Inside Bloomington's record-shattering start to the IHSAA Class 5A football sectional

A football game that produced 75 points, 45 first downs, 150 yards in penalties and nearly 1,000 yards of offense will be remembered for quite a while.

Friday's 44-31 win in front of 3,000 by No. 2 Bloomington South over No. 1 North in Class 5A Sectional 15 lived up to all its hype and was a fitting follow to the overtime thriller in the regular season. It also produced a number of school records on both sides for a single game, season and career.

Start with South quarterback Jarrin Alley, whose six touchdown passes tied the school record held by Dobby Grossman (1970), Rex Grossman (1998) and Ben Chappell (2005).

Alley's 220-yard night pushed him over the 2,000-yard mark for the season (2,125) and just 38 yards short of No. 7 all-time for a season at South. His 31 passing TDs are the third-best, just ahead of Bryce Stancombe's 30 in 2014. His .695 completion percentage is currently No. 1.

South's Bryce Taylor, whose 41-yard field goal went over the crossbar near the top of the uprights, has hit eight on the season, which is No. 3 for the Panthers for a season.

They are not records but, South running back Gavin Adams broke the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season and 2,000 for his career.

For North, quarterback Dash King's 442 yards passing broke his school record of 406 set last year at Columbus North. The junior ends the year at 2,246 yards and 4,581 for his career. He is the only North quarterback to post two 2,000-yard seasons and stands at 50 TD passes.

Sophomore Jorian Brooks also put an exclamation point on his breakout season by smashing the school record for receiving yards in a game with 229 yards. The old record of 163 was shared by Alex Richardson vs. Southport in 2013 and tied by Jordan McCoy against Terre Haute North in 2017.

And the fabulous run at tight end by brothers Aaron and Aidan Steinfeldt came to an end, but not before they piled up 239 catches for 3,170 yards and 36 TDs. Aaron, his senior year at North before heading to Indiana, described Aidan as a "a lot bigger and better" version of himself.

Aidan, bound for Marshall, leaves as the career leader in receptions (145), yards (1,726, topping Nick Sexton by 10 yards) and TDs (24).

So it will be interesting to look back in two or three years and take count of the future college talent that was on the field that night.

Heck of a season for North

The Cougars have gone 34-18 over the past five seasons and posted the first 9-0 year in school history to win a Conference Indiana title for just the second time.

"This is the greatest team I've ever been on," North senior receiver Cole Grupenhoff said. "Greatest team in North history. Just a shame having to play the three-seed right away and it doesn't go your way.

"A lot of these dudes were contributing as young guys. I think great things are to come for those guys."

The seed has been planted for the returning players.

"I just remember how great it felt to win those nine games as a team," King said. "We all bought into it. We all knew we could do it.

"I think we're going to go into next year, starting in December, always working. I think there's been a culture shift from what North has been to what it will be."

It still hurts now, but certainly more good memories than bad for many of the 35 players who will return after getting quality time this year. They'll hit the ground running in the off-season.

"Special team," North coach Scott Bless said. "It's gonna take a few days, but we're going to hit a point where we can really look back at the historic things they did this season. All season, they have not looked back. They have been a forward-looking team.

"They haven't been satisfied. Ran the table in the conference. That's a tough title to win because you've got to do it on five nights. I couldn't be more proud of them."

Not quite perfect

Two areas Johnson was not pleased with were the 11 penalties for 99 yards his team had to overcome and allowing North to convert on third-and-long several times.

South's first two snaps resulted in a false start and a holding call and it plagued them all night.

"We've got to clean some things up," South coach Gabe Johnson said. "The penalties were disastrous and concerning and I've got to get that cleaned up."

The Cougars' first scoring drive saw a 21-yard pass to Brooks on third-and-13 after a sack. A 25-yard completion to Brooks after King was harassed into a fumble that lost 16. The next play, South was drawn offsides for the first down. Then came the TD pass on third-and-6.

The Cougars' next touchdown pass came on third-and-11.

