“Finish.”
It’s a word that has become about as common as “the” among Center Grove’s football players and coaches.
Tonight, that’s exactly what the Trojans will be trying to do.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Left for dead by many after losing its first three games and four of its first five, Center Grove has rallied to reach its fifth state championship game, and it will play longtime rival Carmel for the Class 6A title this evening at Lucas Oil Stadium.
It’s the fifth time that the Trojans have made it to the final weekend of the season — they won state titles in 2008 and 2015 and were runners-up in 2000 and 2016. This one, however, feels different because of what it took to get here.
Center Grove opened the season with consecutive losses to Warren Central, New Palestine and Carmel. But while some looked at the record and started to write the team off, head coach Eric Moore saw something else.
All three games were competitive — the losses to the Warriors and Greyhounds came by seven and six points, and the Trojans led the Dragons 9-7 in the third quarter before running out of gas in the fourth.
“I remember sitting on the sideline after that (Carmel) game was over going, ‘You know, we’re not a bad team.’ We were right there,” Moore said. “It was a 20-14 game that, we could have won the game. So at that point, the next week we win, and things just started changing.”
Indeed they did. Even though the team’s 48-20 rout of Ben Davis in Week 4 was followed by a narrow 24-20 defeat at North Central in the final minute, the seeds had been planted and a young group of Trojans started to grow up.
“I think we were just a pretty young team at the start of the season,” junior split end Trent Veith said. “(Quarterback Tayven Jackson) coming up as a first-year starter; just him growing up over the year, that’s what got us going.”
The maturation process had to speed up, especially on offense, because of the absence of workhorse running back Carson Steele. An All-State performer in 2018, the junior missed the first 11 games of this season with hamstring and foot injuries, forcing newcomers or former bit players such as Jackson, Veith, Connor Delp and Daniel Weems to fill starring roles.
Even in the losses, Moore said, progress was being made.
“Delp, Veith and Weems become men and become players because Carson was on the bench; they had to take over,” he stated. “(Jackson) had to make plays. It got our team so much better; we just couldn’t see it.”
Now, it’s become impossible not to see. Center Grove has won seven of its last eight games, the lone blemish a 14-9 defensive slobberknocker against perennial power Cathedral.
The Trojans have fully hit their stride in the postseason, especially with Steele making his return in the regional victory at Warren Central two weeks ago. He’s not yet in peak condition, but he’s been a major factor in short-yardage situations, and just having him available has helped everyone else’s confidence grow.
But the work that made this turnaround story possible was being done well before Steele was cleared to put pads back on. Following the 0-3 start, Moore and his staff drilled into the players the importance of finishing — finishing plays, finishing drives, finishing games.
All of those games that the Trojans lost were there for the taking, Moore insisted. His team just wasn’t taking them — but he knew that they could.
“We seemed to be just one play away from winning the five games we lost,” he said. “Seriously, one play away; the statistics will show it and the scores will show it. So when we come in Saturdays and then come back Sunday morning for coaches’ meetings, we weren’t ready to jump off the ship yet.
“It wasn’t the fact that we needed to change stuff. We just needed to get a little bit better.”
Game by game, they did. Now, there’s just one more left to finish.
