GREENSBURG
North Decatur’s two decades-long domination of Edinburgh continued much the same way it has for the past few seasons — by keeping the Lancers out of the end zone.
Charger quarterback Alex Stirn threw for three touchdowns to continue Class A No. 16 North Decatur’s win streak against the Lancers, 35-0.
Despite the score, Edinburgh did show flashes of brilliance on both sides of the ball.
“Same old story for us,” Edinburgh coach Jason Burton said. “Our own mistakes did us in. We had three penalties that killed drives, four bad snaps that cost us about 40 yards and tackling later in the game.”
The Chargers have shut out the Lancers eight times since 1997, with Edinburgh’s only series win during that stretch a sectional upset in 2013.
Edinburgh hasn’t won on the field since a 28-26 victory over Wes-Del back on Oct. 7, 2016, and unfortunately for them, it was quickly apparent that Friday night was not going to be the night to change that luck.
Edinburgh quarterback Tyson Sackman fumbled and North Decatur had the ball at the Lancer 24. Four plays later, Stirn found Tyler Walterman in the end zone all alone, and from there the rout was on.
Or was it? Twice in the second quarter and once in the third, the Lancers snuffed out North Decatur drives with solid efforts in the defensive secondary.
Both times, the Chargers were inside the Lancer 15-yard line and both times, they had nothing to show for it.
“If we didn’t make mistakes, this could have been more of a 21-14 game,” Burton said. “It says 35-0 on the scoreboard, but it didn’t seem like it.”
North Decatur (2-0) did start wearing down the Lancers, scoring twice more in the second half to put the game away.
Stirn’s touchdown passes were to Tyer Waterman, Logan Koehn and Noah Howell, the last one a nice 43-yard strike. He threw for 300 yards.
Up next for the Lancers (0-2) is another Mid-Indiana Conference rival, Oldenburg Academy, in what will be their long-awaited home opener. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
