By RICHIE HALL
The Carmel football team dropped its Week 1 game on Friday, as Trinity Lutheran pulled away from the Greyhounds in the second half to take a 17-7 victory back home to Louisville.
The Greyhounds started out solid on defense, and held a 7-3 lead at halftime. But the Shamrocks wore down Carmel’s defense in the second half, scoring one touchdown each in the third and fourth quarters and keeping the Greyhounds’ defense on the field for extended periods.
“It’s hard to play defense that long,” said Carmel coach John Hebert. “Our offense needs to help us out. Our offense didn’t have very many drives. The defense was on the field too long.”
Still, Hebert credited his defense with fighting “really hard.” It was evident the Carmel defense came to play, was Will Heldt made a tackle for a two-yard loss on Trinity’s first play of the game.
“He’s one of the best players in the state and I thought he played really hard and did make plays,” said Hebert.
The Shamrocks were able to grind down the field and eventually settled for a 27-yard field goal by Kellan McLaughlin midway through the first quarter. Those would be the only points of the period.
Carmel scored its touchdown in the second quarter on a spectacular play. Quarterback Jack Kazmierczak got out of trouble and threw to Blake Matthews, who took off into the end zone for a 76-yard score. Ben Sponsler followed that up with the extra-point kick.
Blake Matthews turned a
nice catch into a 76-yard touchdown run for the Greyhounds during their game with Trinity Lutheran Friday at Carmel Stadium. (Joshua Herd)
As a result, the ‘Hounds led 7-3 at halftime. Trinity took back the lead with 4:02 left in the third quarter on a one-yard quarterback sneak by Drew Allen. The Shamrocks scored again in the fourth period when Allen threw a 29-yard touchdown pass to Clint Sansbury.
“Hats off to them,” said Hebert. “They executed and played really well. And they were very mentally tough. And maybe we can learn from that, too.”
Nick Beidl led the Carmel rushing with 104 yards.
The ‘Hounds play at Center Grove next Friday.
TRINITY LUTHERAN 17, CARMEL 7
Score by Quarters
Trinity Lutheran 3 0 7 7 – 17
Carmel 0 7 0 0 – 7
Team Stats TLHS CHS
First Downs 19 7
By Rush 10 2
By Pass 7 4
By Penalty 2 1
Rushes-Yards 4-202 21-44
Yards Passing 153 149
Comp-Att-Int-TD 14-22-0-1 6-15-0-0
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0
Penalties-Yards 8-47 2-25
Punts-Average 3-36.7 5-31.2
Carmel Scoring
Second Quarter
4:19 – Blake Matthews 76-yard pass from Jack Kazmierczak (Ben Sponsler kick)
Carmel individual stats
Rushing: Nick Beidl 15-52, Alijah Alfayyad 3-10, Desmond Duffy 1-2, Kazmierczak 2-minus 20.
Passing: Kazmierczak 5-13-104, Cam Carmichael 1-2-45.
Receiving: Reece Bellin 3-65, Matthews 2-87, Beidl 1-minus 3.