Warren Central quarterback Keith Jackson is swallowed up by a trio of Center Grove defenders during Friday’s regional.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
With temperatures feeling far more Novemberish than they were just a couple of days ago, Center Grove’s offense never really got fully thawed out on Friday night.
The Trojans’ defense more than made up for it, pitching a shutout to preserve a 14-0 home victory over former MIC rival Warren Central in a Class 6A regional battle.
Second-ranked Center Grove (11-1) — which has now won six consecutive regional titles and 14 in the last 16 years — will travel to No. 3 Ben Davis for a semistate showdown next Friday.
“Defense wins championships, and we won the regional championship because our defense came out and showed out tonight,” Trojans coach Eric Moore said. “Played with great character and technique, well coached. Everything about it was awesome.”
All of the scoring came during the third quarter.
Center Grove’s Brevin Holubar returned the the second-half kickoff to the Warren 43-yard line. The Warrior defense forced the Trojans into fourth and 5, but the host team went for it and Tyler Cherry threw across the middle to Noah Coy, who juked a couple of defenders and broke free for a 38-yard touchdown.
Following a Warren Central punt, the Trojan offense put together a 10-play, 70-yard scoring march that featured a pair of third-down conversions and ended with a 9-yard pass from Cherry that found Coy on the left side of the end zone with 4:02 to go in the period.
The Center Grove D did the rest.
After two Chazz Corley catches gave the Warriors first and goal at the Trojans’ 9-yard line in the early seconds of the fourth quarter, an errant pitch was scooped up by A.J. Beggs at the 20. The next Warren Central drive also moved into Trojan territory, but a deep pass by Anthony Dennison was intercepted by Brody Boswell with 5:41 remaining.
The Warriors (5-7) got one last shot but turned it over on downs with 1:31 left.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been as upset at halftime,” Moore said. “(But) I told them, ‘We’re going to come out here, we’re going to take the ball down and score, and the defense is going to stop them — maybe a turnover, I don’t know — and we’re going to take it again. And we did, and that was the game.”
Both defenses stood their ground during the first half.
Warren Central drove across midfield on the night’s first possession, but the Trojan defense came up with a fourth-down stop at the 37-yard line. From there, the Center Grove offense used a 21-yard Matthew Yoder run and a 19-yard catch and run by Noah Coy to move into the Warrior red zone, but the visitors also held on fourth down to get the ball back at their own 6.
A 41-yard heave from Dennison to Corley set the Warriors up with first and goal at the Trojans’ 8, but a couple of penalties stalled the drive and a 35-yard field goal try was deflected at the line with 18.8 seconds left in the first quarter. Warren got the ball back two minutes later when a Tyler Cherry pass was picked off by Jovan Starks and returned to the Center Grove 42, but the Warriors went three and out from there.
Midway through the second quarter, Warren Central’s La’Dre Harris intercepted Cherry again at the Trojan 34-yard line — but the Center Grove defense held once again, forcing a fourth-down incompletion at the 24. Each side had one more fruitless possession before the break, and the game went into halftime still scoreless.
Coy finished with seven receptions for 89 yards and Cherry was 15 of 25 passing for 195 yards for the Trojans, who finished with a 307-276 edge in total yardage. Corley (four catches, 138 yards) accounted for half of the Warriors’ offensive output.
Despite the offensive struggles, Moore knew his team was bound to pull through eventually and pick up its 11th straight victory.
“This is the best group of kids dealing with adversity I think I’ve ever been around,” he said. “We’re like a bunch of pros out there; nothing bothers them.”
