by

Richie Hall

Sports Editor

Hamilton County Reporter

FISHERS – Fishers made some big plays on Friday night, and that led to a big win.

The Tigers beat county rival Noblesville 21-0 at Reynolds Tiger Stadium in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference opener for both teams. It was the first win of the season for Fishers, which makes it the first victory for Curt Funk as the Tigers’ coach.

For the most part, the two teams were matched up well against each other, and both played solid football. The difference was two big plays that the Tigers made in the second and third quarter, and then Fishers let its defense do the rest.

“I thought our defense did an outstanding job tonight,” said Funk. The coach credited Fishers’ defensive coaches with having “a great game plan, and our kids executed and they believed in it, and we were able to come out victorious tonight.”

Neither team scored in the first quarter. The Tigers scored 49 seconds into the second period when Grady Stanley forced a fumble, sending the ball bouncing towards the end zone. Fishers’ Caleb VanDer Kamp got the ball as it rolled into the end zone, and the Tigers had their first touchdown of the game.

“That’s something we talked about all week is how we haven’t had a takeaway all year, we haven’t had one takeaway,” said Funk. “So we tried to amp that up in practice this week, really preaching and emphasize takeaways, and our defense responded tonight with a takeaway.”

That would be the only score of the second half, as both teams’ defenses stiffened, resulting in four consecutive punts. Noblesville made a promising drive at the end of the half, but came away empty after getting down to the Tigers’ seven-yard line.

Fishers scored early in the third quarter on another big play. Lucas Prewitt hit Landon Morris with a pass, and Morris took it in 83 yards for the touchdown. It was part of a big night for Morris, who made six catches for 171 yards.

The Tigers got their third touchdown midway through the fourth period, when Carson Dunn punched the ball in from the one-yard line. Dunn also had a productive night, leading the rush with 113 yards in 14 carries. Prewitt made 14 of 24 passes, totaling 243 yards.

“I think we have good balance with our pass-to-run ratio,” said Funk. “Again, we moved the ball and our receivers did a good job of catching. Lucas did a nice job of putting the ball on
them.”

On defense, Billy Reiter totaled 12 tackles, with Curtis Kearshner making eight. Shane Cole and Seth Dunnuck each had seven tackles. Stanley and David Dilley both made one sack.

Trey Speek led the way for Noblesville on offense with 85 yards of rushing on 17 carries. Quarterback Conner Meinerding completed 3 of 5 pass attempts for 52 yards. That included two catches for Chance Yeager and a 32-yard reception for Dylan Ray.

Mason Bohland had 9.5 tackles for the Millers and one sack. Blaine McNabb also had a good defensive game with 7.5 tackles.

“I thought it was a pretty evenly matched game, but the big plays, the sack fumble early and us getting into the 10 and not being able to convert later in the half, and of course the 80-yard pass,” said Noblesville coach Dave Sharpe.

“We worked so hard to get into positions to get inside the 10 and we don’t convert,” said Sharpe. “We work so hard to get them in positions where they’re 3rd and 8 and we let them off the hook. We’re close, we told the kids we’re very close. Didn’t quite click tonight and then they had the huge plays. We didn’t have any huge plays.”

Fishers is 1-2 and will travel to Hamilton Southeastern next Friday for the
Mudsock game. The Millers are also 1-2 and host Westfield next Friday.