The Westfield football team claimed its fifth regional championship in six years by beating Fishers 20-10. (Joshua Herd)
By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
WESTFIELD – The Westfield football team won the Regional 2 championship Friday, Nov. 14, beating Fishers 20-10 at the Shamrocks’ Riverview Health Stadium.
Westfield’s Deacon King made eight total tackles during the game, along with four rushes for 13 yards. (Joshua Herd)
Westfield triumphed for the fifth time in six years at the regional level. While that’s a remarkable run of success over that period of time, Rocks coach Josh Miracle said that his team will “never take it for granted.”
“You always want to be grateful for the opportunity of the moment,” said Miracle. “You don’t know when it’s going to come back around, if it does, so I think we’re going to enjoy the heck out of this tonight and we’re going to seize the momentum.”
The first half went quickly, with the first three scores coming from field goals. Diego Herrera kicked two of them for Westfield, booting a 25-yarder midway through the first quarter, then making a 41-yard kick in the second quarter. Micah Hillen kicked a 24-yard field goal for the Tigers with under 10 seconds left in the first quarter.
Fishers was making a drive late in the second period, getting to first and goal at the Shamrocks’ 10. But Westfield made a huge defensive stand: Zane Newman got a quarterback sack on first down, Alex Aramboles tackled for no gain on second down, then Wade Washo made another sack on third down. Aramboles then broke up a pass on fourth down.
“We’re constantly practicing clutch situations,” said Rocks coach Josh Miracle. “These guys went out there and executed. That’s a sign of a complimentary team, too. Defense sets a tone, gets it back and the offense, we were able to have a couple explosive plays, scoring there before the half.”
“I think the defense played great,” said Aramboles. “We were consistent all four quarters. “We worked as a unit and we practice how we play.”
Fishers’ Gage Sturgill threw for 128 yards and a touchdown pass. (Joshua Herd)
Westfield had the ball back and blasted to the end zone. Cooper Melvin single-handedly got the ball to the one-yard line on four rushes, including a 44-yard sprint into Tigers territory. Melvin’s 21-yard dash put the Rocks one yard away, and Baylor Conner punched the ball in for the score, putting Westfield up 13-3 at halftime.
Neither team scored in the third quarter, but both teams got a touchdown in the fourth. Aiden Grabowski moved the Shamrocks ahead 20-3 with a 15-yard TD run. Gage Sturgill passed to Mason Cantwell five yards for a Fishers touchdown and that completed the scoring.
Grabowski finished with 91 yards rushing while Mevin gained 83 yards on the ground. Melvin was 6-of-9 passing, with Caiden Snow collecting four receptions. Olumide Fapetu and Isaac Weingart both made total 10 tackles. Newman finished with two sacks and Washo made one sack.
Sturgill finished the game 11-of-23 passing, totaling 128 yards. Ryan Thembulembu led the receptions with five and was also the rushing leader with 80 yards. Atticus Finley led the defense with nine total tackles.
Westfield is 10-2 and plays the Class 6A north semi-state this Friday at Fort Wayne Carroll. Fishers finished its season 8-4.
