INDIANAPOLIS
Mission accomplished.
When it came up three points short in the Class 6A state championship game a year ago, Center Grove went into the offseason with one simple objective — get back to Lucas Oil Stadium and get the job done. The #Start2Finish hashtag was all over Trojan social media posts all throughout 2020.
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On Friday night, unbeaten Center Grove finished with authority, scoring six times in the first half and cruising home for a 38-14 victory over second-ranked Westfield.
The payoff was every bit as sweet as the players had hoped it would be.
“It’s amazing. There’s nothing else I could have wished for,” senior defensive back Matt Soderdahl said. “Ever since I was young, I’ve always dreamed of this, and getting so close last year and not being able to finish it, it’s incredible. It feels like nothing else.”
Center Grove (14-0) turned the ball over on its opening possession, with Westfield’s Micah Hauser intercepting a Tayven Jackson pass, but the Trojan defense rose to the occasion by forcing a three-and-out, and the offense made good on its second chance by marching 76 yards in 11 plays. Carson Steele put his team on the board first by plowing over a Shamrock defender and into the end zone from two yards out.
After another three-play Westfield possession ended with a shanked 6-yard punt, the Trojans were able to cash in on the short field quickly, needing just five plays to cover 30 yards. Drew Wheat finished the drive off with a 4-yard sweep as time expired in the first quarter.
The Shamrocks made a little offensive headway to start the second quarter, moving into Center Grove territory, but the drive stalled after a third-down sack by Jackson Griffin and the Trojans took over at their own 18. They needed just two plays to score from there — on second and 1, Jackson went up the left sideline to a completely uncovered Trent Veith for a 73-yard touchdown.
On the next Westfield possession, a pass that was tipped at the line by senior Austin Booker eventually found the hands of Soderdahl, who returned it to the Shamrocks’ 36. Steele punched it in from the 1 four plays later to make it 28-0 with 5:44 still remaining in the half.
“Our defense, they were lights out,” Steele said, “and that helped us to push forward with the offense, keep driving down the field.”
The Shamrocks broke up the shutout 98 seconds later, taking advantage of a pair of Center Grove penalties and finding the end zone on a 38-yard pass from Maximus Webster to Mason Piening. But the Trojans answered back with yet another touchdown drive, this one capped by another Jackson-to-Veith hookup from 10 yards out.
Center Grove then forced another punt and got a 28-yard field goal from Austin Watson on the final play of the half, stretching its lead to 38-7.
That was more than enough to hold up the rest of the way.
“We just stayed with our game plan in the first half, and we tried to load a bunch of points on people and try to score in any way we can, and then we know we’ve got a great defense that can just hold everybody, and they did.”
Westfield scored one more time on a 4-yard run by Maximus Webster midway through the third quarter but got no closer.
Steele, Center Grove’s all-time leader in every rushing-related category, capped off his career with a very Steele-like performance, gaining 138 yards on 31 carries and leaving a plethora of bruised Shamrocks in his wake.
“Our defensive line is phenomenal, our linebackers played their butts off tonight like they have all year long, and our offensive line was really good in the first half,” Moore said, “but Carson Steele, the War Horse, is always the difference.”
The championship run came under the strangest of circumstances, with the COVID-19 pandemic eliminating most of the traditional offseason, but the Trojans — widely expected to win it all from the first day of preseason practice, made it work.
“It’s just been hard,” Center Grove coach Eric Moore said of his team running the table this fall. “With the coronavirus, and not knowing who was going to be taken off the team, it’s just hard. It really is mentally taxing for these young men to get through all this, and the parents and everybody else.”
Finally, they can relax and enjoy it for a little while before trying to deliver an encore in 2021.
“We’re just going to do the same thing,” Jackson said. “Try to win, and try to get back here next year. That’s the goal.”
