By E. Shawn Aylsworth
Managing Editor
FISHERS – The day before Halloween – National Candy Corn Day – I went to a monsoon in Hamilton County and a football game broke out. Well, sort of.
Under the worst sideline conditions this sports journalist has ever seen, Class 5A top-ranked Carmel scored the game’s only touchdown on a 15-yard run by junior tailback Devin Brinson midway through the second quarter and overcame sideways rain and ridiculously gusty winds in downing No. 10 host Fishers, 7-0.
The Greyhounds punted nine times, had a punt blocked, threw for zero yards, endured three huge defensive penalties on Fishers’ final drive that reached the Carmel 13 with under a minute to play … and still won.
That’s because – like so many other teams this season – the host Tigers couldn’t put a big enough dent in the Carmel defense when it mattered.
Fishers failed to capitalize after junior defensive back Brian Sutton’s blocked punt early in the fourth quarter gave them a short field at the Carmel 35. After starting at their own 10 with 2:28 left to play, the Tigers ran for two first downs and gained two more on penalties to reach the red zone … only to see senior quarterback Alex Hines’ 4th-and-6 pass to junior tight end Dakota Slaughter batted away by sophomore inside linebacker Justin Todd.
It was a miserable evening, but that was especially true for the Fishers offense. Hines went just 3 of 20 passing for 31 yards, while the Tigers’ ground game averaged only 2.0 yards a carry (38 rushes for 77 yards) compared with Carmel’s relatively spectacular 3.3 average (41 rushes for 134 yards).
And all that came on state-of-the-art Field Turf, sports fans! Attempting to imagine the holy horror this contest would have become in mud would only serve to conjure up nightmares of epic proportion.
“It’s been a lot of wet Friday nights, but somehow we figure out a way to win,” said Carmel coach Mo Moriarity.
STAY TUNED FOR THE REST OF THE GAME STORY – TILL THEN, CHECK OUT THE BOX SCORE AND THE TOTALLY SOGGY PICTURES AND VIDEO!
Carmel 0 7 0 0 – 7
Fishers 0 0 0 0 – 0
C – Devin Brinson 15 run (Jordan Babcock kick)
C F
First Downs 7 8
Rushes-Yards 41-134 38-77
Passing Yards 0 31
Comp-Att-Int 0-2-0 3-20-0
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-0
Punts-Average 9-27 6-37
Penalties-Yards 9-80 1-9
Time of poss. 24:16 23:44
Rushing
Carmel: Devin Brinson 22-60, Jesse Hollander 8-44, Adam Shaffer 10-30, Nick Logan 1-0
Fishers: Tommy Huser 20-62, Sean Hildebrand 5-14, John Cress 2-4, Alex Hines 11-[-3]
Passing
Carmel: Shaffer 0-2-0
Fishers: Hines 3-20-0
Receiving
Carmel: none
Fishers: Huser 2-19, Ben Taylor 1-12