Can’t win if you don’t score.
Can’t score if you can’t cross midfield.
Center Grove’s defense achieved some pretty impressive things in its first two wins of the season. Friday night’s performance against Carmel took it to another level.
The Class 6A No. 1 Trojans posted consecutive Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference shutouts for the first time by blanking the sixth-ranked Greyhounds, 42-0, in the annual Copper Kettle game.
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It was the worst loss for defending state champion Carmel (1-2) since a 49-0 defeat against Ben Davis back in 1999.
Center Grove (3-0) outgained the Greyhounds by a 408-143 margin. It held Carmel to five first downs, all of those in the first half, and allowed just eight yards on nine plays over the final 24 minutes.
Carmel never saw the Trojans’ half of the field, advancing as far as its own 48-yard line once midway through the second quarter.
"Good tackling is what we talked about," Center Grove coach Eric Moore said. "We’ve got to tackle and we’ve got to control the big play. But the big thing is, they have a good running game, so not letting them get 2 (yards) and then stumble into 9."
While Carmel was busy going nowhere, Center Grove marched 63 yards on nine plays the first time they got the ball, getting on the board with a 4-yard toss from Tayven Jackson to senior tight end Garrett Keith. After the defense forced another three-and-out, Center Grove put together a 10-play scoring drive, riding running backs Carson Steele and Daniel Weems for the final six snaps. Steele bulled in from a yard out with 11:07 to go in the second quarter to make it 14-0.
Carmel was able to keep the score there for the rest of the half, bottling the Trojans up on their next three possessions. The Greyhounds were unable to take advantage of the window, though; its offense picked up five first downs but could not get the ball to the 50.
As Carmel found out, Center Grove is not a team you want to play from behind against. The Greyhounds had just three possessions in the second half, and they didn’t move the sticks on any of them.
"Our pass rush tonight, we didn’t get a lot of sacks, but we caused them to throw a lot of bad footballs," Moore said. "I’m sure that was part of their game plan — don’t give up the sack, throw the ball away, but three-and-outs are as good as a sack for me, and that’s what I challenge the defense with every day."
Meanwhile, the Trojans’ offense just kept grinding the game away and padding the lead.
Pinned at its 13 after a penalty on the second-half kickoff, Center Grove tightened the clamps on the Greyhounds with a methodical 13-play, 87-yard march. The key play came on a fourth-and-2 from the Carmel 18, when Weems got free for 13 yards to set up first and goal. The junior got in from the 1 two plays later, giving the Trojans a three-touchdown cushion.
Carmel then went three and out on its lone third-quarter possession, and Center Grove followed by going 64 yards in 11 plays for another score. Jackson picked up a pair of first downs with passes to Connor Delp, and Steele finished the drive by plowing up the middle from 9 yards out. With 11:14 left in the game, the Trojans were up 28 and the Greyhound offense still hadn’t reached midfield.
Steele added a third touchdown on a 3-yard run with 11:14 to go, and Drew Wheat slammed Carmel’s coffin shut by darting up the left sideline for a 30-yard score with about a minute remaining on the running clock.
Center Grove got 133 yards rushing from Steele and 104 from Weems. Delp caught five passes for 44 yards. Senior linebacker Trey Clark paced the defensive effort with six tackles, including one for loss.
"We just all came together and worked as a team," Clark said of the airtight defense, shortly before joining his teammates for a photo with the Copper Kettle. "We still have a lot of improvement, though. We have given up big runs, missed tackles; we still need to work on our tackling a little bit.
"But other than that, we’re pretty solid."
Quite the understatement.
