Westfield’s Cooper Melvin has passed for 1,011 yards and seven touchdowns as one of the two quarterbacks for the Shamrocks. Melvin has also scored three rushing touchdowns and gained 166 yards. (Joshua Herd/File photo)
By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
There is just one team left of the eight football schools in Hamilton County and that is the Westfield Shamrocks.
There were mixed picks thoughts as to who would come out of Sectional 3. Would it be No. 2 Carmel or No. 5 Westfield? Two weeks ago, that epic battle went to overtime with the Shamrocks using a little bit of trickery to stun the Greyhounds on their home turf, 23-20.
It was another all-county matchup for the Rocks in last week’s regional as they outlasted a very talented Fishers team at home, 20-10.
Westfield is making its fifth semi-state appearance in the last six seasons. State runners-up in 2024 to Brownsburg (22-17), current Wabash College head coach and former Shamrocks coach Jake Gilbert guided them to the 2023 semi-state, falling at Crown Point in double overtime, 38-31.
The 2021 and 2020 seasons resulted in state runner-up finishes to Center Grove, 27-21 and 38-14, respectively.
No. 2 Westfield Shamrocks (10-2) at No. 11 Fort Wayne Carroll Chargers (9-3)
Tonight’s meeting is just the second all-time between Westfield and Carroll. The Shamrocks and Chargers met four years ago in 2021. Westfield won that regional matchup in Fort Wayne, 37-14.
The following year in 2022, Carroll took down Hamilton Southeastern in a home semi-state game, 21-15.
Westfield has signature wins at Hamilton Southeastern (21-17), at Avon (38-17), a regular season win over Fishers (14-7), along with the sectional championship thriller over Carmel in overtime (23-20) and last week’s regional title contest over Fishers, 20-10.
Second-year head coach Josh Miracle is 22-4, making his second straight semi-state appearance in leading the Rocks. There probably hasn’t been a smoother transition from assistant coach to head coach than Miracle’s.
Splitting time at quarterback, senior Aiden Grabowski (673 yards) and four touchdowns and sophomore Cooper Melvin’s seven touchdowns and 1,011 yards have become situational signal callers and it’s a system that simply works for the Shamrocks.
Deacon King has seen more time defensively of late, but has 657 yards rushing and seven touchdowns when he has been in the backfield. Grabowski has called his number a fair share in the latter part of the season, gaining 547 yards and scoring 12 touchdowns. Melvin also has 166 rushing yards and scored three times.
Junior Baylor Conner has carried 64 times for 363 and three rushing scores. Conner also has 195 receiving yards and scored the game-winning TD in overtime against Carmel two weeks ago.
Sophomore Andrew Noble leads the receivers with 510 yards, freshman Caiden Snow has 419 and both have four touchdowns.
Olumide Fapetu leads defensively with 100. Alex Aramboles has 23.5 tackles for a loss (12 sacks), a fumble recovery and a blocked field goal.
Logan Loring has six interceptions and Ja’Deon Smith has recovered three fumbles.
Carroll head coach Doug Dinan is 128-55 in his 16th season and has six sectional championships.
The Chargers finished second in the Summit Conference, behind Bishop Dwenger. The Saints defeated Carroll in the Summit with an early 9-6 win. Dwenger (11-2) is also playing in the northern semi-state tonight, hosting South Bend St. Joseph’s (12-1) in Class 4A.
The loss to Dwenger had Carroll 1-3. The Chargers have eight consecutive wins, including conference wins over Fort Wayne Snider (47-10), Homestead (49-0) and Fort Wayne Northrop (48-37).
They closed out the regular season with a win over Bishop Luers (35-10). Luers faces Knox and the state’s rushing leader Myles McLaughlin in the 3A semi-state.
They’ve had high-scoring games in the playoffs so far with sectional wins at Elkhart (49-14), home against Northrop for the Sectional 2 title (42-23) and last week’s regional win at Penn (41-30).
Quarterback Gabe Frisinger is a 64.5 percent passer (200-310) for 3,148 yards (fifth in the state), 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Frisinger also has 477 rushing yards and seven scores.
Jackson Rhodes has 346 (three TDs) and Asher Wagoner 283 (14 TDs) rushing.
Jaiden Vanpelt has 1,365 receiving yards (fourth in the state) with 16 TDs and Harrison Scheele (911, six TDs) and Mason Baughman (601) provide receiving depth.
