Defense rules the game
As was the case in Center Grove’s win against Carmel back on Sept. 2, the defenses dominated Friday night when the Trojans and Greyhounds met again with the Class 6A state championship on the line.
Center Grove’s unit was the more opportunistic one, recovering three Carmel fumbles during the first half and forcing six turnovers overall. Amazingly, those takeaways weren’t enough to prevent the Greyhounds from stealing a 16-13 overtime victory.
The first turnover came when linebacker Bailey Bennett forced a fumble that was recovered by cornerback Brett Boswell. That set up the game’s first score, a 25-yard field goal by Luke Eckert with 2:14 to go in the opening quarter.
Defensive lineman Cole Williams had the second takeaway when he stripped Carmel quarterback Jake McDonald and recovered the loose ball himself. That turnover did not result in any points for the Trojans, but the defense wasn’t done.
Late in the second quarter, Corbin Laque forced a fumble that was scooped up by fellow safety Logan Bontrager. That third takeway set up a Titus McCoy touchdown run with 2:52 left in the half that gave Center Grove a 10-0 edge.
Carmel had cut the deficit to 10-6 and regained possession with a chance to pull ahead in the third quarter, Laque struck again, stripping receiver Ethan Merriweather in Trojan territory. Russ Yeast picked up the ball and returned it 11 yards to the Center Grove 43. The Greyhounds forced a Trojan turnover three plays later, but Bontrager then intercepted a pass at the 1:47 mark of the period.
With 8:26 remaining in regulation, linebacker Sam Bolin stepped in front of a McDonald throw to set the Trojans up at their 25-yard line.
Bontrager wins Mental Attitude Award
Though the night ended in heartbreaking defeat for Center Grove, Bontrager did manage to pick up an impressive consolation prize when he was named the winner of the Phil N. Eskew Mental Attitude Award winner following the conclusion of Friday night’s game.
Bontrager finished his final high school game with an interception, a fumble recovery and four tackles.
“It means a lot, all of the work I put in and everything that my team has worked for,” Bontrager said.
“The Center Grove community is amazing,” Bontrager said of the support shown to the team. “I love every single one of them, they are great people and there is no other community I want to be a part of.”
Anything you can do …
Carmel’s Conner Coghlan set a Class 6A state championship game record with a 42-yard field goal in the second quarter, but he didn’t even hold that mark through the end of the night.
Center Grove sophomore Luke Eckert shattered Coghlan’s mark when he converted a 50-yarder as time expired to send the game into overtime. The longest field goal in state finals history overall was 51 yards by Cathedral’s Ben Allen in 1998.
Eckert actually hit from 50 twice, though only one of them counted. His first try at the end of regulation, wiped out by a Carmel timeout just before the snap, bounced off of the crossbar and over.
The Buck stops here
P.J. Buck has been a weapon for Center Grove all season long, and the sophomore punter has saved his best moments for the postseason.
On Friday night, he struck again.
Midway through the fourth quarter, Buck hammered a 66-yard punt to push Carmel back to its 13-yard line. It was the longest punt in 6A state finals history and five yards short of the overall finals record of 71 yards set by Penn’s Dave Miller in 1997.
It was the second straight game in which Buck had unloaded a punt of more than 60 yards. In the semistate win at Ben Davis, he had a kick that covered 61 yards and was downed at the Giants’ 4-yard line.
Fan support
Friday’s attendance for the Class 2A, 4A and 6A championship games was 25,849. In 2014, those three classes drew 26,439 on a Friday night. In 2015, the attendance for the three classes was 25,402 on a Saturday.
