I’m just so proud of Cam Grogan for his efforts in this game. He’s is our offensive and defensive player of the game no doubt.”

Shelbyville Central coach Josh Puckett

Shelbyville Central senior Cam Grogan excelled on both side of the ball to lead Shelbyville Central’s Golden Eagles to a 28-26 win over Coffee County.

The win was the first victory of the season in a Region 3-AAAAAA matchup at the Eagles Nest on Friday night.

Grogan accounted for all four touchdowns for the Eagles.

He hauled in three touchdown passes and collected a pair of interceptions, including one for a touchdown.

“I’m just so proud of Cam Grogan for his efforts in this game. He’s is our offensive and defensive player of the game no doubt,” Shelbyville Central coach Josh Puckett said. 

“He was not going to let us lose this game.”

The Eagle offense showed signs of what it can do in the first half but failed to score as a unit in the second half.

“A thing of beauty is far from what this was offensively,” Puckett said. “We are really struggling with our consistency on offense. The offense finally started clicking in the first half and then in the second half, we just found ways to stop ourselves over and over. Coffee County did make a few plays and we did have a hard time blocking them at times, but I’m having a hard time trying to explain our inconsistency on offense.”

Coffee County scored first when Jahlin Osborne caught a 17-yard pass from Conner Shemwell late in the first quarter. Elijah McCoy connected on his first of three extra points for the 7-0 lead. 

Grogan hauled in a 44-yard pass from Kade Cunningham and Ben Betzelberger kick connected on the kick after to even the score at the end of the first quarter.

The Red Raiders (1-2, 0-1) regained the lead midway through the second stanza when Shemwell scored on a 13-yard run.

Shelbyville Central followed with back-to-back touchdown passes from Cunningham to Grogan before McCoy added a 25-yard field goal late in the half for Coffee County to cut the lead to 22-17 at the intermission.

Grogen intercepted a pass and returned it 55 yards to the end zone, with the ensuing kick after missing leaving the score 28-17.

Coffee County added a safety and another connection from Shemwell to Osborn in the fourth quarter as the Eagles held on late to get the win.

Both teams had five turnovers in the contest.

Along with Grogan’s two picks, sophomore Theo Washington added another interception while Laquan Young and sophomore Logan McBee each recovered a fumble.

“At this point we are not clicking offensively like we were last year but we will get that fixed. I do see little things that excite me about this football program. We are getting more and more competitive on defense and that’s a sign of where we are headed,” Puckett said.

Shelbyville Central was flagged 11 times.

“We do need to clean up some things and cut back on penalties. The penalties we have seem to be those where we are just trying to make plays. Just poor hand placement or a step slow at times. Little things like that are hurting our offense right now.”

Cunningham connected on 13-of-23 passes for 185 yards while Young rushed for 81 yards on 17 carries.

The Eagles (1-2, 1-0) travel to state ranked Riverdale on Friday at 7 p.m.

Coffee County                7   10   0   9 — 26     

Shelbyville Central         7   15   6   0 — 28

First Quarter 

CC – Jahlin Osborne 17 pass from Conner Shemwell, (Elijah McCoy kick), 1:41.

SC – Cam Grogan 44 pass from Kade Cunningham, (Ben Betzelberger kick), 0:07.

Second Quarter 

CC – Shemwell 13 run, (McCoy kick), 8:23.

SC – Grogan 23 pass from Cunningham, (Cunningham run), 6:46.

SC – Grogan 16 pass from Cunningham, (Betzelberger kick), 5:09.

CC – McCoy 25 field goal, 1:02.

Third Quarter 

SC – Grogan 55 interception return, (kick failed), 3:39.

Fourth Quater

CC – Safety, 10:22.

CC – Osborne 10 pass from Shemwell, (McCoy kick), 4:57.

THE YARD STICK

                                                CC           SC

Rushing Yards                        64            136

Passing Yards                         262         185

Total Yards                             326          321

First Downs                             17            15                                   

Penalties-Yards                       8-70         11-88

Turnovers                                5              5                     

Returns-Yards                         4-79         5-107