Tyler Cherry came into Friday night fresh off of the best performance of his young varsity career in Center Grove’s comeback win at Ben Davis last week.
The junior managed to one-up himself this week.
Cherry picked the North Central defense apart to the tune of 233 yards and three touchdown passes, all to classmate Noah Coy, and the Trojans’ D pitched its first shutout of the season in a comfortable 36-0 home win.
“We had a great game plan going in this week,” said Cherry, who completed 12 straight passes after missing on his first. “All the passes that we called, everything looked open, so we knew we were going to have a great passing attack this week.
“When the guys can get that open, it’s just so much easier.”
The Class 6A No. 2 Trojans (4-1) went three and out on their first offensive possession, but a defensive stop and a solid punt return by Eli Hohlt gave them the ball back just shy of midfield, and three snaps later Cherry went over the top to an open Coy for a 47-yard touchdown.
North Central (0-5) appeared to be making some headway on its next drive, moving from its own 15 to the Center Grove 42 after a personal foul penalty, but a couple of holding flags and some tackles for loss quickly stalled the momentum, and the Trojans forced a punt. Cherry again struck on the third play and found a slanting Coy, who outran the Panther secondary for a 42-yard touchdown. A two-point run by Micah Coyle put Center Grove up 15-0 with 8:53 to go in the half.
After forcing another punt, the Trojans ate up most of the remaining second-quarter clock with a 13-play, 83-yard march. Cherry was 4 of 4 passing on the drive, but most of the work got done on the ground. Five different players got carries, with Jalen Thomeson hurdling a couple of defenders on an 11-yard run to set up first and goal and linebacker-turned-back Owen Bright finishing things off with a 1-yard run just 23.4 seconds before halftime.
That 22-point cushion would have been more than enough given the visitors’ offensive struggles. North Central was outgained 213-71 in the first half, and even those 71 yards were largely undone by ill-timed penalties. Both drives that saw the Panthers venture into Center Grove territory during the first 24 minutes saw them pushed back out before ultimately punting.
North Central finished with just 119 yards of total offense
“I’m proud of the way our kids played,” Trojans coach Eric Moore said. “The defense was awesome all night.”
Cherry, who completed his last seven passes of the first half, picked up where he left off to start the third period by hitting Zach Greller for a 58-yard gain. Three plays later, Cherry went back to Coy in the front left corner of the end zone for a 17-yard TD at the 9:32 mark.
“We’ve always been neighbors, we’ve been friends, so we’ve always had a connection since we were young,” Cherry said of Coy.
Following a turnover on downs by the Panthers, Center Grove tacked on another score. Facing third and 25 from the North Central 42, Cherry linked with Eli Hohlt for a 20 yard gain to set up a manageable fourth down. Thomeson took advantage, finding a seam and taking it the distance for a 22-yard touchdown with just seconds left in the third quarter. That triggered a running clock for the final 12 minutes and change.
Center Grove will be back at home next Friday against Lawrence Central.
“We didn’t have a lot of mistakes (tonight),” Moore said, but next week we’ve got to be extremely clean. It’s going to be a really physical battle next week.
