NEW ALBANY — In the first half, they sputtered. In the second half, they made a statement.

After ceding a 14-0 lead to visiting Bedford North Lawrence at halftime, New Albany scored 18 unanswered second-half points to defeat the defending Class 5A, Sectional 8 champion Stars on Friday night at Buerk Field, 18-14.

“This was hopefully a statement win for us,” New Albany coach Charlie Fields said. “We have a tremendous amount of respect for what Bedford is. They are our sectional champion, and we knew this was not going to be easy. They were the best, I felt, 0-3 team in the state. Champions don’t go down easy.”

It was a tale of two halves for the Bulldogs, who managed to gain just 8 yards the entire first half of the contest. But down 14 after allowing Bedford to convert a fourth-and-25 and score with just seven seconds left in the first half, the home squad showed no signs of quitting.

New Albany (3-1, 2-0 Hoosier Hills Conference) opened the second half with a successful onside kick and drove to the Bedford 10-yard line before the drive sputtered, resulting in a 27-yard field goal by Vincent Falcone to get on the scoreboard.

It looked as if the Stars (0-4, 0-2) would extend the lead on their second drive of the third quarter after driving from their own 22 to the New Albany 30 on just seven plays. But back-to-back sacks of Bedford quarterback Jesse Millikan by New Albany’s Marquil Hastings gave the ball back to the Bulldogs on downs, and the home team capitalized on the ensuing drive.

After completing just one pass for 2 yards in the first half, New Albany quarterback Michael Diehl completed passes of 23 and 27 yards on the drive, the second a shot down the middle of the field on fourth-and-4 from the Bedford 27 to Ravon Wright for a touchdown. A Diehl run was good for the two-point conversion, and New Albany was within three, 14-11.

New Albany running back Tuwan Payton had trouble getting going for much of the contest, but he saved his best stuff for the final drive of the game. Payton gashed the Stars for 50 yards on five carries in the last possession, including a 9-yard run down the left sideline to put the home team ahead for good.

“Our offense is such that everybody’s going to have a game,” Fields said. “Some games, it’s going to be Tuwan, some games it’s going to be Michael, some games it’s going to be Ravon. We’re not one-dimensional. When we have to be two-dimensional, we have that in our ability. We just haven’t had to do that yet. The kids have that confidence that we can play.”

New Albany’s halftime adjustments were the difference, but the first half was all Bedford.

After forcing a New Albany three-and-out to open the contest, Bedford flexed its muscles on its opening drive, chewing up 75 yards on an 11-play drive capped by a 6-yard touchdown run by Kole Korvela. The Bedford senior carried the ball twice on the drive for 15 yards. Also for the Stars, Millikan completed 2-of-4 passes for 31 yards and rushed for nine more on the drive, Jade Daab picked up 16 yards on three rushes and Ben Manzenberg had both catches.

The Bulldogs slowed down the Bedford offense for much of the first half after the opening drive, but disaster struck in the waning minutes of the second quarter. After starting a drive from its own 20 with about 6 minutes to go, Bedford drove all the way down to the New Albany 14, but a slew of penalties on the Stars pushed the visitors all the way back to the 38. On fourth-and-25 from the 28, Millikan connected with Daab on a 26-yard completion. Millikan ran it in around the left edge on the next play to make it 14-0 Stars.

“They were so much better than us last year that it wasn’t even funny. So [the New Albany players] had that in the back of their minds,” Fields said. “But I challenged them at halftime to learn from their lesson against Castle [last week, where] we were down 14-0 against Castle and very similar in that we didn’t have the confidence that we could play with those guys, and they learned their lesson. I can’t say enough, first, about those kids and my assistant coaches. Those guys were phenomenal tonight.”

New Albany will host Class 4A No. 2 Columbus East next Friday.



BEDFORD NL    7 7   0 0—14

NEW ALBANY    0 0 11 8—18

First Quarter

    B—Korvala 6 run (Evans kick), 5:37.

Second Quarter

    B—Millikan 3 run (Evans kick), 0:07.

Third Quarter

    N— Falcone 27 kick, 8:34.

    N—Wright 27 pass from Diehl (Diehl run), 0:02.

Fourth Quarter

    N—Payton 9 run (Falcone kick) 1:32