By CRAIG ADKINS
It seemed like the late afternoon weather of a rain and sleet mix would play into the outcome of this 6A sectional 4 first round match up and it may have. But, that really wasn’t the case Friday night as 10th-ranked Carmel got one step closer to defending their 2016 state championship with a 25-7 win at Noblesville.
The Millers forced the Greyhounds to punt after five plays, but that’s when things got a a little quirky. Noblesville’s Wyatt Blades reached out for Zachary Bradley’s punt and the ball bounced off of his hands and scooted all the way down to the nine-yard line and was recovered by Carmel’s Garrett Sharp.
One play later, tailback Camari Hunt fumbled the ball and Ryan Barnes of Noblesville pounced on it at the seven, where the Millers took over.
“Yeah, I thought Noblesville’s coaches and players did a really great job, really all game long dealing with adversity and fighting through it,” said Carmel head coach John Hebert, complimenting Noblesville’s preparation for this sectional showdown.
“Talking with Coach Simmons, it’s been an odd year for them and it’s been a really odd year for us, so the start of the game was kind of a microcosm of what our season was like and quite a bit of football was played in the second quarter and it was 3-0,” Hebert continued on both teams’ seasons to this point.
Carmel got the first points on the board late in the first with a Matt Fortier 23-yard field goal to make it 3-0.
Noblesville caught a break midway through the second when punt returner Atticus Clouse fumbled a punt return of his own at the 38. Senior linebacker Austin Bridenthal recovered the miscue by Clouse, but the drive didn’t go anywhere, forcing another Miller punt.
Just before halftime, junior tailback Camari Hunt helped increase the Greyhound lead to 10-0 with a six-yard touchdown run.
“Could have been more points on both sides and neither time established themselves. We made a lot of dumb mistakes, too, during that time,” Hebert said about both teams having opportunities in the first half.
The Greyhounds got their offense established right away in the third and didn’t look back.
Hunt busted through the Miller defensive line and sprinted to the end zone 68 yards later for a score. After what was a botched snap on the point-after attempt, holder Atticus Clouse was forced to scramble and converted an inside pitch to kicker Matt Fortier, just before Clouse was tackled. Fortier raced across the goal line, converting the two-point conversion for an 18-0 Carmel lead.
Carmel would put their second score in the end zone of the third on a 20-yard touchdown pass from Gabe Quigley to Atticus Clouse that upped the Greyhound margin to 25-0.
Noblesville’s offense was finally able to maneuver how it wanted to all night. Grant Gremel scored on a quarterback keeper with 8:19 left to make it 25-7, which was set up by a 12-yard pass from Gremel to Zach Gruver down to the one.
“I’ve got to give Noblesville a lot of credit. They very easily could have had their heads down and I didn’t see any of that. They came to fight and that was obvious. It was obvious to me that they’re not intimidated by Carmel and we had a fight on our hands and we had to earn what we could get,” said Hebert on Noblesville’s efforts in the fourth quarter that would turn out to be too little, too late.
Noblesville had a couple more chances on offense to try to cut into the Carmel lead, but those plans were foiled by a Tommy Spraetz interception of a Gremel pass in the end zone for a touchback. On the Millers’ final possession, they turned the ball over on downs at the Carmel 49.
It was obvious all night long that Noblesville was going to put up a fight. That’s exactly what they did, aside from a couple big scoring plays in the third quarter. The Millers were in the game all night long and their effort didn’t go unnoticed by anyone.
The Millers left it all out on the field and head coach Jason Simmons and his staff couldn’t be more proud of their group of young men.
“No question, our kids came into this game believing that we were gonna load up and give ’em the best shot we had,” said Noblesville head coach Jason Simmons on his Millers’ performance Friday night.
“We’re gonna take a look back at it and say that big plays got us and at some point we’re going to sit down as a staff and take a look back at our season and we’re gonna say big plays got us, so we have to go to work on that and we certainly will,” said Simmons on his team’s season and the off-season work that his players and staff have ahead of them.
It’s always tough seeing one team’s season come to an end and players’ high school careers coming to a close, but unfortunately, it can’t last forever.
Grant Gremel helped highlight the final game of his junior season with 25 carries for 90 yards and a touchdown, while fellow junior Zach Gruver caught seven Gremel passes for 100 yards on the night.
The Millers finished a rough 2017 with a 1-9 record, saying goodbye to a great senior class, but also have a lot of underclassmen that will fill their shoes next season.
Camari Hunt led all with 185 yards on the ground on 22 carries with two touchdowns.
Carmel (6-4) extends its season to the 6A Sectional 4 championship game at home next week at Greyhound Stadium against the Lafayette Jeff Bronchos (10-0). The Bronchos ousted the 2016 5A State Champion Westfield Shamrocks on Friday, 27-24.
Carmel’s Camari Hunt (16) makes a run while being chased by Noblesville’s Jazz Terrell (8), Dylan Retherford (46) and Rylan Martin (20) during the Greyhounds-Millers sectional semi-final football game Friday at Hare Chevrolet Field. Carmel won 25-7 to advance to the Sectional 4 championship game. (Kent Graham)
Noblesville’s Grant Gremel (14) looks for space to run as Carmel’s Vance Roudebush (77) and Joey Schmidt (42) defend. (Kent Graham)