NEW MARKET — After being shutout in their last three losses, the task didn’t get any easier Friday as Southmont welcomed the Tri-West. The Bruins came in ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll and No. 8 in the Coaches Poll.
On a cold and rainy evening, the Bruins balanced attack was too much to handle for the Mounties as Tri-West came away with a 42-13 win in the regular season finale.
Southmont began the game with the ball and on their first possession junior signal caller Nick Scott was intercepted. The Bruins capitalized on the Mountie mistake for the first score of the game when Ty Owens found Nik Joiner for an 18-yard touchdown.
Southmont (5-4, 2-4 SAC) was able to get in the end zone for the first time since defeating Crawfordsville as a five yard run by Wyatt Woodall was set up by a Kion Cornelius 35-yard completion. Woodall would end the game scoring both of the Mounties touchdowns. The second came mid-way through the fourth quarter on a 15-yard catch.
“Coming out of this week we wanted to start building some confidence and momentum on the offensive side of the ball,” Southmont coach Desson Hannum said. “Obviously, Tri-West is a heck of a football team, one of the best we have in our conference. They want to make a run in the 3A tournament. To be able to put up a few scores on a team that is that talented and regardless of how it happened, we were able to do that.”
The Bruins (7-2, 5-2 SAC) continued to be extremely balanced on the offensive side of the ball as they ended with 418 yards of total offense; 234 on the ground and 184 through the air. Both Davon Brown (96) and Maddox Johnson (94) carried the load on the ground while Owens threw for four touchdowns, all to different receivers.
“They’re very tough to defend,” Hannum said of the Bruin offense. “I think their strength that not many people talk about is up front. They’re about as good as we’ve seen and they made it tough for us tonight. To be as multidimensional as what they are is pretty impressive.”
Despite entering the post-season on a four-game losing streak, Southmont has a chance next week to get back on the winning track as they open up sectional play at Cascade. Lebanon, Tri-West, Western Boone and Danville are a combined 26-10 and that has been the schedule the Mounties have had to endure the past month.
“We’ve ran the gauntlet against these teams,” Hannum said. “I don’t know that anybody can say they’ve played as tough as a schedule as us the last four weeks. Through all of it we are still here standing and are ready to start the tournament next week, and we have to be happy about that.”
Once again, the Mounties will travel to Cascade (3-6) next week to open Class 2A Sectional 37 play.
