Under an orange haze in the sky, Ben Davis and Franklin Central fought through to put together
a competitive scrimmage on June 27 at Ben Davis High School. The Giants, who are yearly title
contenders in 6A football, are coming off a MIC Championship and have won their regional in
three of the last four seasons. The Flashes, on the other hand, have not had a winning season
since 2017. However, come August, it does not matter what a team’s record was the previous
season as seniors graduate and underclassmen mature.
This scrimmage was owned by the upperclassman, though. Miami (OH) 2024 quarterback
commit, Thomas Gostkowski, was gashing the Franklin Central defense up the seams all night.
He made smart passes in both 7 on 7 and the full team scrimmage and completed multiple deep
bombs. When the Flashes’ secondary led by Purdue commit Hudauri Hines and Ball State
commit Lauron Johnson would adapt and shift to the seams, Gostkowski would call his own
number on either a designed sweep or scramble and take it up the sideline showing his
athleticism.
Although Gostkowski was picking apart their defense, Hines and Johnson remained strong on
their respective perimeter corners and crashed down hard on the flats often. Johnson came up
with at least one interception during 7 on 7. Hines may have given up a few catches, but
excelled playing true to his zone and never tried to undermine his teammates’ zone
responsibilities as some high-level high school cornerbacks try to do.
When Franklin Central was on offense, they were not able to get much going due to Ben Davis
overpowering them in the trenches early on. It was not until later into the full-team scrimmage
where 2025 quarterback Nevan Tutterow was able to find himself some time to get the ball to
his receivers. The dual-sport athlete had trouble with jump balls in the 7 on 7 portion of the
scrimmage, but was able to settle in and had a beautiful over-the-shoulder throw, and was able
to attack the middle of the field after buying time in the pocket. He was very patient throughout,
scanned the field effectively, and had great poise against a nasty Ben Davis pass rush.
That pass rush was led by linebackers Nylan Brown and Drew Evans, who were controlling the
tone of the scrimmage for the majority of the night. It seemed to be any play within 10 yards of
the line of scrimmage was made by one of them. Brown, who is committed to playing at Kent State
University has all the traits of a Division One linebacker. He has a huge frame, hits hard, fills his
gap, and plays physically. Although Evans played in just five games last year, you cannot notice.
He seemed to make the bigger impact during the scrimmage. He plays with great energy, was
on the punt team, and plays with a lot of swagger. These two senior linebackers lead a scary,
high-energy Ben Davis defense.
Despite the efforts of the hard-running Franklin Central running back Braylen Gillard, Ben Davis
just dominated the ground-game behind their offensive line. There was not much room for Gillard to work with at the beginning of the scrimmage, but he just kept pounding and pounding
until he broke free for a touchdown toward the end. Outside of that, it was all Giants on the
ground. Every time I looked up it felt like 2025 running back Alijah Price had scored another
break-away touchdown. Although a lot of the heavy lifting was done by his stellar offensive line,
Pierce showed great agility, speed, and patience throughout the scrimmage. He is a strong
runner who will be a problem for opposing defenses these next two years.
For Ben Davis, I expect them to be a serious state title contender this year led by elite talent on
both sides of the ball. They bring back a lot of talent from last year and looked like a well-oiled
machine for it just being the end of June.
For Franklin Central, I expect them to be a dark-horse contender for the HCC Title as HSE,
Brownsburg, Westfield, and Fishers all lost a lot of seniors and will need to take longer to reach
their potential compared to this Franklin Central team who returns a lot of starters from last year.
At the very least, they should be breaking that .500 record barrier that has been haunting them
for years.
Overall, it was a fun night of football played by these two 6A programs, which at the end of the day is what these summer scrimmages are all about.