Bloomington North romps New Albany with balanced offense to force running clock
The numbers pointed toward another shootout, much like the 114-point track meet New Albany and Bloomington North football teams had last season.
The Bulldogs ran the ball 61 times in their hurry-up scheme for a healthy 326 yards, but not much else went right for a struggling one-win team.
North answered with 400 yards of offense despite needing to cover a lot less ground to score. Special teams constantly tilted field position in the Cougars' favor, as did four New Albany turnovers. In the end, the Bulldogs were running in place as North romped, 49-7, on a rainy Friday on homecoming.
The Cougars (3-3) switched to a 3-4 defensive front last week, essentially putting five on the line of scrimmage with two inside backers behind them to close up each running lane. It either worked (30 times New Albany gained four yards or fewer on a carry), or it didn't, when few missed tackles led to big gains, including three on the Bulldogs' only scoring drive.
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"We're covering seven gaps," North coach Scott Bless said. "It's the same defense lined up differently and a little bit different personnel. I think it's made us real active up front and we've got some fast guys up front. I think we're beating them with speed and also playing real physical.
"As much as it didn't always look like it, we disrupted their pulling game."
And New Albany's ineffective passing game (8-of-15, 53 yards, two interceptions) couldn't help when things stalled.
"The new 3-4 defense helps us and our secondary stepped up big," outside linebacker Dylan Barrow said. "But the 3-4 defense helps us contain the ball and push it inside more. Zeke (Trueblood) is doing a great job in the middle. He made some plays. And we (outside backers) just get to run free. It's fun."
New Albany's first five possessions ended with a fumble, three turnovers on downs and the first of two career interceptions by Stephon Opoku. Both were turned into Cougar touchdowns.
"This shows how our defense really is," Opoku said. "The past weeks don't define us as a team."
North also escaped 12 penalties for 90 yards and two fumbles of its own.
"It was a situation where one side of the ball had to pick each other up," Bless said. "We didn't play a perfect game. That's for sure. But we came out, we played fast, we played physical, we came out and started.
"We've got to clean up some things technique-wise and we hurt ourselves with penalties. At times defensively, we were right there and just didn't tackle, but they have two big physical runners, so we've got to give them some of that credit."
A game for Grupenhoff
North wide receiver Cole Grupenhoff finally got into the end zone with 11:41 left in the game, a fitting reward considering all the work he'd done at the other end of the field to set up two critical scores.
The junior started the game off with a kick return to the NA 44, leading to a 7-0 lead. Then he had a 32-yard catch to the 4 that set up Cody Mikulich's first TD of the night and a 14-0 lead.
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But his biggest moment came right after New Albany had bulldozed down the field for its only score of the night, with 2:27 before halftime, cutting the lead to 21-7.
Grupenhoff took the kickoff just inside his 10 and danced up the home sideline all the way to the Bulldog 36. Plenty of time and a short enough distance to give North a chance to score with 7.5 seconds left on a five-yard jump-ball pass to Aidan Steinfieldt for a 28-7 lead.
By the end of the night, Grupenhoff piled up 74 receiving yards on three catches and had 102 yards on his kick returns.
North was also on target with its kickoff/punt coverage, leaving New Albany starting at it's own 19, 35, 13, 19, 19, 30, 33, 9, 19 and 11.
"Special teams were a huge factor," Bless said. "Our kickoff coverage the last two weeks has just been incredible."
Run-pass balance
It took some time to get rolling, but the Cougars finished with 400 yards of offense and a running clock win.
North ran it 29 times for 175 yards and passed it 29 times with 19 completions for 225 yards, pushing King over 1,000 for the season.
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"I think the first couple of weeks we were just finding ourselves, finding who we were," receiver Jarno Hicks said. "These past two weeks, it's just really clicked.
"In film one time, Tate (Bless) brought up just having fun with the game. We were a little too serious, just having fun with it and I think we've bought into that."
The opening drive turned out well, finishing with an 18-yard TD pass from King, who scrambled right and found Tate Bless drifting back all alone in the end zone.
"Dash is making really great reads in the passing game and really spreading the ball around, and another night where all four receivers caught touchdown passes," Scott Bless said.
The Mikulich Effect
Every time out, North can count on a defense keeping plenty of eyeballs on Mikulich wherever he goes.
He still ran 23 times for 145 yards and two scores, while King once again spread the wealth as Hicks had six catches for 60 yards and a TD, Steinfeldt had six for 54 and a score in addition to the work done by Grupenhoff and Bless.
"Everyone's just looking at (Mikulich) so it's opening things up for us," Hicks said. "It's awesome having him. It's awesome having Dash. Everyone's just playing really good right now."
The result is 921 yards and 104 points the past two weeks.
"Well, our O-Line's just come around," Mikulich said. "They had some trials at the start of the year where, we didn't know what they were and who was going to play what position. But we've ironed those out and they've become a solid unit.
"That's where our offense starts and where our offense ends."
Mikulich is getting back to his old self. He had to grind our yards much of the first half, with his longest runs 11 and 18 yards before snapping off a 43-yarder in the fourth quarter, giving him back-to-back 100-yard games.
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"Against South, I had a big bulky brace that was really slowing me down," Mikulich said. "So I wanted to play at my full potential so it was nice to get a new brace and be able to go out there and play at full speed."
Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.
BLOOMINGTON NORTH 49, NEW ALBANY 7
New Albany (1-5) 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 — 7
Bloomington North (3-3) 7 | 21 | 0 | 21 — 49
FIRST QUARTER
BN: Tate Bless 18 pass from Dash King (Noah Nelson kick), 9:27. BN, 7-0.
SECOND QUARTER
BN: Cody Mikulich 1 run (Nelson kick), 11:03. BN, 14-0.
BN: Mikulich 2 run (Nelson kick), 4:16. BN, 21-0.
NA: Dakota Johnson 23 run (Henry Dixon kick), 2:27. BN, 21-7.
BN: Steinfeldt 5 pass from King (Nelson kick), :07.5. BN, 28-7.
FOURTH QUARTER
BN: Grupenhoff 18 pass from King (Nelson kick), 11:41. BN, 35-7.
BN: Jarno Hicks 10 pass King (Nelson kick), 7:34. BN, 42-7.
BN: Nolan Coy 5 run (Nelson kick), 3:21. BN, 49-7.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING
New Albany (61-326): Dakota Johnson 18-161, Elijah Jennings 19-79, Avarion Chambers 12-57, Kenneth Watson 8-53, Amarie DeJesus 1-(-4), Team 1-(-20).
Bloomington North (29-175): Cody Mikulich 23-145, Nolan Coy 2-25, Dash King 3-11, Cole Grupenhoff 1-(-6).
PASSING
New Albany (8-15-2-53): Watson 8-15-2-53.
Bloomington North (19-29-0-225): King 19-29-0-225.
RECEIVING
New Albany: Tevonte Johnson 2-21, DeJesus 2-21, Gavin Rand 2-20, Chase Loesch 2-(-1).
Bloomington North: Jarno Hicks 6-60, Aidan Steinfeldt 6-54, Grupenhoff 3-74, Mikulich 3-19, Tate Bless 1-18.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: High school football: Bloomington North steamrolls New Albany, 49-7
