AVON – It’s been 24 years in the making, but the Brownsburg football team is finally a sectional champion again.
With a convincing 42-14 victory Friday night at Avon, the Bulldogs hoisted the sectional hardware for the first time since 1985 – when coach Brett Comer was a player on the school’s last state championship team.
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When asked to compare the experiences of winning as both a player and coach, Comer opted to focus on the present.
“These kids don’t have a clue what happened in 1985,” Comer said. “I’ve never shown them my rings. This is just sweet for the guys who have played on this team since 2006, who’ve gone from three wins in a season to four, to five, and now to have nine with that trophy in their hands.”
Brownsburg quarterback Robby Robbins rushed for 105 yards and four touchdowns and passed for another to lead the Bulldogs (9-3) in a contest they led from start to finish.
“We just came out and got on them early,” Robbins said. “Then we didn’t look back.”
The teams traded punts to begin the game.
Brownsburg reached paydirt on its second drive, when Robbins capped a 14-play, 78-yard march with a 9-yard scamper into the end zone.
Avon threatened on its next possession, but committed a costly mistake.
On that drive, Bulldog Jake Wojcik scooped up a fumble by Malcolm Jones and took off down the left sideline to the Avon 35.
That turnover helped set up a 3-yard TD run from Robbins that stretched the Bulldogs’ lead to 14-0 with 10:33 to go in the second.
“That was major,” Comer said of Wojcik’s recovery. “The best part about it is we were able to score and finish it.”
After another Avon punt, Brownsburg went up 21-0 just before halftime on a 5-yard run from Robbins.
The Bulldogs went to the air in the third quarter.
With 6:42 to go in the period, receiver Levi Roach weaved through traffic and into the end zone on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Robbins that made it 28-0.
Avon got on the board early in the fourth quarter with a 19-yard scoring run by Jones, but time was not on the Orioles’ side.
Brownsburg delivered the knockout punch with 7:49 to go in the fourth, when Robbins ran in a 1-yard touchdown — his fourth of the evening — to push the lead to 35-7.
The Orioles responded with a 17-yard TD strike from Wulle to Kendall Griffin with 4:34 to play, but Darryl Jordan ended any thoughts of a comeback with a 25-yard touchdown run on the Bulldogs’ next drive.
Avon (5-7) finished with a losing record, but downed two traditional Class 5A powers in Ben Davis and Pike on its way to the sectional title game.
“They just outplayed us tonight,” Avon coach Dave Shelbourne said. “If I had the answer, we obviously would have fixed it, but they played awfully well. They came here and played a fabulous game and we needed to play better.”
The road team has won 10 of the last 11 games of the Avon-Brownsburg rivalry.
“I don’t think it means anything and I can’t explain that,” Comer said of the road team’s fortune. “But I certainly didn’t mind coming here. They get up for it.”
Brownsburg hosts Warren Central (10-2) in Friday’s regional opener.
kevin.leibrock@flyergroup.com
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