Luzadder's five touchdowns leads Yorktown to win at Shelbyville

Nate Luzadder rushed for 149 yards and five touchdowns Friday at McKeand Stadium to lead Class 4A, No. 13 Yorktown to a 48-28 victory.

The senior had scoring runs of 24, 3, 25, 33 and 26 yards to extend the Tigers’ win streak over the Golden Bears to eight straight and close out their Hoosier Heritage Conference chapter with a 14-13 advantage in the series.

The Golden Bears, now 3-3 and 1-3 in the HHC, avoided disaster in the opening quarter with fumbles on back-to-back possessions that set up the Yorktown offense inside the Shelbyville 35.

The Golden Bears defense kept the Tigers out of the end zone, but the offense was struggling with Yorktown’s athletic defense. Two punts and two turnovers ended the first four drives.

“We had to claw back from some of our own mistakes there,” said Shelbyville senior Ben Bailey (photo). “Mistakes are part of football. No team can expect to be perfect. We made mistakes. They made mistakes on both sides of the ball. We were able to claw back and stay in the game.”

Trailing 14-0 early in the second quarter, Shelbyville put together a 7-play, 80-yard drive that ended with Grantland Fitzgerald pulling in a 12-yard touchdown throw from younger brother Layden Fitzgerald.

“Our kids just kept battling. We just continue to battle and do great things,” said Shelbyville head coach Scott Fitzgerald. “We want to get on the other side of it and get the ‘W’ but I am super proud of the fight in these kids.”

Luzadder answered with his third touchdown run of the night and added a fourth early in the third quarter that extended the Tigers’ lead to 28-7.

“He does a fantastic job,” said coach Fitzgerald of Luzadder. “I don’t know how many times we had guys there and he slipped off some tackles or just came under it a little too far. That’s a credit to them and how hard he was running.”

Quarterback Sam Tokar then found Cole Perdue behind the Shelbyville defense for a 51-yard scoring strike and the Golden Bears were in serious trouble.

Shelbyville scored on three of its next four possessions to extend the game, but Yorktown added two more scores to keep the Golden Bears at bay.

Layden Fitzgerald connected with Camden Thoman (photo) on a 9-yard scoring pass late in the third quarter.

After a second Yorktown punt of the second half, Fitzgerald against directed his team on a 54-yard scoring drive that ended with another touchdown pass to Grantland Fitzgerald.

Tokar connected with Kaden Crumes from 40 yards out to push the lead to 41-21.

Thoman’s second touchdown catch cut the lead to 41-28.

Luzadder then broke again for his fifth touchdown with 3:09 to go.

Tokar completed 14 of 17 passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns.

Thoman, a freshman, led the Golden Bears with seven catches for 124 yards. Grantland Fitzgerald had five catches for 56 yards. Austin Martzall (photo) caught four passes for 35 yards.

Layden Fitzgerald threw a career-high 39 passes, completing 17 for 224 yards and four touchdowns.

Shelbyville is at Class 5A, No. 1 New Palestine (6-0) next Friday.

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