
After the Panthers went three-and-out, North ran three plays and faced a fourth-and-4 from the Bloomington South 44. Following a timeout, upback Landon Robbins took a direct snap on a fake punt and rumbled 24 yards to give the Bull Dogs a first down and allow them to run out the clock for the Conference Indiana win.
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“As soon as he called that timeout, we kind of knew what he wanted to do, and he said, ‘Go get it,’ so I went and got it,” Robbins said. “We knew it was going to be a battle, so we put that it.”
North head coach Tim Bless called the play after conferring with his assistants, including his nephew Tyler.
“It’s just preparation,” Tim Bless said. “Tyler Bless runs our punt team, and he saw on film this week that that fake may have a chance. So we put that in this week, and we were working on it through the week. We were on the headphones going, ‘OK, do we want to try this fake right here?’ And (Tyler) said, ‘It’s there,’ so we called it. But ultimately, the kids have to execute, and they did, and Landon had a big run.
“It was a big play,” he added. “It was a fun play. Bloomington South had got us before on some exotic (plays), so maybe turnabout is fair play.”
Not to be lost in the late-game special teams heroics was the play of the Bull Dog defense. After giving up a 53-yard touchdown run to Mavric Thiery on the Panthers’ first offensive play of the game, they held them to a field goal.
It was the third game in a row in which North held its opponent to single digits.
“We’re a great defense,” said Robbins, who plays middle linebacker on defense. “We all stay together. We’re family together, and we do ‘Defense Dinner’ on Wednesdays just to keep the bond tight. We work hard and practice and just do what we do.”
North (4-3, 2-1) held Bloomington South (4-3, 3-2) to 67 yards rushing on 23 carries.
“I’m so proud of our defensive front, but really, it takes 11 to stop the run, and our linebackers played really well in their gap fits,” Tim Bless said. “Our DBs contributed to the run game, as well, but our front four played tremendously tonight.”
The Panthers were only 1-of-10 on third-down conversions.
“Coach (Mo) Moriarity and his staff and Bloomington South football, they’re a powerhouse year in and year out, and this year is no exception with the athletes that they had on the field,” Tim Bless said. “They have weapons all over the place, so what our defense was able to accomplish, I’m so proud of them.”
The Bull Dogs answered the Panthers’ early score when they put together their longest drive of the night. After using Royce Lofton and Connor Essick to run the ball down the field, Blake Huffman went the final 10 yards, and after Carter Ward’s extra point, North led 7-6 midway through the first quarter.
Bloomington South got a 29-yard field goal from Carter Robinson with 1:09 left in the first half and led 9-7 at the break. The score stayed that way until the Bull Dogs rallied at the end.
“It’s huge,” Huffman said. “The history we have with Bloomington South, we always know it’s going to be a battle. It’s always an awesome game, just like this year, and it feels amazing.”
Huffman, who has battled a sprained ankle since the third week of the season, finished with 81 yards rushing on 20 carries.
“I felt better than I have the past few weeks,” Huffman said. “It’s an awesome feeling that I’m back almost 100 percent.”
Lofton added 44 yards on 12 carries, and Essick had 31 yards on seven carries. As a team, the Bull Dogs ran for 193 yards on 52 carries.
“Nothing was easy tonight, but our kids stayed the course,” Tim Bless said. “Offensively, we had the one nice ball-control drive in the first half to put the touchdown on the board and then kind of sputtered along a little bit, but moved the ball.”
The win was North’s third in a row against Bloomington South and keeps the Bull Dogs in contention for a second consecutive Conference Indiana title.
“That’s a huge team victory,” Bless said. “You think about the big plays, special teams made two huge plays in the fourth quarter on punt return getting the takeaway and our punt team with the fake punt.”
