by

Craig Adkins

Hamilton County Reporter

It was Senior Night for Noblesville’s at Beaver Materials Field on Friday night and
that always has a special meeting for the players and the community. While it isn’t the
final home game of the season, Noblesville will be on fall break when they host Avon
in two weeks and the HSE game serves as the Senior Night game.

The Millers were in control from the start of the game and took advantage of
numerous HSE miscues on their way to a convincing 21-7 win over the Royals on
Friday night.

After trading punts the first few series of the game, Noblesville’s offense was able to
sustain a solid offensive drive that took over five minutes off of the clock. Grant Gremel
capped off the drive with a four-yard touchdown pass to Wyatt Blades for a 7-0 Miller
lead.
The Royals then put together a good series of their own and it came down to a
fourth down and three at the Miller 17.

Kicker Mitch Hebenstreit missed a 34-yard field goal attempt wide left.
HSE would get the ball back after a Noblesville punt and once again in the
second quarter, the Royals were in prime position to tie the game. Instead, junior QB
Kody Sparks threw on first and ten at the Miller 28 and was picked off in the end zone
by Zach Gruver, his sixth interception of the season.

“We work really hard in the film room. I think for us, we’ve kind of changed the way
we prepare for games,” stated Noblesville first-year head coach Justin Roden on his
team’s game preparation.

“Our kids tonight, especially on defense, there wasn’t anything tonight that they hadn’t
seen,” said Roden on the Miller defense and how they didn’t flinch at anything HSE
brought at them.

The Miller defense showed up early and often and set the tone from the opening
kickoff, limiting the Southeastern offense, but more importantly, keeping them off of
the scoreboard as long as they possibly could.

“If you give them credit, right, there’s a reason they’ve shut out multiple people this
year,” said first-year Hamilton Southeastern head coach Adam Morris on Noblesville’s
defense.

“They’re good. They came out and did stuff a little bit different than we thought and
I thought they schemed us pretty well,” said Morris on the Millers’ offensive effort
against his Royals’ D.

“I don’t think they really gashed us, but we gave up a couple long runs, but overall,
we just didn’t play well enough to win,” said Morris, who was disappointed, but complimented Noblesville’s efforts in beating his Royals.

Noblesville received the third quarter kickoff and didn’t waste any time to get their
second score of the night. First play from scrimmage from the 34, senior tailback Luke
Blevins had a highlight reel run on Senior Night that he’ll never forget. Blevins ran
right into the pile and bounced himself outside his left tackle and was all alone to
the end zone down the HSE sideline for a 66-yard touchdown run, putting the Millers
up 14-0 just 19 seconds into the second half.

After a couple more drives for each offense ending in punts, HSE found their
offense in a hole and forced to punt again.

This time, Noblesville’s special teams came up big.
Eddie Dziennik busted around the outside and blocked the punt by Mitch
Hebenstreit. Justin Johnson-Sparks picked up the ball at the 12 and raced into the end
zone for a touchdown and the Millers now stood tall at 21-0, late in the third.

It wasn’t until the middle of the fourth that Hamilton Southeastern was able to
finally put together a drive that resulted in points.

They marched confidently down the field, but it would wind up being too little,
too late. Kody Sparks tossed a touchdown pass to Jackson Lantz from six yards out that
would account for the final score of 21-7, a Senior Night victory for Noblesville.

“At the end there, we kind of mentally broke down, because we kind of got happy.
You know, it was 21-0. We haven’t been up on anybody like that and so we kind of felt
good about ourselves,” said Roden, who was disappointed his defense gave up a touchdown

Noblesville did what they had to do in limiting the yardage of a dangerous tailback
in Matt Harris, who came into the game averaging 5.7 yards per carry. The Millers
held Harris in check for the most part, allowing 118 yards on 30 carries.
They also forced HSE into passing the ball, which wasn’t able to produce like the
Royals had hoped. Sparks finished 15-of-29 for 87 yards with a TD and an INT.

There were also offensive improvements for Noblesville. It seemed like a much more
confident Grant Gremel, but that confidence is a direct result of winning.
Gremel went 8-for-14 for 54 yards and a TD on the night, but mainly was poised
and confident throughout in orchestrating the Millers to the win.

“We didn’t turn it over tonight. We’re a lot better than we were those first two
weeks,” said Roden, talking about how much his team has improved since opening
the season with consecutive losses to Cathedral and Carmel.

Noblesville improved their season overall with their fourth win in five HCC
games. On a historical note, this is the first season in Miller football history that the
team has defeated Fishers, Westfield and Hamilton Southeastern. That fact is courtesy
of Andrew Trisler of the Noblesville athletic department.

Hamilton Southeastern (3-4, 2-3 HCC) hits the road next week as they’ll try to keep
Franklin Central winless in HCC play. The Flashes dropped to 0-5 in the league, losing
at home to Fishers on Friday, 17-12.

Noblesville (4-3, 4-1 HCC) improved its season and will hit the road next week and
face conference leader Brownsburg (7-0, 5-0). The 6A No. 2 Bulldogs won in a
shootout with a basketball score at Zionsville, 70-52 on Friday.

Luke Blevins led the Millers with a game-high 135 yards on 22 rushes, highlighted
by his 66-yard jaunt in the third.