Hamilton Southeastern’s football season ended Friday night as host Carmel held on for a 17-14 win in the Class 6A Sectional 3 championship game at Greyhound Stadium.

The Greyhounds, now 7-4, take the sectional title and advance to the regional round. There they will meet the winner of Friday’s Sectional 4 final between No. 8 Fort Wayne Carroll and Homestead. The Royals finish the season 5-6.

The three-point final was much closer than most pregame forecasts. Indiana Football Digest had picked Carmel to win 30-13.

HSE reached the title game by beating Fishers 23-14 on Oct. 30 in the latest Mudsock game. Carter Reed ran for 114 yards and two touchdowns in that win. Bennett Foster caught a touchdown pass, and Tristan and Zachary Christopherson each had an interception.

Carmel got to the final with one of the biggest upsets of the postseason, outlasting then-No. 3 Westfield 48-45. Chris Harris had 150 receiving yards and three touchdowns in that game. The win moved the Greyhounds up to No. 6 in a statewide Top 25 published by Yahoo Sports. HSE was No. 20 in the same rankings.

This was the first year of the IHSAA’s new sectional alignment, which puts four Hamilton County programs, Carmel, Fishers, Hamilton Southeastern and Westfield, in the same 6A sectional. The draw guaranteed that only one county team would move on to the regional.

Michael Kelly coaches HSE and just finished his seventh season with the Royals. Before the game, he said his team would need “a complete team effort” to win the sectional. Kevin Wright is in his seventh season at Carmel.

Carmel also beat HSE the last time the two met in the postseason, winning 28-14 in a 2019 sectional semifinal.

Game details were not immediately available.