SPEEDWAY, Ind. — The Speedway Sparkplugs moved to 2-1 on the season and 1-0 in the Indiana Crossroads Conference following a 48-26 victory over the Beech Grove Hornets on Friday, Sept. 6.
Speedway set the tone early when, during a red zone drive, junior quarterback Connor Moreland pitched the ball to wide receiver Vinsin Jean resulting in six points for the Sparkplugs.
Later in the first quarter, after stopping Beech Grove and forcing a punt, junior running back Jazz Coleman took it all the way to put Speedway up 14-0 just halfway through the first quarter.
Beech Grove did not score until about 30 seconds left in the first quarter. Freshman quarterback Bishop Moore found senior wide receiver Jeremiah Lee downfield, who took it to the house for the Hornets' first touchdown of the game.
The second half saw the Sparkplugs score early off a play-action pass. Moreland threw to junior receiver Nai Ma Har for his first touchdown pass of the game. Beech Grove responded later in the quarter when quarterback Bishop Moore found a wide-open Vinsin Jean in the red zone for his second touchdown pass of the game.
Another failed two-point conversion by the Hornets saw a halftime score of 21-12 in favor of Speedway.
Beech Grove senior running back Jeremiah Lee once again broke through for a big run about midway through the third quarter to push the score to 21-18. Lee also scored on the two-point conversion, bringing the Hornets within one point of the Sparkplugs.
The score remained 21-20 until the first play of the fourth quarter when Moreland found Jazz Coleman again for another Speedway touchdown.
From that moment on, Speedway put on a scoring barrage to keep the game out of reach for the visiting Hornets. Down 48-20 with just seconds remaining on the clock, Beech Grove freshman running back Nate Ruth scored a "pride" touchdown, but came just short of the two-point conversion, making the final score 48-26 in favor of Speedway.
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