“Don’t give up the ship.”
Just a simple five-word sentence, but it made all the difference in Westfield’s gritty 23-20 overtime win over Carmel.
“Our guys like weekly themes,” head coach Josh Miracle said. “It’s a deeper deal for us. Every week is another impact week for our guys … Our confirming statement is to put our guys in a position to win, not just on Friday night, but also in life.”
Leading up to Carmel this week, the theme was to “make it personal.”
“For everyone, it was ‘Why is it personal to you this week?,” quarterback Aiden Grabowski said. “Going forward, I think we are going to carry that on and just make it personal for everyone because I think we can win it all.”
The Shamrocks were sitting pretty in position to win from the jump Friday night, leaning on their formidable defense to shut down the Carmel offense early as Grabowski led the offense to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Carmel would not go down that easily, though, stiffening up on defense and settling down on offense to make it a 17-7 ball game going into halftime.
Both teams exchanged interceptions in the third quarter before Carmel quarterback Anthony Coellner was able to find Jacob Bellin on a goal-line fade to send the game into overtime.
With the Greyhounds getting the ball first in overtime and being forced to settle for a field goal, all Westfield needed was a touchdown to win it.
“We have a pretty elite defense,” Miracle said. “We just made the decision that we’re here to win.”
Now on offense, the Shamrocks put the ball back into Grabowski’s hands on fourth down to go and win the game.
Having exposed the Carmel defense all night with physical, designed quarterback runs, a pop pass on the goal line left tight end Baylor Connor wide-open for the game–winning score.
“Coach Miracle gave us captains the option, and we wanted the win,” Grabowski said. “We’ve run that play at practice for a couple of weeks now and to see it come into a real-life game is awesome.”
Coming off a runner-up finish to Brownsburg in last year’s 6A title game, the Shamrocks knows what it takes to make it to state and will be taking on conference-foe Fishers in the regional championship next week.
“Every season is a little bit different,” Miracle said. “We lost to Brownsburg earlier this year and same with Carmel, you learn a lot from losses. Sometimes you learn more from losses than you do with wins. It’s a week-by-week [approach], there’s going to be some great teams waiting … We’re not looking ahead.”