Edgewood Mustangs stumble against Beech Grove in shutout, drop first game of year

Coming into their homecoming game on Friday night, the Edgewood Mustangs were looking to extend their unbeaten streak to 6-0, but the Beech Grove Hornets had other ideas. The Hornets put up one touchdown in the first half and another one in the second, which even without the extra points was enough to complete a 12-0 shutout of the Mustangs.

The Mustangs had trouble establishing a credible passing threat, which meant that the Beech Grove defenders could sit on the run, and hold Mustangs running back Braxton Carpenter to under 2 yards per carry.

Edgewood head coach Scott Fischer said about the Beech Grove man-to-man pass defense, “They were pretty sticky on us, so it made it difficult to get our guys open and get the ball out to them.” He added, “I thought we ran the ball pretty effectively at times.”

About the other side of the ball, Fischer said, “Defense played great all night,” pointing to the solid field position the Mustangs defenders gave the offense to work with. About not being able to convert two short fields in the second half to any points, Fisher said, “We made some mistakes there. Gotta get that cleaned up.” Next week’s practice will be about getting the fine points right: “You know, attention to detail is gonna be a big part of this next week,” Fisher said, adding, “We’ll get that straightened out.”

Fischer liked his team’s 11-minute opening drive even if they didn’t get any points out of it.

Opening possession for Edgewood

Starting from their own 32-yard-line the Mustangs looked sharp on their very first play from scrimmage. Braxton Carpenter was lined up in a single back formation behind quarterback Braylon Linerode, with Jaxton Collier in the slot receiver spot on the left. Linerode took the snap, faked a handoff to Carpenter up the middle, but gave the ball instead to Collier, who was looping around from the left on an end around.

Collier was rolling right when he connected with receiver Gunnar Perry who was streaking down the right sideline. Perry used every bit of his 6-foot-4 frame to outstretch the Beech Grove defender and record a 22-yard completion before going out of bounds.

Operating from the 47-yard line of the Hornets, the Mustangs, behind workhorse running back Carpenter and a couple of short passes to Perry, got the ball inside the 20, but that’s where the defense for the Hornets started to stiffen.

Still, on a key 4th-and-2 play from the 17-yard line, Carpenter managed to grind out exactly the 2 yards the Mustangs needed, to make it 1st and 10, just 15 yards away from the end zone. From there, Linerode almost managed to connect with Perry in the left corner of the end zone, but Perry wasn’t able to gather in the ball.

On 2nd down, Linerode threw a 9-yard completion to Carpenter, which brought up 3rd and 1 from the 6-yard line. A handoff to Carpenter got 2 more yards, to make it 1st and goal from the 4. That’s as close as Edgewood would get to the endzone.

The two teams traded illegal procedure and offsides penalties, which left it 1st and goal from the 4. Two running plays in a row had the Mustangs going backwards—on 2nd down the defensive line had sniffed out the reverse and met Dylan Wickens in the backfield for a loss back to the 14.

On the 3rd-down play a pass into the endzone intended for Collier fell incomplete. On 4th down and goal to go from the 14, the Mustangs tried a field goal. Kicker Kade Gilchrist’s boot clanged off the crossbar, leaving the game still scoreless after a Mustangs drive that had chewed up better than 10 minutes of the game clock.

Score for Beechwood

From the spot of the missed field goal, deep in their own territory, Beech Grove’s offense took over and responded with a possession that got them out to their own 46, but from there had to punt. The result of the punt set up Edgewood with decent field position on their own 33, but the Mustangs went 3-and-out.

Beech Grove was then set up on their own 28.

The Beech Grove 72-yard drive was a mix of steady runs by running back Caron Parks and timely passes from quarterback Bishop Moore. Parks moved the chains twice on third down carries, and Moore kept the drive alive with a pair of completions to Tenauri Woods, including an 8-yard pickup on 1st down that set up a short-yardage situation.

A keeper by Moore and another Parks run pushed the ball just inside the Edgewood 20. From there, Moore capped the series with a strike to Zane Ream, who came free on a crossing route over the middle, catching the ball at the 10 and taking it into the end zone standing up.

The two-point conversion attempt was stopped by the Mustangs, but that gave Beech Grove a 6-0 lead, which they would take into halftime.

Second half

The second half was a story of excellent field position by the Mustangs that they just could not translate into points on the scoreboard.

The half started with the Mustangs kicking off to the Hornets, who started at their own 20-yard line. The opening drive for the Beech Grove squad was quickly derailed by a sack and a three-yard loss, setting up a long 2nd down. Quarterback Bishop Moore managed to connect with his receiver for a first down at the 41, but a holding penalty on the next play pushed them back. After a short completion and a pair of incompletions, the Hornets were forced to punt from deep in their own territory.

But the punt was muffed, which meant Edgewood took over at the Beech Grove 25. Carpenter, ever the go-to back, picked up a couple of short gains, but the drive stalled after a sack and an incomplete pass on third down. A field goal try by Gilchrist from the 22-yard line was no good, leaving the score at 6-0.

Beech Grove’s next possession was marred by a string of penalties—three consecutive illegal motion calls pushed them back to their own 7-yard line. Unable to recover from the long yardage, the Hornets punted from their own end zone, giving Edgewood again great field position at the 30-yard line of the Hornets.

The Mustangs, however, couldn’t take advantage. After a short run and a pair of incomplete passes, they went for it on fourth down, but a slip after a completed pass in the backfield resulted in a turnover on downs.

The next time the Mustangs got the ball, they were starting from their own 20-yard line after a punt by the Hornets. With just under 3 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter, the Mustangs were starting to move the ball, but on a 3rd-down play, a ball from Linerode was intercepted by Woods and returned for an apparent touchdown. A roughing-the-passer penalty on the Hornets gave the Mustangs a reprieve. The drive eventually fizzled and the Mustangs had to punt, but it pinned the Hornets close to their own goal line.

After a few bad possessions, this time the Hornets started to find their rhythm. Parks, the standout running back, carried the load, moving the chains with a series of tough runs. A four-yard pass and a couple of solid carries set up a first down at their own 32. Parks continued to grind out yardage, and eventually busted free for a 55-yard touchdown run that extended Beech Grove’s lead. The two-point conversion was again stopped, but the Hornets now led 12-0 with just over seven minutes left in the game.

Edgewood responded with urgency, moving the ball into Hornets territory with a big pass play to William Hosey that got them from their own 38-yard line to the 32 of the Hornets. But under pressure, Linerode threw an interception that saw the ball downed at about the 2 yard line.

That meant the Hornets were starting in a deep hole, there was just about 6:30 left in the game. They went into clock management mode, letting Parks run the ball to pick up first downs, pushing the ball to the 33-yard line of the Mustangs, where the Hornets eventually faced 4th-and-1 with 2:39 left. But Mustangs jumped offsides to hand the Hornets a 1st down. Still the Mustangs managed to push the Hornets back with a big quarterback sack that made the Hornets punt.

Even though they got the ball back, there just wasn’t enough time left, and Linerode wound up throwing one final interception that ended any chance for the Mustangs of putting points on the board.

Next week the Mustangs (5-1) host Sullivan (3-3).