Golden Bears roll to 35-14 sectional win over Connersville

For the first time since 2015, Shelbyville has won a sectional football game.

On Friday at McKeand Stadium in the quarterfinal round of Class 4A, Sectional 23, Donavon Martin rushed for 155 yards and two touchdowns and Layden Fitzgerald had two touchdown passes in a 35-14 win over Connersville.

“It goes all to the kids and the work they have put in and all the coaches and the things they have done,” said Shelbyville head coach Scott Fitzgerald. “To see it come to fruition on the field tonight was a great thing, but what I told them afterward was we aren’t done yet.”

Shelbyville’s defensive front limited the Spartans’ run-heavy offense to just under 100 yards rushing and forced quarterback Rylan Keen to attempt 28 passes while falling further behind the Golden Bears, who ended a 10-game sectional losing streak.

Shelbyville (5-5) will travel to Bedford North Lawrence (7-3), a 50-0 winner Friday at Jennings County, for a Halloween semifinal game.

The other semifinal will pit Charlestown (8-2), a 51-26 winner over Silver Creek Friday, at Martinsville (4-6), a 35-31 winner at Greenwood Friday.

For the sixth time this season, Martin (photo), a senior, rushed for more than 100 yards in a game and he is now three rushing attempts shy of tying Derek Atwood’s record for a season. He finished off eight- and 10-play scoring drives in the first half with touchdown runs of nine and 13 yards to put the Golden Bears in control.

Connersville’s next two drives ended on downs and with a Jackson Myers (photo) interception in the end zone and Gavin Reed hauled in a 31-yard touchdown pass from Fitzgerald that made it 21-0 at halftime.

Shelbyville's Kameron Holland (23) tackles Connersville's Parker Flanigan in the first half Friday at McKeand Stadium. Shelbyville linebacker Ben Bailey (50) closes in to finish off the play.

“We knew we had to come out with emotion, and I felt like we had much, much more emotion when we started the game tonight,” said Fitzgerald. “The kids, you could tell were just a little more focused than they have been. When we had three possessions in the first half, we scored on all three possessions and got stops on defense. We did the things we needed to do.”

Shelbyville opened the third quarter with its fourth straight scoring drive that ended with Fitzgerald arcing a pass high into the corner of the end zone to Camden Thoman for a 28-0 lead.

Connersville (4-6) followed with an 18-play scoring drive that went 74 yards and took over eight minutes off the clock before Brayden Keller crashed into the end zone from two yards out on a fourth down play.

“I think we got a little bit tired on that long drive,” admitted Fitzgerald.

Keller added another short touchdown run late in the fourth quarter that followed a Grantland Fitzgerald 11-yard touchdown run for the Golden Bears.

Layden Fitzgerald, who threw four interceptions in Shelbyville’s last two games, connected on 10-of-16 pass attempts for 107 yards to four different receivers.

Gavin Reed (photo), Austin Martzall and Grantland Fitzgerald each had three receptions.

“That makes it so much more difficult for defenses,” said coach Fitzgerald. “I think Layden did a good job finding the guys he needed to find. Throw it to the guy that is open. Throw it to where the soft coverage is. They were playing heavy on Grantland, the safety was coming over the top and reading his eyes a little bit. We were able to squeeze some in there and the guys did a nice job and went up and got it.”

The Golden Bears’ last sectional win came on Oct. 23, 2015, at Jennings County, 49-26. In the semifinal round, East Central ended Shelbyville’s season, 36-25.

The last time Shelbyville won its first two postseason games came in 2013 when it defeated Franklin County (33-7) and East Central (25-22).

The Shelby County Post is a digital newspaper producing news, sports, obituaries and more without a pay wall or subscription needed.