By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – All the great offenses in NFL history had memorable nicknames. Remember the Rams with The Greatest Show on Turf in the early 2000s? The Redskins featured the Fun Bunch in the 1980s. They could fling it, sling it and score it.
Bedford North Lawrence, at this dizzy passing pace, could be worthy of a similar memorable label. How about Brayden’s Bombers? Or maybe Dayson and the Dynamics? Sounds like a heavy-metal band. The Stars are on their way to becoming rock stars with their crazy production. It’s definitely music to the ears, and easy on the eyes.
With the big-play attack at full volume, BNL soared to the top of the charts for a 48-27 victory over dangerous Jeffersonville in the home debut and Hoosier Hills Conference opener on Friday night. Dayson Kirby, the state passing leader, added to his sensational statistics with 404 yards and three touchdowns as the Stars (2-1) bounced back from a frustrating loss with an electric triumph.
From the first play, a perfect strike to wide-open Driven Axsom for an explosive score, to the final play, a third rushing touchdown for Brody Horton, BNL was virtually unstoppable. And it had to be, because the Red Devils (1-2) had three one-play drives for gut-punch touchdowns that kept the Stars in wary mode. But they could not keep pace as BNL finally solved its second-half blahs with touchdowns on its last three possessions.
Kirby went over 400 yards for the third straight week, and he featured different targets. Malakai Goodman caught a pair of 70-plus passes and totaled 170 receiving yards. Axsom snagged four for 129 yards. Horton finished with 96 rushing yards. There was nothing the Stars could not do.
”It’s just a lot of fun,” BNL first-year coach Brayden Tidd said. “It’s playing smart football.”
Scary smart. Jeffersonville coach Joe Washington knew what his team faced, after dissecting the game film from the first two weeks. But tape was deceiving. Live was way better than Memorex. That’s an old-school commercial reference for all those too young to remember cassettes. BNL’s offense is definitely in the digital age.
“We watched a lot of film, and we knew how good the passing game was,” Washington said. “It looked good on film. But I guess it’s one of those things, once you experience it, you just don’t know how good his placement is, and the play calling, how it works. Kudos to them, they have a heck of a thing going.”
The first snap set the tone for a wild night. After Jaden Gilbert’s big kickoff return, Kirby fired a 39-yard strike to Axsom for a score in only 16 seconds. The marching band was not on the field, but neither was it settled into its place in the stands.
Jeffersonville answered that smack to the mouth with its own. Darien Williams slammed up the middle, burst through the line and raced 70 yards for a responding score. Two snaps, two touchdowns, 36 seconds. One minute the Stars were shaking the turf, the next it got deathly silent. When the Devils came back with a score on their second drive, with receiver Nation Roe-McBroom breaking free for a 14-yard zip-line throw from Cordell Thomas, Jeffersonville owned a 13-6 lead and all the momentum.
“From an offensive standpoint, when we got behind, I told them this offense is built for this,” Tidd said. “We were OK. I knew once we got some completions and started moving the ball, we would be OK.”
BNL came back with a brilliant second quarter. Kirby connected with Parker Kern for 35 yards (one of eight Kirby completions of 20-plus yards) to set up a fourth-and-goal touchdown to Dax Short. BNL’s next drive lasted only two plays, when Kirby hit Goodman over the middle, and he won a race down the left sideline for a 70-yard score that had a little extra drama. He got caught from behind, and the defender poked the ball free. But at full speed, Goodman dribbled the ball back to his hands and finished off the breakaway for a 20-13 lead.
“I think I need to lose a few pounds,” Goodman said. “I was a little slow.”
BNL capped the first half with a 72-yard drive that took less than a minute. Kirby found Axsom for 44 yards, then went back to him for 25 more. Two plays later, Horton weaved his way home for a score with 19 seconds left, powering the Stars to a 26-13 advantage.
That got slashed in half when Thomas found Roe-McBroom on a quick slant that turned into a footrace for an 82-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter.
The Stars shifted back into high gear on their next three drives. First one was highlighted by a Jeffersonville secondary breakdown as Goodman came out unguarded and roared 78 yards before being caught from behind. Kirby finished that off with a 3-yard scamper. Second one was Horton’s time to shine as he cracked 12 yards on the first run and 9 yards on the last for his second score and a 40-20 lead.
