5A No. 3 Bloomington South hands Bull Dogs homecoming defeat

Whatever hope Columbus North may have had when it scored to cut to come within a touchdown Friday night were dashed in a Bloomington South blitzkreig.

The Class 5A No. 3 Panthers scored 28 points in the final 6:09 of the first half to pull away for what would become a 49-14 Conference Indiana victory on the Bull Dogs’ homecoming.

“The second quarter there, they were just so explosive, and we couldn’t really put out the fire fast enough,” North coach Logan Haston said.

Bloomington South quarterback Jarrin Alley completed 20 of 25 passes for 334 yards and five touchdowns. All but two of those passes came in the first half, when he threw for 303 yards.

After both teams stalled on their opening two drives, the Panthers (6-1, 4-1) struck on their third when Alley hit D’Andre Black for a 34-yard score. Bloomington South then got a 3-yard run from Gavin Adams and led 14-0 in the opening minute of the second quarter.

The Bull Dogs (3-4, 2-1) then looked like they would get back into the game. They marched 81 yards in 10 plays, converting three times on third down. On third-and-2 from the 22, quarterback Asher Ratliff snuck through the line, lost his shoe on an attempted tackle and broke free for the score.

“We had a lot of momentum,” Haston said. “It was a great drive for us offensively. It was definitely our best drive of the night. So we felt pretty good, and they were able to respond really quickly as an offense and put one back on the board. So it’s kind of tough for us. We had some momentum there. Sideline energy was pretty good at that point in time, and that kind of took the wind out of our sails.”

After that, it was all Panthers. Alley hit Black again for 23 yards, then scored three times in the final 2:15 of the half. Alley hit Jacob Arnett for 9 yards, then Gavin Adams ran 31 yards for a score with 1:08 left in the half. Bloomington South then came up with an interception, and Alley hit Adams for 33 yards with 30 seconds left for his fourth touchdown pass of the half.

With a running clock in the second half, the Panthers took the kickoff and marched for another touchdown, this time on a 22-yard pass from Alley to Black. That ended the night for most of the Bloomington South starters.

North picked up an 18-yard touchdown run from Ratliff with just under a minute left in the game.

Ratliff finished 10 of 24 for 86 yards passing with two interceptions and led the Bull Dogs with 11 carries for 79 yards and the two scores. Jordan Briner caught four passes for 33 yards.

Field position was the key factor in the first half, when Bloomington South continually started drives in North territory.

“We didn’t play complementary football very well,” Haston said. “In our games we’ve lost this year, that’s been the case. When we can’t sustain drives on offense, then we give our defense short fields to work with. We didn’t play well as an offense or defense.”

Bloomington South 49, Columbus North 14

Bloomington South;7;35;7;0;—;49

Columbus North;0;7;0;7;—;14

BS—D’Andre Black 34 pass from Jarrin Alley (Bryce Taylor kick), 1:04.

BS—Gavin Adams 3 run (Taylor kick), 11:26.

CN—Asher Ratliff 22 run (Bryce Luttrell kick), 7:34.

BS—Black 23 pass from Alley (Taylor kick), 6:09.

BS—Jacob Arnett 9 pass from Alley (Taylor kick), 2:15.

BS—Adams 31 run (Taylor kick), 1:08.

BS—Adams 33 pass from (Taylor kick), :30

BS—Black 22 pass from Alley (Taylor kick), 3:48.

CN—Ratliff 18 run (Luttrell kick), :58.

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Bloomington South: Adams 10-62, Ben Morrison 6-19, Lucas Waldon 1-13, Alley 3-9, Noah Hernandez 1-(-9). Colubmus North: Ratliff 11-79, Gino Prescott 14-53, Braylon Thoman 1-8.

PASSING — Bloomington South: Alley 20 for 25, 334 yards, 5 touchdowns, 0 interceptions. Colubmus North: Ratliff 10-24-86-0-2.

RECEIVING — Bloomington South: Black 7-158, Tysen Smith 3-60, Adams 2-40, Waldon 4-35, Morrison 2-20, Arnett 2-19. Colubmus North: Jordan Briner 4-33, Thomas 2-25, Garrett Long 1-17, Morgan Knapp 2-11, Prescott 1-0.