And on North's ensuing drive, a holding call pushed the offense back 10 yards and a sack took another five, but King was still able to find Cole Grupenhoff for 10 and then you-know-who (Brooks) for 43 over the top. Then on third-and-6, King hit Kijaun Hayes out of the backfield for 17.

But from that point on, the Cougars never converted another third down (but did keep the chains moving on a fourth-down conversion). The result: missed field goal, interception, missed field goal.

"I think our coaches stepped up," Johnson said. "We try to rely on settling our kids down, working the problem within the game and then making those corrections and moving forward. I thought our kids did a good job and I thought our coaching staff did a real good job."

South has needed its best efforts in both meetings, having given up 56 points to North, and just 70 total in its other eight games.

It was also the eighth time this season the Panthers have reached the 40-point mark. The 14-0 1998 team was the last to do that. One more win will give South it's 15th team with 10 or more wins and it is now an amazing 17-1 in sectional play since 2013.

Owls waiting in the wings

Seymour picked up just its second sectional win since 2016 with a 39-20 thumping of Columbus East in its semifinal.

East scored first, but the Owls responded with TD passes to Jack Pennington of 51 and 63 yards to go up 12-7. Seymour scored again and then took advantage of a muffed punt to add another score late in the first half to lead 26-7 at the half.

Seymour QB Bret Perry was 18-of-32 for 269 yards, three TDs and two interceptions. The Owls also rushed for 191 yards, led by Nicholas Wheeler (89 yards). Pennington had six catches for 145.

Perry has had a monster season, with three games over 400 yards and just one under 335. But interestingly, his stats from the 47-0 loss to South have not been posted on MaxPreps.

Game time on Friday has been set for 7 at Seymour.

Elsewhere around 5A

Sectional 16 will see Evansville North (7-3) at Castle (7-3) for a spot in the regional opposite South or Seymour. Good news for South is, no matter who wins that game, the Panthers would host the regional if they take care of the Owls.

Castle led New Albany just 21-17 at halftime (after trailing 7-0 after one quarter) before pulling away for a 38-17 win. The Huskies and Highlanders were tied at halftime, 14-14, before North went up 21-20 after three and then scored with 2:14 left to secure a 28-20 win.

In Sectional 13, West Lafayette Harrison hammered a Plainfield team (6-4) that started the season 5-0, 39-13. The Raiders (9-1) will be at Decatur Central (8-2), which had no problems whipping McCutcheon, 33-0.

Sectional 14 final will pit Terre Haute South (5-5), which won a 14-10 slugfest with Franklin, against Whiteland (6-4) after the Warriors had no problems with winless TH North, 63-14.

Fifth down

South grad Reed May was recently honored as the Indianapolis Colts Coach of the Week after picking up his 300th career win in a 56-27 victory over Indianapolis Scecina in the opening round of the Class 2A playoffs. The No. 3 Braves were knocked out by No. 1 Triton Central last Friday, 28-17.

Reed is 300-64 all-time in 31 seasons. Triton Central (10-1) will be facing former Eastern coach Luke Dean and Eastern Pekin (5-6) in the sectional final this Friday.

Conference Indiana did well on Friday, with Columbus North rolling Jeffersonville 58-0 and Southport knocking out Indianapolis Tech 41-12 in 6A. Tougher assignments now wait with the Bull Dogs facing Center Grove and the Cards lined up against Warren Central.

Indian Creek (8-3) is the only WIC team remaining after beating Franklin County 37-0 to set up a meeting with No. 10 Batesville (11-1) in 3A. Greencastle fell to Linton 26-21 in 2A and South Putnam fought two-time defending 1A champ Indianapolis Lutheran tooth and nail in a 21-14 loss.

Scores of the night: Brebeuf Jesuit 70, Lebanon 49 and Michigan City 6, LaPorte 5. In a game featuring 1,119 yards of offense, Brebeuf's CJ Harris ran for 325 yards and six TDs while Lebanon QB Jackson Folden threw for 325 yards, three TDs and three picks. On the opposite end, Michigan City led 6-0 until LaPorte hit a field goal in the third and got two more points on a safety the Wolves gave up willingly with 14 seconds left.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington's record-shattering start to IHSAA 5A football sectional