Center Grove celebrated its homecoming on Friday night. Nobody was happier to go home than Pike.
The Class 6A No. 1 Trojans got off to a slow start offensively against the last-place team in the MIC, but a few big plays on defense helped the train pick up steam and eventually pull away for a 49-6 victory, their 21st in a row.
Center Grove (7-0, 6-0) scored just 92 seconds into the game on Pike’s third offensive snap. Quarterback LaKendrick Suttles’ pass out into the right flat was intercepted by Jackson Griffin, who trotted 32 yards untouched to the end zone.
“Just studying film all week, seeing what they like to do on short pass plays, and I just knew the receiver was going to come in,” Griffin said. “I read the quarterback and just took it to the house after that.”
After the Red Devils went three and out, a 60-yard punt return by Mitchell Evans set Center Grove up with first and goal at the 4-yard line. Two plays later, Brandon Wheat scored from a yard out to make it 14-0 with 8:36 on the first-quarter clock.
Pike (0-7, 0-5) gave itself some life when Jordan Jones picked off a tipped pass and receiver Christian Peterson completed a 45-yard pass to Malachi Jackson. A 27-yard run by Jeremiah Berry set up first and goal at the 3, but the Red Devils were stymied on four straight plays by the Center Grove defense.
The Trojans then turned the ball over again at their own 19 to give Pike another red-zone opportunity just seconds into the second quarter, but the defense again held and the Red Devils’ field goal attempt was blocked by senior defensive lineman Isaac Chandler. Center Grove then put together its first sustained offensive drive of the night, going 80 yards in 12 plays. Micah Coyle finished it off on a 23-yard draw play, stretching the margin to 21-0 with 4:06 to go in the half.
Things snowballed quickly on the visitors after that.
A muffed snap was smothered by Trojan lineman Carl Biddings IV at the Pike 14, and on the very next play Tayven Jackson found Eli Hohlt wide open over the middle for a touchdown at the three-minute mark. Right after the halftime homecoming festivities, Brandon Wheat took the third-quarter kickoff 80 yards to the end zone, and Nolan Foley’s PAT put a running clock in place for the remainder the night.
“We were just solid,” Center Grove coach Eric Moore said. “(Caden) Curry and (James) Schott had so much pressure, and Biddings did a good job. Linebacker play, again, was awesome; it’s been that way all year … and I thought our receivers played well tonight too; we made some catches. It was a fun game.”
Coyle scored again on a 14-yard run midway through the third quarter. Pike broke up the shutout with six and a half minutes to go on a touchdown pass from Akim Abdur-Rahim to Justin Jones, but the Trojans answered with a 28-yard TD run by Rylan Cook to close out the scoring.
Earl Ridlen had a pair of fourth-quarter interceptions for Center Grove, which hosts 6A No. 8 Lawrence North next week.
As tempting as it might have been for the Trojans to look past the winless Red Devils, that’s not how this juggernaut rolls.
“We just take everything one practice at a time, one game at a time,” Griffin said. “We’ve just got to stay focused, can’t get ahead of ourselves, and play as a team.”
