Shelbyville chasing first sectional semifinal win in more than a decade

The 100^th season of Shelbyville football has been a reset season.

A new conference brought five first-time opponents to the schedule, and two more with limited matchups. The postseason schedule started with another first-time opponent in Silver Creek.

The Golden Bears’ come-from-behind 35-25 win Friday in Sellersburg though set up a semifinal contest with a former South Central Conference foe in Columbus East.

The Olympians (6-4) will travel to McKeand Stadium Friday for the first time since 2011 to face Shelbyville (7-3), winners of four straight games for the first time since 2016.

The other Class 4A, Sectional 23 semifinal game has Jennings County (2-7) at No. 5 East Central (8-2). If East Central wins, it will play the sectional championship game at either Columbus East or Shelbyville.

The Golden Bears were teetering on the brink of elimination Friday after Deontay Gazaway intercepted a Tyler Gwinnup pass at the goal line and sprinted 100 yards for a Dragons’ touchdown that extended the lead to 19-7 at halftime.

A dominant third quarter brought Shelbyville back to life. Head coach Scott Fitzgerald labeled the effort as another sign the program is headed in the right direction.

“It was a huge change for the program. We could have come out at halftime and said we had a good season, we had a winning season, and we were happy with that. It just wasn’t that,” said Fitzgerald. “The kids really turned it on and found a way to get back into it. Once they started getting a little momentum back into them, they really bought in to the fact that they were going to come back and win that game.”

Layden Fitzgerald (photo) had a 4-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter then Kameron Holland broke loose for an 85-yard race to the end zone. It only took half a quarter for Shelbyville to retake the lead, 20-19.

Silver Creek regained the lead early in the fourth quarter when Gazaway pulled in a 31-yard touchdown reception. The 2-point conversion pass was broken up by Layden Fitzgerald.

Gwinnup (photo) responded with a pair of touchdown strikes in the game’s final three minutes – 21 yards to Jackson Myers and 28 yards to Camden Thoman. The senior quarterback, who suffered a left shoulder injury in the regular season finale win over Monrovia, also had a 41-yard touchdown pass to Austin Martzall in the second quarter that put the Golden Bears up 7-6.

Gwinnup had now thrown for 1,644 yards passing and 17 touchdowns.

The quarterback's success has been bolstered by a consistent rushing attack that has pushed Layden Fitzgerald over 95 yards in a game twice, Holland over 100 yards twice and Grantland Fitzgerald over 200 yards two more times.

In his last two games, Holland (photo) has rushed for 247 yards and three touchdowns. At Silver Creek, he racked up a hard-fought 130 yards on 23 carries.

One goal Shelbyville had this postseason was to play its first November game since 2013. Ironically, that Nov. 8, 2013, game was at Columbus East (42-7 loss). Shelbyville’s last win over the Olympians came in the 1999 postseason.

First-year head coach Tyler Campbell has a balanced offense that has seen the Olympians throw for 2,091 yards and rush for 1,507.

Junior quarterback Kam Combest has completed 58% of his pass attempts for 1,803 yards, 17 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Six of those interceptions came in season-opening losses at Mooresville (34-21) and Columbus North (42-14).

In the Olympians’ last three games, all wins, he has connected on 40-of-59 passes for 759 yards and eight touchdowns.

“They want to be physical. They want to run first,” said Coach Fitzgerald. “They will run three or four different counters. They will run it with (Owen Hatfield) and they will run it with the quarterback.”

Hatfield, a sophomore, leads Columbus East with 902 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns. Combest is second on the team with six rushing touchdowns.

Four different receivers have at least 27 receptions this season.

Juniors Jackson Miller (39 receptions, 583 yards, four TDs) and Carson Gallion (31 receptions, 542 yards, six TDs) lead the way with junior Connor Fudge (29 receptions, 506 yards, three TDs) and senior Paxton Thompson (27 receptions, 351 yards, two TDs) also available to put pressure on Shelbyville’s secondary.

“They have guys that can go make plays,” said Fitzgerald. “I think that’s the team they have kind of become. With a new coach, they’ve gotten better all year long and they are getting more consistent with being better.”

Fitzgerald cited the Olympians’ 31-27 win the regular season finale at Bedford North Lawrence as a perfect example. They sprinted out to a 21-0 lead then made enough plays to keep the Stars from completing the comeback.

Defensively, Columbus East won’t always follow conventional thinking when it comes to applying pressure.

“Sometimes they bring more guys than you think they should,” said Fitzgerald. “They will bring eight guys and leave you 1-on-1 with everybody else. If we can pick up what we are supposed to on the inside, we trust our guys 1-on-1 on the outside.”

The key will be keeping Claxton Miller (71 tackles, 20.5 tackles for loss, 12.5 QB sacks), Keagan Newman (10 tackles for loss, five QB sacks) and Dallas Dykstra (70 tackles) from stalling Shelbyville’s offense.

“Can we go make plays. I think that will be the difference in the game … who can make more of those plays in those situations,” said Fitzgerald (photo).

Fitzgerald’s rebuild of the Shelbyville football program has reached year four with a senior class he coached at the middle school level. From 2018 to 2024, the Golden Bears won seven games total. In 2025, Shelbyville finished 5-6 and missed out on a coveted sixth win when an overtime 2-point conversion run failed in a 28-27 loss at Greenfield-Central.

That denied the program its first winning season since 2017.

That’s why securing that sixth win this season in a 27-20 victory over Monrovia on Senior Night meant so much. The sectional win at Silver Creek helped the Golden Bears match consecutive 7-win seasons in 2016 and 2017.

A win Friday, at home no less with a picture-perfect weather forecast, would mean even more to a program on the rise.

“It would be awesome,” said Fitzgerald when asked what it would be like to see the McKeand Stadium bleachers filled with fans. “How long has it really been? We had the Triton Central game and it was packed. To have a sectional game, a tournament game at home on a beautiful night, we would love to have everybody and anybody out here to come support these guys that have put in so much work, especially these seniors who have put in four years of work and gone through a lot.

“For what they’ve done to help this program get to where it has gotten right now, come give them any support you can.”

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