Bishop Chatard's defense dominates in matchup of unbeatens: 'We want to leave a legacy.'
ARCADIA – To maintain their championship tradition, top-ranked Class 3A Bishop Chatard went back to it on Friday night.
Pitted in a battle of unbeatens with No. 5 Hamilton Heights during the Sectional 28 final, the Trojans relied on their three-headed rushing attack and stingy defense to win 28-8 en route to their 31st sectional title all-time.
Daniel Shaw rushed for 86 yards on 11 carries with two touchdowns, including a back-breaking 58-yarder in the third quarter. Freshman Daniel Adams added 46 yards on nine carries with another score, and Riley Kinnett posted 79 yards on 16 carries along with a 24-yard touchdown reception before exiting in the second quarter with an injury.
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The defending state champion Trojans tallied 28-unanswered points to firmly secure their 18th straight win, dating back to last season, but the defense led by senior Matthew Woods made the loudest statement.
“We had something to prove. Statistically, they were supposedly the better defense, and we wanted to come out and show them what a real defense looked like,” Woods said.
Woods backed up his words, racking up three sacks against Huskies quarterback Bodie Derrer, including a sack-forced fumble and recovery late in the second half at Hamilton Heights’ 32-yard line.
The Trojans defense forced seven Huskies punts and four turnovers overall — one on downs. Sam Bustamante and Declan Hostettler each had interceptions.
“Our defense has pulled us through a lot of games and tonight was a big show of that,” Woods said. “Our offense was struggling, especially on goal line, and our defense was able to pull through goal line. Every drive was three-and-out, and that helped our team a lot.”
Prior to the game, the Bishop Chatard defense averaged 8.8 points allowed per game. Hamilton Heights was limiting the opposition to 10.1 points.
In the beginning, both defensive units made their respective stands, but eventually the Trojans’ offense found the necessary cracks.
The Trojans’ offense turned the ball over on downs an uncharacteristic six times and punted three times and suffered drops. Chatard lost fourth down on four situations inside Hamilton Heights’ 30-yard line and twice in the red zone.
“My gosh, we were so sloppy offensively. I was very frustrated with that, but we got the win, and you survive and go another week,” Chatard coach Rob Doyle said. “We can play a lot better than we did.”
When the Trojans’ offense hummed along, they produced.
Kinnett capped a nine-play drive with a 24-yard screen-pass touchdown reception from quarterback Aidan Arteaga to break the shutout and give Chatard a 7-0 lead with 3 minutes, 20 seconds left in the first quarter.
The running back averaged 4.9 yards per carry, but a hard hit on a sniffed-out screen pass ended his day, as he jogged off the field holding his right arm.
“We had a few guys out. We weren’t catching things we normally do. We weren’t hitting things we normally do. We missed a couple of easy blocks we normally would. We lost Riley, again, early, which is terrible. It was a lot of things like that,” Doyle said. “We have to overcome those and play better.”
Shaw stepped up, even before Kinnett left the field.
A 2-yard touchdown run the series prior to Kinnett’s departure put the Trojans up 14-0, but Shaw's chuck yardage run on Chatard’s first possession of the second half put the pressure on Hamilton Heights.
“Even though we were down a guy, we knew we had to handle that,” Shaw said. “We have a lot of trust and knowing we’re going to get the job done. They did everything to try to stop us. They gave us a few complications, but we ended up getting it done.”
Arteaga completed 14 of 35 passes for 185 yards, finding nine different receivers. However, the rushing attack, which included seven different players, netted 223 yards on 42 carries.
Adams, a junior varsity standout, elevated up the depth chart in-game, and the freshman immediately contributed, finishing off an 11-play drive with a 4-yard touchdown run with 2:10 left in the third quarter.
His second varsity rushing touchdown put Chatard ahead 28-0 and gave him 89 yards on 14 carries this season.
Shaw has amassed a team-best 949 yards on 172 carries and 11 touchdowns this year, starting most of the Trojans’ games with Kinnett missing time due to injuries.
“D-Shaw has been great all year, and we’ve been playing the freshman a little bit. He did a nice job, so we’ll keep doing that and get those guys ready to play. We shouldn’t miss a beat, but we got to be more consistent offensively,” Doyle said. “We have to work on that this week.”
The defense made up for the setbacks, including two third-down sacks by Woods. Ethan Evans and Lucas Tremain each had a sack apiece.
“Matthew Woods is an unbelievable player. He should be all-state. He’s everywhere. He had a phenomenal game. He really disrupts things. He’s had a great season,” Doyle said. “We can’t block him in practice. When he goes against our ones, it’s hard.”
Hamilton Heights was held to negative 4 yards rushing, and Derrer completed 14 of 33 pass attempts for 121 yards.
Derrer’s 3-yard rush accounted for the Huskies lone touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, which came two plays after he found Cam Fleming for a 37-yard completion to open the drive.
“Their defense did exactly what we thought they would do, and we just did not execute well. I’ll give them credit for playing well, but we did not execute the way I wanted us to. We have to be better,” Doyle said.
The Trojans’ work in progress continues at unranked Delta (8-4) next week. Bishop Chatard is searching for a state-leading 23rd regional championship.
“We want to leave a legacy,” Woods said. “We have not reached our peak. Our offense has things to improve in, and our defense can definitely start closing out teams with big zeros.”
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA football: Bishop Chatard beats Hamilton Heights for sectional