Once again, the Devils were one-and-done, not in a good way. Williams found a gap and galloped 62 yards on the next snap on the final play of the third quarter. And when the Devils started the fourth by recovering an onside kick, there was some squirming. But BNL’s Dylan Flinn picked off a fluttering deep pass to end that threat.
From there, BNL put together its most impressive drive of the season, simply because most of it was done on the ground. The Stars consumed over seven minutes, wearing down the Devils before Horton finished his hat trick from a yard out with 3:07 remaining.
“We wanted to get the run game going, get moving up front,” Tidd said. “We can do that, too. It was a point of emphasis, to get Brody some love. I tend to get a little lost and get pass happy. He showed up big.”
Kirby finished 18 of 33, and BNL totaled 544 yards while scoring its most points since burning Madison for 50 in 2023.
Roe-McBroom was a constant problem. He caught 8 passes for 145 yards, and Williams totaled 149 rushing yards (with all that coming on three of his 17 carries). Thomas threw for 193 yards, although he got sacked twice by BNL lineman Gibson Crane.
“That’s what we expect from Nation,” Washington said. “Any time he touches the ball, he’s a threat to go the distance. He showed that.”
“That’s a team with a lot of speed and they’re good at what they do,” Tidd said. “I knew if we let them hang around, we would be in a dogfight.”
The Stars were a little insulted by the underdog status pinned on them by the Sagarin ratings and popular football website. The game is played on turf, not online.
“I’m just glad we could come out and prove we are not three points worse than this team,” Axsom said. “That was needed. This entire week, we worked on what we could fix. Our emotions were high, and it was more fans than I’ve ever seen. We were up, even when we were down.”
“Last week was good for us, a little bit of a reality check,” Tidd said. “We’re playing some decent football, so opening up at home with a conference win is huge. It keeps building our confidence. That’s important right now.”
The only BNL glitches were two turnovers and 13 penalties.
BNL will continue the chase for the league title when it hosts New Albany next week. The Bulldogs fell to 0-3 with a 56-0 loss to Brownstown.
Jeffersonville 13 0 14 0 – 27
Bedford NL 6 20 14 8 – 48
First quarter
BNL – Driven Axsom, 39 pass from Dayson Kirby (kick failed), 11:44; Jeff – Darien Williams, 70 run (kick failed), 11:24; Jeff – Nation Roe-McBroom, 14 pass from Cordell Thomas (Maxwell Schoonover kick), 6:00
Second quarter
BNL – Dax Short, 4 pass from Kirby (kick failed), 8:58; BNL – Malakai Goodman, 70 pass from Kirby (Cam Gates pass from Kirby), 6:21; BNL – Brody Horton, 3 run (pass failed), 0:19
Third quarter
Jeff – Roe-McBroom, 82 pass from Thomas (Schoonover kick), 8:09; BNL – Kirby, 3 run (Parker Kern pass from Kirby), 5:15; BNL – Horton, 9 run (pass failed), 0:13; Jeff – Williams, 62 run (Schoonover kick), 0:00
Fourth quarter
BNL – Horton, 1 run (Kern pass from Kirby), 3:07
Team statistics
Jeff – First downs 7 (3 by run, 2 by pass, 2 by penalty); Rushing 25-144; Passing 11-23-1-193; Total yards 337; Fumbles 1 (lost 0); Penalties 6-45
BNL – First downs 16 (5 by run, 11 by pass); Rushing 30-140; Passing 18-33-1-404; Total yards 544; Fumbles 2 (lost 1); Penalties 13-111
Individual statistics
Rushing – (J) Williams 17-149, Thomas 3-(-22), Rice 5-27; (BNL) Kirby 4-21, Goodman 5-23, Horton 20-96, Gilbert 1-0
Passing – (J) Thomas 11-23-1-193; (BNL) Kirby 18-33-1-404
Receiving – (J) Gray 1-14, Roe-McBroom 8-145, Williams 1-(-1), Newby 1-35; (BNL) Kern 3-60, Gilbert 3-15, Gates 3-26, Axsom 4-129, Short 1-4, Goodman 4-170
