ZIONSVILLE â Despite being separated by roughly eight miles and being rivals across a broad range of sports, Carmel and Zionsville had never met in football before Friday night.
After their initial meeting it will be hard to top any further meetings in the future.
Trailing 28-21 with no timeouts Zionsville got the ball back with roughly 55 seconds left on its own 25-yard line.
Quarterback Zachary Trent then directed an unbelievable touchdown drive that was capped by a pair of wild plays, resulting in a 29-28 Zionsville win.
âIt means a lot to get this first one against them because of the massive amount of respect I have for that program,â said Zionsville coach Scott Turnquist. âSometimes youâve got to get lucky. Weâve had a lot of breaks not go our way, so it was nice to have one go our way this time.â
There was, indeed, some luck involved in this one.
With five seconds left Zionsville was facing 3rd and goal at the three-yard line needing a touchdown. Trent faked a pass and saw an opening up the middle, but fumbled as he approached the goal line. Tight end Isaac Tuffnell, who had just one touchdown on the season coming into the game, fell on the ball in the end zone as time expired to give Zionsville a touchdown.
The Eagles then elected to go for two and the win with no time left, and they put the ball in the hands of their best play maker.
Running out of the wildcat formation Eugene Hilton took the direct snap on what could have been the final play of his high school career.
He used his speed to get to the right pylon and dive in the end zone for a successful two-point conversion.
âI was thinking about running straight through them, but I never have a doubt with my speed,â said Hilton. âI just trusted myself to run around them and I had a great block from Nolan Teising on the outside and was able to reach in there.â
Hiltonâs score capped a night where the Eagles worked to get him the ball as much as possible.
He caught 10 passes for 87 yards and a pair of touchdowns while also taking several snaps out of the wildcat formation for runs.
On Zionsvilleâs second to last drive the Eagles saw several breaks not go their way.
The Greyhounds got away with a non-call on a potential pass interference and on consecutive plays Isaac Tuffnell caught a pass on the sideline and reached for a first down only to have the ball spotted short.
The Greyhounds then stopped Zionsville on 4th and 1 with 2:37 left at the Carmel 40. The Eagles were able to get a stop and force a punt with 1:05 left to set up their game-winning drive
The game was tight throughout as Zionsville opened the scoring on a two-yard TD run by Sam Manna with 10 minutes left in the first half.
Carmel scored twice in the second quarter to lead 14-7 at the break, but Zionsvilleâs opening drive of the second half went 85 yards and saw Hilton tie it on a 19-yard catch.
Carmel responded with a drive of its own to make it 21-14 going into the fourth quarter, but Hiltonâs second TD came on a 13-yard reception with 8:44 left.
Jackson Treadway got the score right back on a 33-yard pass to Jake Bellin with 5:16 left that made it 28-21.
âOur guys could have easily folded tonight after that fourth down stop,â said Turnquist. âThey could have easily given up and given up a first down so we didnât get the ball back, but we hung in there and got the win.
Zionsville (4-6) will travel to Westfield for the sectional championship next week.
Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.