Center Grove overtakes Carmel for title (Indiana 5A Championsip)

[Hoot Gibson]

Great game. UK signee Morgan Newton rushed 19 times for 219 yards and connected on 12 of 19 passes for 78 yards and one interception in a losing cause. Carmel dominated for more than three quarters but beginning with the Newton interception, everything began going Center Grove's way.

 

Newton was easily the best player on the field and will be a great addition to the UK roster next fall.

 

Center Grove overtakes Carmel for title

There are no shortcuts to a championship. There are no backdoors to slip through, no free passes.

But this?

 

The top-ranked Center Grove High School football team orchestrated the largest comeback in state finals history, rallying from a 19-point deficit to defeat Carmel 36-33 Saturday night in the Class 5A championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium. The 14-1 Trojans had all the makings of a dream season except one -- beating Carmel. And for a championship that was nine years in the making -- many of the seniors had played together since the fourth grade -- it took a fantastic sprint to get it done.

 

Center Grove recovered two onside kicks to put itself in position to win and scrapped its usually-dizzying wing-T offense for the shotgun in the final minutes.

[tsyoung7]

My brother was at this game, he siad it was a great game. Center Grove is where we all went to school before tranfering to Monroe!!!Great job Trojans. Thier last state championship was in 1989.

[Skunk]

Since this is about KY football, has this team played a KY team just to make some kind of comparison to what they have accomplished?

[westsider]

Since this is about KY football, has this team played a KY team just to make some kind of comparison to what they have accomplished?

We're talking Trinity and St. Xavier level ... public schools with 3,000-4,000 enrollment. In short, big time football.

[Hoot Gibson]

Since this is about KY football, has this team played a KY team just to make some kind of comparison to what they have accomplished?

Neither team played an out of state team this season. The top 5A teams in Indiana are concentrated in the greater Indianapolis area and usually play in state teams. Some of the top private schools (Cathedral, Roncalli, and Bishop Chatard) in 3A and 4A regularly play the top GCL teams. Most of the Indiana teams that play Kentucky teams are located in southern Indiana.

 

IMO, the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference, which includes both Center Grove and Carmel, as well as Ben Davis, Warren Central and several other large schools, is one of the best in the country.

 

According to Massey, here is how the top 10 would look if you combined Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio into a super-state:

 

State	Name	Rating
Ohio	St. Ignatius	2.79
Kentucky	Saint Xavier	2.74
Ohio	Liberty-Benton	2.73
Ohio	Elder	2.67
Ohio	Glenville	2.65
Ohio	Alter	2.64
Indiana	Center Grove	2.59
Ohio	Coldwater	2.38
Ohio	Colerain	2.34
Indiana	Carmel	2.33