Shelbyville football season ends with Halloween loss at Bedford North Lawrence

BEDFORD – A Hail Mary gave Shelbyville a chance, but there would be no more fantastic finishes for the Golden Bears.

Layden Fitzgerald connected with Camden Thoman for a 29-yard touchdown on a fourth down play that cut Bedford North Lawrence’s lead to 27-21 with just over eight minutes left Friday in the Class 4A, Sectional 23 semifinal game.

The Stars, who watched Shelbyville cut a 27-7 lead in the early third quarter into a one-score game, turned back to the basics.

Brody Horton carried the ball three times on the next drive and quarterback Dayson Kirby connected with Malakai Goodman for a 23-yard touchdown strike to extend the lead to 34-21.

The Golden Bears could not get a first down on its next drive and Horton turned five straight rushing attempts into another touchdown to complete a 41-21 victory.

The Stars (8-3) will travel to Martinsville (5-6) Friday for the Sectional 23 championship game. Bedford North Lawrence opened the season with a 33-15 win over the Artesians, who started the season 1-3.

“I told our kids at the end of the game, the fight that this group has had, the battle this group has had all year long has been fantastic,” said Shelbyville head coach Scott Fitzgerald (photo), who led the Golden Bears to a 5-6 record this season – the program’s most wins in a season since 2017. Fitzgerald is 9-22 in three seasons as head coach. “Near the end of the first half we could have caved it in and said, ‘Oh no, here it comes.’

“Instead, we bucked up and got ourselves back in the ball game and had some opportunities. We just couldn’t make some plays when we needed to make some plays.”

Bedford North Lawrence had two touchdowns before Shelbyville had a first down Friday and the chase was on for the Golden Bears.

The snap on the extra point kick following the second touchdown was not good and the Stars were left with a 13-0 lead.

The Golden Bears followed with a 10-play, 80-yard drive with Donavon Martin (photo) doing most of the damage. Shelbyville crossed into BNL territory then unleashed Martin on a screen play that netted 25 more yards.

Martin finished the drive with a 15-yard scoring run and the Golden Bears were back in the game.

Shelbyville’s first big opportunity came after BNL missed a field goal on its next possession. But just one first down on the drive halted the momentum and the Golden Bears were forced to punt.

Kirby, one of the state’s passing leaders, added on a 19-yard touchdown pass to Cam Gates for a 20-7 halftime lead.

Shelbyville punted on its first possession of the second half and forced the Stars to do the same to get another crack at cutting into the lead.

Cutler Chastain had other plans when he intercepted Layden Fitzgerald at the 15-yard line and scored to open up a 27-7 lead.

The Golden Bears weren’t finished.

Another 10-play drive, highlighted by a 31-yard pass play to Camden Thoman (photo), resulted in Martin’s second rushing touchdown of the game to make it 27-14 with 4:54 to go in the third quarter.

Shelbyville’s defense stopped the next BNL drive but the offense could not capitalize – and then the Stars team that has struggled to limit penalties all season arose.

While Driven Axsom was racing toward the end zone off Shelbyville’s punt, BNL’s Luke Morris was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct near midfield after aggressively blocking and injuring Austin Martzall (photo). The sophomore did not return to the game.

Shelbyville’s defense held solid again and the emotions erupted early in the fourth quarter.

Layden Fitzgerald (photo) scrambled up the Shelbyville sideline when he was tackled out of bounds. That brought several Golden Bears to his defense and a scrum ensued.

“We lost our composure a little bit,” explained coach Fitzgerald. “Unfortunately, and I don’t say this very often, but the officials lost control of this game very early in the game and allowed way too many things to happen. Then they wanted to try and get control and it was too late at that point. It was very, very disappointing to be in a tourney game and they allow this game to turn into that.”

Offsetting penalties were issued to both teams and the referee brought both head coaches to midfield in an effort to ease the tension between the teams.

The Golden Bears kept right on rolling to the end zone. Stopped at the 29-yard line and facing fourth-and-14, BNL dropped all eleven players into coverage daring Fitzgerald to try and run for the first down.

The freshman, under no pass rush, decided to heave the ball into the end zone and Thoman stepped in front of a pack of players and rose up to secure a stunning touchdown that cut it to 27-21 with 8:38 left.

That turned out to be the final highlight of the season for the Golden Bears.

With the outcome decided, Shelbyville’s final possession was a tribute to Martin. The senior carried the ball five final times to push his single season record of rushing attempts to 272. He finished with just short of 1,400 yards rushing – fourth best all time in a single season.

“He fought all game long. He fought all season long … super, super proud of him,” said Fitzgerald. “I think last year he got frustrated at times because there really weren’t holes to go to. He was trying to make plays in certain places and then he hurt his shoulder and I think that set him back a little bit.

“He had a fantastic year. He was our workhorse. He was the dude. You knew we were going to give him the ball and you had to try and stop him.”
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