Columbus North coach Tim Bless knew Bloomington South had an aggressive defense, so he and the Bull Dog staff came up with a game plan to beat the Panthers over the top.
Luke Hammons completed 14 of 21 passes for 248 yards and a career-high four touchdowns, three of them to Keegan Castetter, and North rolled to a 34-10 upset of Class 5A No. 3 Bloomington South to take control of the Conference Indiana race.
“They’re an aggressive defense for sure, and we rushed the ball very effectively last week,” Tim Bless. “Credit to (offensive coordinator) Tyler Bless and the offensive staff coming up with a great game plan, knowing they were going to attack the box and attack our run game. I thought Luke played exceptional, but obviously, our perimeter personnel made big-time plays, and it all starts with the offensive line up front.”
If there was an indication of the way things might go on Friday, it came on the opening kickoff, when Jaxson Scruggs recovered a Bloomington South fumble at the 36. But the Bull Dogs (4-3, 3-0) gave it back on an interception, and the Panthers (6-1, 4-1) capitalized with a 12-yard touchdown pass from Zach David to Cooper Fox.
North needed only two plays to answer, and the Bull Dogs did it with a little trickery. Dyllan Redmon took a handoff, then pitched it back to Hammons, who threw to a wide-open Cooper Horn behind the defense for a 45-yard score, and Ossian Guest’s extra point tied the game at 7-7.
Bloomington South regained the lead on a 22-yard field goal by Nathan Zurface. The Bull Dogs then took their first lead of the night when Hammons threw a 66-yard bomb to a wide-open Castetter.
The key stretch came right before the half. Taking over at its own 20 with 2:42 remaining, North wasn’t content to run out the clock. They drove to the Panther 23, but faced a fourth-and-5 with 15 seconds left. Hammons found Castetter in the end zone with 5 seconds remaining to give the Bull Dogs a 20-10 lead at the half.
“In that situation, you’ve got time on the clock, and you’ve got timeouts,” Bless said. “So you kind of play it out early to see, ‘Do we get a spark play early to put us in tempo?’ and we did. What I was really proud of our kids is, we had a touchdown called back on that drive. So they could have felt a little sorry for themselves, but the kept attacking, they wanted to keep going for it and made a big play with Luke to Keegan right before the half.”
North then put some distance between itself and Bloomington South when it took the second-half kickoff and drove 76 yards in 12 plays. Hammons again hit Castetter for the score, this time for 24 yards.
The Bull Dogs put the final nail in the coffin when, with the Panthers trying a field goal to cut it to a two-score game, Jaxson Scruggs blocked a field goal, scooped it up and went 66 yards for the clincher.
“I knew their timing,” Scruggs said. “We watched their timing the whole week with our special teams coordinator, and we executed and got the block.”
Castetter finished with five catches for 139 yards.
“They were playing off on us all night,” Castetter said. “Hitches, screens, they were all there, and we beat them deep. We had a couple good plays, and we executed.”
“I thought we had a great effort,” Hammons added. “The defense showed up the whole game, only allowing 10 points. The offense has a great game. They couldn’t stop the run or pass, and I think we had a good balance of each, and we sliced them up. Whenever I saw Keegan out here running the routes, I knew their corners could not guard Keegan tonight. That helps having three other great receivers, that leaves Keegan 1-on-1.”
Meanwhile, Dyllan Redmon was eating up yardage on the ground. He ran for 101 yards on 17 carries.
“I’m so proud of our kids,” Tim Bless said. “I thought we played outstanding football, offense, defense, special teams. All three contributed throughout the game in big-time ways against a very good ballclub.”
Defensively, the North defense, which pitched a shutout last week at Terre Haute North, kept Bloomington South out of the end zone the last three quarters.
“We executed a lot,” Scruggs said. “We prepared the whole week. We viewed them on film every day, and we came out and knew every play. We were calling out their plays before they even ran it.”
