Class 4A, No. 4 Greenfield-Central flexes strength and versatility in win over Golden Bears

Class 4A, No. 4 Greenfield-Central scored on its first five offensive possessions Friday and cruised to a 49-6 victory after the game was halted late in the fourth quarter when lightning closed in on McKeand Stadium.

Greenfield-Central quarterback Dallas Freeman ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more as he became the Cougars’ career leader in passing yards (3,023 yards). The senior completed 15 of 19 pass attempts for 236 yards, including a 64-yard completion to Cooper Hinton for the game’s first score just 93 seconds into the game.

Greenfield-Central (5-0, 3-0 Hoosier Heritage Conference) then recovered an onside kick and put together an 11-play scoring drive that ended with a Braylen Benavente 2-yard run.

The next three touchdowns came from Payton Foley (19-yard TD run), Freeman (3-yard TD run) and Landon Ford (5-yard TD reception from Freeman) as the lead quickly expanded to 35-0.

“They are physically big and they are strong and that just goes to show how much work we have to do in the weight room to get to that point,” said Shelbyville head coach Scott Fitzgerald. “They’ve built that program through that weight room.

“And they can do so many different things offensively, they went from spread to double tight to a full-house backfield, just doing all kinds of different things and they do them efficiently.”

For the final seven minutes of the first half Friday, Shelbyville showed it can compete with quality programs.

Following a long kickoff return from Wes Bailey that put the ball at the Greenfield-Central 29, the Golden Bears ran 12 plays that netted 23 yards but no points.

Two straight incomplete passes turned the ball over to G-C but their offense stalled and a 5-yard punt quickly gave the ball back to Shelbyville with 53 seconds on the clock.

The drive wasn’t pretty but quarterback Tyler Gwinnup finally found Grantland Fitzgerald in the back of the end zone (photo) on a fourth-and goal play from the 10-yard line to get the Golden Bears on the scoreboard.

“We’ve showed at times we can play with a team like that,” said Fitzgerald. “Again, the physicality once we got into the red zone, that kind of got to us. Tyler (Gwinnup) threw some good balls, threw the nice touchdown pass to Grantland (Fitzgerald).”

Gwinnup was 6 of 17 passing for 102 yards.

Greenfield-Central added scoring runs from Freeman (10 yards) and Hinton (8 yards) in the third quarter to get the running clock started. The game was stopped and ended with three minutes, 43 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Shelbyville (1-4, 0-3 Hoosier Heritage Conference) travels to Yorktown (3-2, 1-2 HHC), a surprise 27-13 loser at New Castle Friday.

Steve Bush photos

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