By RICHIE HALL
This Friday will mark the seventh consecutive year that the Carmel football team has played for a regional championship, and the Greyhounds will do so in a familiar city.
Carmel plays at Homestead Friday for the Regional 2 title. Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m. This will be the fifth time in the past seven years that the ‘Hounds will travel to a Fort Wayne school to play for a regional championship, having been the visitors against schools like Snider, Carroll and Homestead.
The Spartans have been a recent rival for Carmel. The two teams have played each other four times, each game in the regional round. Homestead won the first encounter back in 1998 27-3, but the Greyhounds have won the others, beating the Spartans in 2006, 2015 and 2016.
Homestead will come into the game undefeated at 11-0. The Spartans were a perfect 9-0 during the regular season, with all of those games played against Summit Conference teams – thus Homestead is a conference champion as well.
The Spartans traveled to Noblesville for the Sectional 3 semi-finals, and came from behind to win 24-21 in overtime. Homestead hosted Carroll in the championship game and won 38-14 for the program’s sixth sectional title.
“To begin, Homestead is 11-0 so they have proven that they know how to win football games in a variety of ways,” said Carmel coach John Hebert. The coach said that the Spartans “have a number of very talented players,” and that talent is everywhere – wide receiver, tight end, quarterback, linebacker, defensive backs.
“It’s obvious to me that they are a very tight group that enjoys playing together and making plays,” said Hebert. “It will be will be an exciting challenge to try to limit the production and effectiveness of their great players. No one else has been able to completely do it.”
Junior Luke Goode is Homestead’s quarterback, and he has had a spectacular season, throwing for 2,642 yards and 26 touchdowns, while rushing for two additional scores. Senior Jake Archbold leads in receptions with 37, 12 of them touchdowns. Senior Griffin Little and junior Jared Kistler have made 35 and 30 catches respectively, including six scores each.
The Spartans’ running game is solid as well. Junior Braeden Hardwick has rushed for 957 yards and 15 TDs. On defense, junior Luke Palmer has 87 tackles, 13 for a loss, with senior Camden Rogers making 72 stops, 12 for a loss.
The Greyhounds will head to Homestead with an 8-3 record. Carmel won seventh consecutive sectional title (and 31st overall, a record) by beating Hamilton Southeastern 28-14 and Westfield 35-7. This was after a 6-3 regular season that saw the ‘Hounds finish in a four-way tie for Metropolitan Conference champions.
“The challenge we all face is a lack of familiarity for our opponents when we get to this stage of the playoffs,” said Hebert. “Being able to win those games in the past can be partially credited to our experiences in the MIC and versus other teams in the Indianapolis area. In 2017, we were able to beat a FW Snider team that was better than us because our guys were used to playing great teams. We are again facing a great team on their home field two hours away. Our team is narrowing our focus in order to be as tough and resilient as we can. We know we will have to overcome more adversity in order for our season to go on another week.”
Junior Christian Williams has performed solidly as Carmel’s quarterback, throwing for 824 yards and six touchdowns, and running for five TDs. Junior Colton Parker has 23 receptions, including five scores.
Senior Dylan Downing leads the Greyhounds’ rushing with 795 yards and nine touchdowns, with junior John Rogers getting six scores and junior Zach White five scores. Junior Dominic Padjen leads the defense with 102 tackles (58 solo, 44 assists), followed by senior Ty Wise with 86 (59 solo, 27 assists).
