THE FAR EAST SIDE — Three weeks ago Warren Central’s Cobe Moore was playing tight end in an offense that doesn’t feature the tight end. In other words, he was getting no shine!!! Well playas…fast forward three weeks after being thrust into the quarterback position and he’s like my mother used to say, “Shinin’ like new money this morning!”
The senior quarterback finished going 8 of 17 for 137 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead the Warriors past Center Grove 21-14 in a thriller. When I asked coach Jayson West what he thought of his new quarterback’s performance he said, “He was our tight end three weeks ago, so for somebody that’s never really played quarterback I think he did darn good. It wasn’t his fault. Offenses are an 11-man dance it’s rhythmic and if one person, one bad snap, he had a couple of those hit him. He had a guard step on him. I think about everything that could happen to the poor kid happened to him and so I think he did wonderful.”
He did better than wonderful after a slow start in the first half. The Warriors were down 7-0 at the break and essentially getting man handled by Center Grove who blew several opportunities to put points on the board with a dropped pass in the end zone and a first half fumble in the red zone.
Warren Central regrouped at the break with Cobe Moore settling down and taking control of the game in the second half. On the Warriors first possession of the second half Moore led them on a 4 play 79 yard drive ending with a 55 yard strike to Eli Price to tie it up at 7-7.
At that point the confidence of Warren Central blossomed!! With only 2 returning starters on both sides of the ball from the Class 6A title team from a year ago boyz needed that boost to get them going.
It was a ball game from that point on because Center Grove had come to play even though they were without their All-American running back Carson Steele, “The War Horse,” who was out due to a hamstring injury. Speaking with coach Eric Moore before the ball game he told me that they were simply going to throw several running backs at them and see how they hold up.
Well playas…those fresh legs held up like life preservers. The Trojans kept rotating running backs with fresh legs all night with Conner Delp hitting them for 10 rushes for 120 yards, Mitchell Evans coming through with 11 carries for 82 yards and Daniel Weems hitting them 18 times for 73 yards. The only problem was that the Trojans had 4 turnovers that cost them points. It’s impossible to win a game turning the rock over four times.
After the Warriors knotted it up at 7 apiece the Trojans answered quickly as Mitchell Evans took it 48 yards down the middle of the field to put them up 14-7 with 3:51 left in the third quarter.
Problem? No problem!! Cobe Moore came right back and hit Derek Allen Jr. for a 46-yard strike down the middle of the field to tie it up 14-14 with 11:20 left to play. Talk about a nail biting experience if you were on either side of the stadium.
At that point Cobe Moore puts on the full clown suit complete with the water spitting flower on these boyz. Straight clownin’!!! With 2:50 left to play he hit Eli Price again for a 10-yard touchdown to put the Warriors up 21-14.
Center Grove turns the ball over once again on their very next possession. Luckily they kept Warren from punching it in again. They finally get the ball back with one minute to play and sophomore quarterback Tayven Jackson methodically walks the Trojans down the field like Cam Newton at Auburn. They get to the Warren 9 yard line with 6 seconds to play and can’t stop the clock as it expires. Ball game!! Talk about a great game to kick the season off. NUTS!!!
The inexperience of Warren Central is no more. They grew up in the second half. The resilience that they showed in this game was remarkable. I hope every game in the M.I.C. this year is that exciting. Now stop me when I start lyin’!
Other M.I.C. Scores:
Fishers 26, North Central 0
Brownsburg 29, Ben Davis 24
Zionsville 17, Pike 7
HSE 24, Lawrence Central 20
Perry Meridian 0, Lawrence North 55
Carmel 14, Louisville Trinity 41
