By CRAIG ADKINS
It didn’t take long for the Noblesville Millers to get their first points on the board on Friday night in Arcadia, and they would do it early and often, on their way to a 45-0 victory at Hamilton Heights for the Millers’ first win of the season.
On the second play from scrimmage, junior quarterback Grant Gremel showed off his legs, breaking off a run up the Miller sideline 61 yards for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead just 36 ticks into this Hamilton County battle.
After forcing Heights to punt on their first possession, the Millers were back at it again. This time, Gremel used his arm, finding sophomore Jaden Barrett all alone on a streak route for a 33-yard touchdown pass to make it a 14-0 score.
All night long, it seemed like the host Huskies just couldn’t get into any sort of rhythm offensively.
“I thought we played really well against Northwestern, but they don’t compare to a 6A Noblesville team,” Hamilton Heights head coach Mitch Street said about his team’s play tonight versus last week’s win over Northwestern.
“For us, we didn’t execute a lot of things very cleanly. I thought we were banged up a little up front, which is part of it perhaps. We weren’t able to get much of a rhythm. You can credit Noblesville for that, I think, a lot, but at the same time we’ll take a look at the film and see where we’re at too,” said Street on his team’s effort tonight against an improved Noblesville team.
The Millers continued their scoring early in the second quarter and it came on a huge third down and 18 at the Heights 43. Gremel called his own number again, racing 43 yards to the end zone for a 21-0 count.
After another Husky punt and the Millers returned it into Heights territory to the 47. The Millers got into field goal range for junior Jack Knight and he showed off his foot again from long range, getting a 44-yard kick just over the crossbar, pushing it to 24-0.
The Millers weren’t done showing their offensive abilities in the first half. Noblesville sustained a drive and ate some time off of the clock before junior tailback Luke Blevins sprinted to the front right corner of the end zone and it was a lopsided 31-0 lead at halftime.
Noblesville’s offense was now fully in cruise control. Just a few minutes into the third quarter, Gremel threaded the needle and connected with Zach Gruver on a 32-yard TD pass upping the Millers’ lead to 38-0.
A game like this for Noblesville gives them a chance to see different looks and figure out what works well offensively and what they need to work on.
“I think he’s playing with a great deal of conviction right now,” Noblesville head coach Jason Simmons said about his much improved quarterback Grant Gremel.
“He’s not taking things for granted, in any way, shape or form. He’s really become a dual threat kid for us that is getting better every week. He embodies what we want as a football team, and that’s to get better each and every day,” Simmons praising the growth of junior QB Grant Gremel.
“Our goal was to get better as a football team every day this week,” said Simmons on his team’s improvement every day this week.
“That was priority number one for us. We knew we were going to see man coverage; we had to get better vs. man coverage, because earlier this year we were not very good versus it,” Simmons on his defense getting better tonight against man defense.
Hamilton Heights’ Corbin Lawson intercepted a pass, one-handed at the 10-yard line. But on the first play of the ensuing drive, Eric Alden coughed the ball up on his only carry, giving the ball back to Noblesville at the Huskies’ 10.
Two plays later, sophomore Anthony Reel score his first varsity touchdown from four yards away that would account for the final score of 45-0.
Hamilton Heights had opportunities to get within range to score, but just couldn’t make it happen. The Miller defense did a great job of keeping the Huskies out of the end zone and off of the scoreboard.
Noblesville (1-5) notches its first win of the season and will hit the road next week and get back to HCC play when they’ll face Hamilton Southeastern (2-4), who lost at Zionsville 30-10 on Friday.
Hamilton Heights (1-5) will get back to Hoosier Conference play when they host Twin Lakes (3-3), 42-27 winners at home over Lafayette Central Catholic Friday night.
Noblesville coach Jason Simmons addresses his team after the Millers defeated Hamilton Heights 45-0 Friday at the Husky Dome. It was Noblesville’s first win of the season. (Richie Hall)
Noblesville’s Jack Newcomer (89) awaits the snap as Hamilton Heights’ Alex Kraus (38) gets ready on defense. (Richie Hall)