Center Grove’s Nolan Rees runs the ball during Friday’s opener against visiting Westfield.
Chris Williams | For the Daily Journal
For the first eight-plus minutes of Friday night’s season opener against Westfield, Class 6A No. 3 Center Grove looked every bit the part of a state championship contender.
The fourth-ranked Shamrocks spent the rest of the night raining on the Trojans’ feel-good Friday.
A disastrous second quarter proved too big a momentum shift for a last-ditch comeback bid to erase, as Center Grove saw an early 15-point lead quickly dissolve and turn into a 34-28 defeat.
Westfield had lost to the Trojans in the 2020 and 2021 championship games, but the teams hadn’t met in the regular season since 1959.
“A couple of penalties and some unfortunate plays on our behalf,” Center Grove coach Eric Moore said. “All the credit to them for making their plays, but we gave them a lot tonight that we shouldn’t have. The offense rolled for the first 30 plays, and then we just shot ourself in the foot. And then momentum — I tell you, high school football. Momentum is crazy.”
The Trojans carved their way through the Shamrock defense on their opening possession, marching 80 yards in 10 plays. Senior Gabe McWilliams completed all five of his passes on the drive, hitting on four short strikes before finding Tristan Baxter for a 32-yard gain to set up first and goal at the 4. On the next snap, Jack Browning took a handoff and bulled his way into the end zone at the 8:01 mark of the first quarter.
After the Center Grove defense forced a Westfield punt, it was more of the same. This time, the Trojans went 71 yards in seven plays, with most of the damage coming on two McWilliams throws to Brevin Holubar. The first, which saw Holubar pull it in along the sideline against tight coverage, was a 27-yard gain to the Shamrocks’ 30-yard line. The second, three plays later, was to the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown that made it a 14-0 game with 3:37 left in the period.
McWilliams was 8 of 9 for 115 yards on those first two drives, with Holubar catching six of them for 78 yards.
A Trojan penalty on the next kickoff gave the Shamrocks a short field, and they took advantage of it, putting together a drive that was finished off by a 7-yard Mikeah Webster touchdown run on the first play of the second period. Center Grove blocked the extra point, though, and promptly went the other way for another score to push its lead to 21-6. The third TD drive covered 75 yards on 11 plays, with a 33-yard pass from McWilliams to Drake McClurg setting up a 6-yard touchdown rush by Nolan Rees with 6:45 to go in the half.
The rest of the night was not kind to the Trojans.
Westfield caught the Center Grove defense slipping on its next series, using some trickery just 22 seconds later to cut back into the deficit. Gabe Aramboles caught a short pass behind the line of scrimmage and then fired a deep ball to a wide-open Parker Knott for an easy 58-yard score. The momentum continued to swing the Shamrocks’ way when the Trojans fumbled the ball away on their next play from scrimmage at the 22-yard line.
Center Grove got goal-line stops on second and third down inside the 1, but Westfield quarterback Carsen Melvin dove in on fourth down for the touchdown. The Shamrocks didn’t go for two and the tie, instead kicking the extra point to creep within a point, 21-20, with 3:27 remaining before the break.
A Trojan three and out, followed by a tipped punt, gave Westfield the ball in Center Grove territory again at the 44 with more than two minutes on the clock. The visitors couldn’t cash in — but Knott’s punt stayed out of the end zone, deflected off of a Trojan player and was recovered by the Shamrocks at the 1-yard line with 33.9 seconds left. Melvin scored on the next play to send Westfield into the locker room with a 27-21 lead.
Halftime didn’t do anything to shift the momentum. The two teams swapped punts to open the third quarter, but the Shamrocks made good on their next possession, capping a 96-yard drive with a 70-yard deep ball from Melvin to Aramboles. Center Grove marched inside the Westfield 20 at the end of the period, but a pair of incomplete passes ended the drive.
Moore chose not to comment on the critical punt play after the game.
On its own 8 with 6:18 left in the game and its hopes on life support, Center Grove sprang to life with its best drive of the night. Rees got the ball into Westfield territory with a 27-yard run, and McWilliams found Baxter over the top on the next play for a 40-yard score that brought a moribund home crowd to life and made it a six-point game with 4:49 left.
Rees finished the night with 108 yards rushing on 20 carries. McWilliams passed for 328 yards, with Holubar (nine catches for 116 yards), McClurg (six for 74) and Baxter (four for 85) accounting for most of that total.
The Trojans had an opportunity to grow the momentum with a third-down stop, but Melvin found an open Aramboles to move the chains and put the ball in Center Grove territory. After a Webster run to convert another third down, the Shamrocks were able to kill off the remaining clock.
Center Grove’s defense took a big hit when lineman Ryder Woolwine, a third-year starter, went down early in the game and was later seen on crutches with a brace on his left knee. The extent of his injury was not yet known — but it made a difference on Friday.
“We’ve never had these kind of injuries,” Moore said of what was already a shorthanded defensive front. “We’ve got to figure out a way to overcome them and play — and we did. … We’re still in the game at the end there if we can get a stop.”
Week 2 will have the Trojans back at home for another battle against a former state final opponent, as Fort Wayne Carroll, the 6A runner up in 2022, pays a visit.
