INDIANAPOLIS
Tyler Watson and P.J. Buck swung the momentum in Center Grove’s direction. Russ Yeast then drove a stake through Ben Davis’ heart.
The senior delivered another Mr. Football stump speech, running for 174 yards and four touchdowns as the No. 1-ranked Trojans steamrolled the Giants, 42-22, in a rain-soaked Class 6A semistate matchup Friday night.
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Center Grove (12-1) will face Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference rival Carmel next Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium, where it will attempt to become the first team to win a repeat state championship in Indiana’s largest class since Warren Central in 2006.
“After the (Lawrence North) game,” Center Grove head coach Eric Moore recalled, “there was a traffic jam, and we had to take 70 on the way home and we drove right by Lucas Oil — and we said, ‘That’s our destination.’”
Ben Davis (9-4) took an early 8-0 lead with an 11-play, 39-yard drive to start the game, and after a Titus McCoy touchdown run cut it to 8-7 the Giants were marching downfield for another score. Watson, though, stepped in front of a Reese Taylor pass for his first interception of the year.
Center Grove failed to capitalize on that takeaway, and Buck faced a heavy rush on the ensuing punt — but the sophomore rolled out and uncorked a bouncing 61-yarder that the Trojans downed at the 4-yard line.
A defensive stop set the Center Grove offense up with a short field, and Yeast took it from there.
His first scoring run, a 22-yarder with 9:38 left in the half, gave the Trojans their first lead at 14-8. Ben Davis was forced to punt on its next possession, and on the next play Yeast used a couple of spin moves to squirm free for a 83-yard touchdown.
Asked to describe the run, which resembled something Barry Sanders might have pulled off on Tecmo Super Bowl, Yeast couldn’t.
“When the ball’s in my hands, I don’t really know what I do until after the play,” he said. “So I couldn’t tell you. I’ll probably have to watch it on film.”
His 18-yard run on the next Trojan possession made it 28-8 with 3:36 remaining on the first-half clock.
After a scoreless third quarter, Center Grove added an exclamation point in the fourth when Yeast punched it in for his fourth touchdown, this one from 5 yards out, to stretch the lead to 27 with 9:53 left.
The Giants found the end zone again on a Taylor pass to Zion Blow at the 7:04 mark, but Center Grove hit back one more time, getting a 3-yard touchdown run by Triston Clark with 47 seconds on the clock.
A meaningless Ben Davis touchdown in the closing seconds wasn’t going to do anything to alter the Trojans’ destination.
Center Grove is back in the state championship game. For Moore, it never gets boring.
“Last year’s team, that was unbelievable, but I’m just as proud of these guys,” the coach stated. “It’s hard to win games in high school in our conference and the schedule we play. I’m just so proud of our guys. They believed in each other.
“Our opponents had no faces this year. We just worry about us; that’s what we do every week.”
Now there’s just one more hurdle left to clear.
