Triton Central's defense dominates Speedway in second half for 21-10 win

SPEEDWAY – Class 2A, No. 9 Triton Central’s defense dominated the second half to stave off an upset bid by winless Speedway.

The Tigers did not allow a first down to the Sparkplugs in the second half Friday and Matthew Wilkins threw two touchdowns to get Triton Central a 21-10 victory at Ralph Johnson Field in Speedway.

“Fortunately, at halftime, the coaches rallied the troops,” said Triton Central head coach Tim Able after the win. “We got adjustments made on both sides of the ball. Thank goodness I got young coaches that can do all the screaming and stuff so I can figure out what we need to get going.

“Once we got the run game going then the passing game started bouncing and then it’s a lot harder to defend us.”

The Tigers, now 5-0 for the first time since 2018, scored on its opening possession then were held scoreless until 4:48 was left in the third quarter. Wilkins finished off a 66-yard drive with a 10-yard completion to Kemper in the end zone to regain the lead 14-10.

Speedway’s fourth series of the second half netted just five yards, and the seventh punt of the game did not reach midfield.

Starting at the Sparkplugs’ 41, Wilkins connected with Conner McClure (photo) for a short gain then found the senior again all alone in the end zone for a 36-yard scoring strike that finally shut the door on Speedway (0-5, 0-2 Hoosier Legends Conference).

Wilkins completed 13 of 25 passes for 174 yards on a night where running the ball was not Triton Central’s offensive strength. In fact, the Tigers amassed just eight yards of rushing in the first half on seven carries.

Braden Brown (photo) finished off a 54-yard scoring drive on Triton Central’s first possession with a 3-yard run. Julius Schlottman, a junior, delivered on all three extra-point kicks with senior Nick Tormoehlen out with an injury.

Sophomore Evan Mitchell handled the kickoff duties and Wilkins did well as the punter.

“I cannot say enough about our specialists this week,” said Able. “We lost our kicker and punter. Matthew Wilkins had a heck of a night punting. And Julius, Dr. J we call him, did a good job and Evan Mitchell kicked off for us. He did a great job.”

Speedway dominated the second quarter and scored on consecutive drives to take a 10-7 lead at halftime.

A roughing the punter call sparked the Sparkplugs into producing a 15-play, 54-yard scoring drive capped off by a Mamadou Diallo 2-yard scoring run.

Joey Heaviland added the extra point kick and closed out the first half with a 30-yard field goal.

Triton Central head coach Tim Able talks with his team following its 21-10 win Friday at Speedway.

Brown spent much of the game blocking in the backfield for Wilkins while he connected with Brayden Whitlow (3 catches, 54 yards) and Henry Kemper (6 catches, 63 yards).

“Matthew got them the ball. And there were some key catches by other guys – like that Conner McClure touchdown catch,” said Able.

When it was time to pound Speedway into submission, a rested Brown was up for the challenge. The Tigers took over at its own 22 with 7:39 to go and an 11-point lead. The senior finally started finding success with runs of nine, seven, 14 and seven yards to move the chains.

Cooper Marlin then countered with quickness and gained 23 more yards on three carries.

Triton Central finished with 112 yards rushing.

In other HLC contests Friday, Lapel scored two touchdowns in the final 90 seconds to defeat Indian Creek, 29-26; Monrovia won at Beech Grove, 20-13; and Tri-West topped Danville, 35-27.

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