GREENFIELD — Familiar faces met on Greenfield-Central’s Clayton Myers Field Friday night.
Pendleton Heights traveled down SR 9 for the 10th meeting between the Cougars and Arabians since 2019. In four of the last five seasons, the teams have met in both the regular season and postseason and have had some battles won by both teams.
Since 2021 though, while there have been many close games, the outcomes have been a one-sided Greenfield-Central affair.
With a 28-14 win on Friday night, the Class 4A No. 4 ranked Cougars (4-0, 2-0) won their sixth straight game over the Arabians (2-2, 1-1).
“Pendleton is a great team and they’re well-coached,” Greenfield-Central head coach Travis Nolting said. “The last few years these have been super competitive games that could go either way.”
The Pendleton Heights offense came into the game averaging 42 points per game, but it was the defense of the Cougars that made some of the biggest plays of the night.
A goal line stand by the Greenfield-Central defense to open the second half was all the momentum it needed to close out a game in which they led by two scores at the break.
On the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Pendleton Heights running back Keaton Jones broke off a 60-yard run to set up first-and-goal from the 5-yard line.
The Cougars defense denied Jones twice, forced an incomplete pass and then stood up quarterback Colton Frank at the one to maintain a 20-7 lead.
“That was huge. It was what we needed,” Nolting said. “If we let them score there, it’s a completely different game. The guys played tough and came up big when they needed to.”
Up two scores, the Cougars ground-and-pound offense went to work.
Starting from the one, the G-C offense ran 11 plays and moved the ball to midfield before penalties killed the drive and forced a punt, and after a quick defensive stop, the offense killed more of the clock before an interception in the red zone ended another drive.
While the drives came up empty, the Cougars controlled the clock and limited the Pendleton Heights offense to just 10 third-quarter plays. Over the final 10 minutes of the quarter, the Arabians ran just five plays.
On the night, the Cougars ran the ball 57 times for 305 yards. Six different players got carries, led by fullback Braylen Benavente’s 92 yards. Quarterback Dallas Freeman finished with 82 yards and Cooper Hinton had 58 yards and two touchdowns.
“It’s been a great start to the season. Our run game has been dominant, and we’ve been able to just run it down other team’s throats,” Freeman said. “When we get those early leads, we want to expand it, and the playbook just opens up for us. Everything is on the table for us to run the ball.”
On the first Pendleton Heights drive of the fourth quarter, they went 83 yards for the touchdown to make it a one-score game. Frank connected with Nate DeRolf from 14 yards out to make the score 20-14 with 9:44 remaining.
Again, the G-C run game did what it does.
Hinton ran in a 5-yard touchdown with just over five minutes to play and Benavente added the two-point conversion to put the Cougars ahead 28-14.
The scoring drive took off over four minutes of game clock and all but sealed the win.
“[Pendleton] was slanting inside all night and gave us some easy reads, and then the line blocked really well tonight,” Freeman said. “That’s what led to that success up front.”
Greenfield-Central opened the night with a clinical, 12-play, 71-yard scoring drive for an early 7-0 lead. Hinton closed out the drive by punching in a 2-yard run.
The Arabians answered on a long drive of their own that was kept alive by a pair of Greenfield-Central penalties. Frank found DeRolf on a 9-yard fade for the tying score.
“We had over 100 yards of penalties, threw a pick in the red zone and turned it over on downs after penalties hurt us again in the red zone,” Nolting said. “We’ve got some things to work on and clean up for next week.”
The Cougars added two second-quarter scores for the 20-7 halftime lead, and both came through the air.
Freeman threw a perfect ball over a few defenders to Landon Ford over the middle of the field for a 48-yard score to make things 14-7.
Austin Kincer intercepted Frank on the ensuing Pendleton Heights possession to kickstart the second score. Following the takeaway, the offense went 88 yards on 11 plays capped off by a Freeman 15-yard strike to Boston Willard.
Willard caught three passes for 31 yards and a touchdown, and Ford led the Cougars with three catches for 68 yards and a touchdown.
Greenfield-Central travels to Shelbyville next Friday at 7 p.m.
–
Greenfield-Central 28, Pendleton Heights 14
Pendleton Heights (2-2, 1-1);7;0;0;7;—;14
Greenfield-Central (4-0, 2-0);7;13;0;8;—;28
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
G-C — Cooper Hinton 2 run (Andrew Trabel kick), 7:53
PH — Nate DeRolf 9 pass from Colton Frank (Wyatt DeBertrand kick), 2:51
2nd Quarter
G-C — Landon Ford 48 pass from Dallas Freeman (Trabel kick), 11:50
G-C — Boston Willard 15 pass from Freeman (conversion failed), 6:23
4th Quarter
PH — DeRolf 14 pass from Frank (DeBertrand kick), 9:44
G-C — Hinton 5 run (Braylen Benavente run), 5:34
