Center Grove football routs Decatur Central

<p>You can go ahead and believe the hype.</p><p>A Center Grove team that came into Friday’s season opener ranked first in the state and 25th in USA Today’s Super 25 very much lived up to billing against Class 5A No. 5 Decatur Central, scoring twice in the first three minutes and rolling to a 56-14 victory at Ray Skillman Stadium.</p><p>The teams had been slated to play next week but moved the game up on Monday when both wound up with Week 1 cancellations due to COVID-19. The uncertainty didn’t matter to Center Grove.</p><p>&quot;We were prepared either way,&quot; senior linebacker Jackson Schott said. &quot;We just keep staying ready so we don’t have to get ready.&quot;</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>From the opening possession of the game, when the Trojans forced a three-and-out and Caden Curry followed by blocking a punt, scooping it up and taking it into the end zone, there was no doubt about the outcome — only how bad it would end up getting.</p><p>&quot;You’ve got to flip that field with special teams,&quot; Center Grove coach Eric Moore said of Curry’s punt block — the first of two by the Trojans in the first half. &quot;As soon as that field’s tilted, you’ve got to take advantage of it.&quot;</p><p>The Hawks’ second drive went no better, with Schott intercepting a Peyton Horsley pass and returning it to the Decatur Central 17-yard line. Carson Steele ran to the end zone untouched on the very next play, and the rout was on.</p><p>Steele added another score late in the first quarter on a 2-yard run, and the Trojans built their lead to 35-0 with 4:43 left in the half on a pretty 7-yard scoring pass from Tayven Jackson to Garrett Keith and a 3-yard run by Connor Delp — the first of his three on the night.</p><p>Decatur Central finally got on the board late in the second quarter when Horsley hit Kaleb Hicks for a 29-yard score, but Jackson answered on the Trojans’ next play, leading an open Delp up the right sideline for a 54-yard TD that made it 42-7 with 51 seconds remaining before the intermission.</p><p>Delp scored again, this time on a 20-yard sweep, on Center Grove’s first drive of the second half. Drew Wheat tacked on a long TD run with about eight and a half minutes remaining.</p><p>The Hawks’ second-string offense got back in the end zone to crack double digits with 2:32 left.</p><p>Jackson finished 6 of 9 passing for 146 yards with two touchdowns and an interception before exiting after one third-quarter drive. Steele ran for 64 yards on 10 carries.</p><p>But it was the defense, which also got an interception from Matt Soderdahl, and the special teams that set things off for the Trojans.</p><p>&quot;It was really the defense,&quot; Moore said. &quot;Our defense did a good job of taking things away tonight.&quot;</p><p>Center Grove currently has no opponent lined up for next week, but Moore believes his team will be ready no matter what the coming days bring.</p><p>&quot;We just want to play a game,&quot; he said. &quot;Like anybody, you do all this work in practice and you want to play. … You only get better by playing, and we’ve got a lot of things to fix.&quot;</p><p>This wasn’t a bad starting point, though.</p>