By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – After making some Millers history last week at Lucas Oil Stadium, Logan Shoffner picked up right where he left off in the Noblesville football team’s first home game of the season Friday.
The senior running back scored three touchdowns, helping the Millers to a 42-0 win over Homestead at Beaver Materials Field. It was the first time Noblesville shut out an opponent since Week 2 of the 2020 campaign (Aug. 28), when it beat Terre Haute South 50-0.
“I’m just happy for our kids,” said Millers coach Dave Sharpe. “We’ve worked really hard. We know that we’re capable of doing this. It was a great night by everybody, a total team win.”
The Millers took care of business early with two touchdowns in the first quarter. Gage Gulley punched in the first score from the one-yard line, then Shoffner took off on a 50-yard blast for the second touchdown, which was followed by a two-point conversion run by Gabe Bellan.
Noblesville’s Gabe Bellan ran in a two-point conversion for the Millers. (Kent Graham)
Shoffner scored again in the second quarter with a 10-yard run. Gulley added another touchdown run, and Noblesville led 28-0 at halftime. Jack Letourneau made extra-point kicks for both second-period scores.
Shoffner added his third TD of the game midway through the third quarter. A Letourneau kick made the score 35-0, and the remainder of the contest was played under a running clock. Brody Gump scored a fourth-quarter touchdown to add to the total, with a 26-yard run to the end zone, and Letourneau finished the night with another good kick.
The Millers ground up 351 yards on the ground. Gulley totaled 124 yards, with Shoffner gaining 102 yards. Jacob Baker adding 27 yards of passing, with Aiden Brewer totaling 23 receiving yards.
“I think we’re executing, because our goal is to get four or five yards every play,” said Shoffner. “And we’re hitting that plus some, so I think that allowed us to push the ball down the field and end up in the end zone at the end of the drive.”
Shoffner broke the Noblesville career rushing record last week during the Millers’ win over Mount Vernon at Lucas Oil Stadium. Shoffner said his goal “wasn’t really to break the record, I was just going out there to play and try to get a win, but it ended up happening, so it was a cherry on top.”
Meanwhile, Sharpe was equally happy for his defense, noting that Noblesville’s defensive players were “really ashamed of themselves because of the fourth-quarter touchdowns against Mount Vernon” in last week’s game.
“They came out on fire,” said Sharpe, who named about defensive player under the sun: Austin Hastings, Gavin Kinyon, Carson Cox, Jackson Peterson, Cole Richardson and Carter Richardson.
“It gives us momentum,” said Shoffner. “We’re not as worried, because we know that if we mess up or we have to punt – but we didn’t – but we know if we have to that they got our backs and they’re going to stop them next drive.”
The Millers are 2-0 and play at home again next Friday, beginning Hoosier Crossroads Conference play against Fishers.
“Our kids will be excited to play one of our rivals,” said Sharpe. “We can’t celebrate this one for more than a few minutes. We got to get the Tiger film on our laptops and computers and we got to start breaking them down. The kids, they’ll get over this one real quick. They know that there’s going to be some big-time matchups here as the conference season opens up.”
Shoffner said that the team is getting “locked in,” because he noted that the HCC “is no joke.”
“The competition is crazy good, so we got to really lock in this coming week,” said Shoffner. “We got Fishers coming up at home, so we got to get prepared for that and be ready to go. We got to wash this out, even though it’s a good win. We got to keep moving forward, but carry that momentum with us.”
NOBLESVILLE 42, HOMESTEAD 0
Score by Quarters
Homestead 0 0 0 0 – 0
Noblesville 14 14 7 7 – 42
Team Stats NOB
First Downs 22
Rushes-Yards 47-351
Yards Passing 27
Comp-Att-Int-TD 15-24-0-1
Penalties-Yards 1-15
Noblesville Scoring
First Quarter
Gage Gulley 1-yard run (kick failed)
Logan Shoffner 50-yard run (Gabe Bellan run)
Second Quarter
Shoffner 10-yard run (Jack Letourneau kick)
Gulley 4-yard run (Letourneau kick)
Third Quarter
Shoffner 25-yard run (Letourneau kick)
Fourth Quarter
Gump 26-yard run (Letourneau kick)
Noblesville individual stats
Rushing: Gulley 20-124, Shoffner 8-102, Gabe Bellan 10-42, Gump 2-33, Jacob Baker 5-31, Bryce Englert 2-19.
Passing and receiving yards were unavailable and will appear in a later edition.