WESTSIDE, INDY — On homecoming night the Ben Davis Giants came out in the all purple joints laced in the pink socks for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and straight showed out like Big Momma would say. Riding a two game winning streak coming into the game they played with crazy confidence. The Giants jumped all over the Carmel Greyhounds before I could bite into me hot dog good. When the smoke cleared BD was walking out of the joint with a 27-14 victory over the Class 6A State Runner-Up from a year ago.
On the very first play from scrimmage BD’s Trent Gipson took the snap and went 77 yards for a touchdown right down the middle of the field. I felt like the dun in the Heineken commercial that turns around to say hi to his boy and everybody starts screaming. When I looked up all I saw was Trent scoring. What the…..
It was like Chris Brown up in that piece “On and Poppin'” after that. Carmel wasted no time answering the bell as they took the very next possession right back down the field as they methodically moved the ball. In less that three minutes we had a ball game that was all knotted up 7-7 after John Rogers scored for the Greyhounds on a 15 yard run.
Trip? No trip! Ben Davis scored on a Zach Fox 33 yard field goal with 2:08 left in the first quarter. Then the onslaught began as BD scored again on a 47 yard touchdown pass from Trent Gipson to Jaylen Nolan. You know it was homecoming so by the time some cats looked up it was 17-7 and they hadn’t even sat down yet. At the end of the first quarter Carmel was stunned by the production of the Giants.
At the break it was 20-7 and it looked at though it was about to be a blow out. However, Carmel went into the break and gathered themselves. They took the opening possession right back down the field and scored burning darn near 8 minutes off of the clock to close the gap to 20-14 on a Christian Williams 1 yard touchdown run.
Williams gave the Greyhounds a spark starting at quarterback after traditionally playing wide receiver. His ability to run it and throw it gave the Greyhounds a new look and an additional threat.
However, Ben Davis didn’t panic as their defense held up. Coach Jason Simmons was like a Las Vegas gambler in the fourth quarter. He had so much confidence in both his offense and defense that he kept going for it on fourth down to try and keep the ball out of Carmel’s hands.
Not only did he go for it on fourth down like three times but two of those were in Giants territory. It was great to watch them gamble and survive.
Carmel finally got the ball back only down 6 points and marching. However, BD junior cornerback Daylan Carnell stepped in like Johnny Gill for New Edition and grabbed a 55 yard pick six with 58 seconds left to seal the deal for Giants. It was NUTS!!!!!
Trent Gipson led the Ben Davis with 145 yards rushing on just 16 carries. Ole boy put up another 110 in the air. Talk about gettin’ loose on homecoming. AJ Hassell did work as well on the ground with 29 carries for 76 yards. Dylan Carnell played both sides of the ball for the Giants coming up big on both ends. That kid is a beast.
Carmel is in good hands with Christian Williams starting at quarterback too. He finished the night with 88 yards rushing on 14 carries while putting up another 169 yards passing. Down the road these two might meet again. I’m just sayin’! Crazy shout to Ben Davis for playing with such confidence. Stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.
2) Ole boy: noun – the person that I’m talking about
3) NUTS: adjective – term used to describe how cool something is or the atmosphere at the time it happened.
