One night earlier this week, I was looking to occupy myself for a few minutes while I was waiting on page proofs — so I started up a game of Among Us and put out a call on Twitter asking if anyone wanted to jump in.
(If you don’t have kids or aren’t a kid yourself, Among Us is the online game of the moment — a modern-day twist on the old Agatha Christie novel "And Then There Were None." Find the killer, or killers, before you get killed.)
A few minutes later, I was being repeatedly murdered by a ruthless gang of Center Grove football players who had no qualms about brutally ending me.
<em>So this is how it feels to go up against the Trojans on the gridiron</em>, I thought.
After a surprisingly suspenseful first half, Eric Moore’s squad played the role of The Impostor once again on Friday night, dominating the final 24 minutes to pull away for a 48-13 win at Ben Davis in a Class 6A semistate.
The grisly deaths I experienced on that virtual spaceship, where various Trojans took turns separating the top half of my animated yellow body from the bottom, perfectly encapsulated the 2020 high school football season. Only difference is that in Among Us, those guys had to at least attempt to be sneaky about it. On Friday nights, the murders have been happening out in the open, and nobody can do a thing to stop it once Center Grove is dialed in.
The Trojans weren’t all the way there during the first half, which ended with the two teams tied at 13. The offense was stalled early on, punting on three straight possessions, and the defense uncharacteristically gave up a couple of big pass plays to give the Giants hope for an upset.
"I just feel like we weren’t wide awake yet," said senior linebacker Trey Clark, one of Center Grove’s ringleaders when it comes to both real-life and online brutality. "(But) we knew that we’re a better second-half team in general anyway, and we just came out and played how we usually played."
When the Trojans do that, resistance is futile. Center Grove outgained Ben Davis 205-9 in the second half, holding the Giants to minus-3 yards rushing for the night and just 15 yards passing after the break. The team has now outscored opponents 551-93 over its 13 games this season, posting five shutouts and not allowing any team to score more than 14 points.
Now, there’s just one more kill to make, and then it’s game over.
"We’ve got to go into Lucas Oil and finish what we started," junior quarterback Tayven Jackson said. "This season has been weird, a lot of different changes, but we have one goal, and that’s to go and win the state championship."
<em>Ryan O’Leary is the sports editor for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.</em>
