Friday night football returned to Indiana, and it was not kind to our local high schools.
Fishers made the short trip to Carmel and never got going, falling 47-0 to the Greyhounds in a season opener that was over long before the fourth quarter. Roughly 130 miles north, Hamilton Southeastern opened at Fort Wayne Carroll and gave up more than 50 points in a 54-23 loss.
Carmel 47, Fishers 0
The two programs went in ranked among the top 10 in the state — Carmel No. 5 and Fishers No. 8 in the MaxPreps state rankings — and the matchup had been circled all summer as one of the marquee openers in Indiana. It did not play like one.
Carmel’s defense pitched a shutout against a Fishers offense that scored 24 points in last year’s meeting between the schools, a 49-24 Greyhound win. The Tigers were held off the scoreboard entirely on Friday, and Carmel’s 47 points marked the second straight year the Greyhounds have cleared 45 against their county rival.
For Fishers, the loss puts an early dent in a season that opened with high expectations after last fall’s run to the Class 6A regional round. The Tigers get a chance to reset quickly: they host Lawrence North next Friday at 7 p.m.
Fort Wayne Carroll 54, Hamilton Southeastern 23
Hamilton Southeastern’s night in Fort Wayne unraveled in a hurry. The Royals surrendered 54 points to a Carroll team that returned a deep offensive group, and the final margin of 31 was a sharp reversal from last season, when HSE beat these same Chargers 14-7 in Fishers.
Carroll, ranked No. 14 in the state and No. 10 in Class 6A by MaxPreps, improves to 1-0 and heads to Center Grove next Friday in what will be one of the toughest tests on its non-conference schedule.
The Royals scored 23 points, enough to suggest the offense found some rhythm, but the defense never slowed a Carroll attack that scored in every phase of the night.
Hamilton Southeastern opens its home schedule next Friday against North Central at 7 p.m.
What it means
Week 1 rarely decides a season in Indiana — the state tournament takes everyone, and there is a lot of football between now and sectional week. But Friday was a reminder of how quickly the ground shifts in one of the state’s deepest football corridors.