Boys look for redemption at Lucas Oil

A year filled with disappointments, a new program, a new head coach, and new expectations…add the pressure of playing the first regular season match up against a hated county foe in a brand-new professional stadium, one not even football’s biggest idols have competed in, and it can sometimes prove to just be too much.

With these added pressures last season, the varsity football team fell hard to the Fishers Tigers 31-6, a loss that was hard to swallow.

“I was happy the game was over, and we could move on and play Brownsburg,” now second-year head football coach Lance Scheib said. The Millers struggled against the tough, experienced Tiger defense, failing to score once in the first half and scoring only a single touchdown combined in the third and forth quarters. Feeling stunned in the loss, senior Josh Compton left the field with thoughts of disappointment, wondering what could’ve been.

“The game really served as a reality check, for everyone, coaches and players. I don’t feel like our team simply looked past them [Fishers], but I really don’t think a select few guys quite took them seriously,” Compton said.

Compton and the rest of his veteran team members, though, will get a shot this Saturday, Aug. 29, to redeem themselves. They take on the Brownsburg Bulldogs, the team they beat last year just one week after their first loss to Fishers, at the famed Lucas Oil Stadium, the first of two such games the Millers will play on the Indianapolis Colts’ home turf.

Scheib considers the invitation back a privilege, one that only came because of the strong backing from the football-crazed citizens of Noblesville. “I think this is a direct result of our community. When you have the community support like we have, opportunities like these present themselves. And any time you can play
an away game on a neutral site, you have to be happy, and when that neutral site
is Lucas Oil, it makes it that much more exciting,” Scheib said.

Although, after another opening season loss to Fishers this past Friday night, the boys really feel like they’ve got something to prove to their community, and especially the students that rally around them.

“We’ve gotten bigger, faster, stronger this off-season, and have been trying to do things the right way, have more discipline as a program. But even with all that, we’ve still got to believe we can win, since it seems from what I’ve heard that half our school doesn’t,” Compton said.

Scheib and his boys take a 0-1 record and the pressure of a city to face Brownsburg this Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The coin will be tossed at center field at 5:30, starting what hopes to be a redeeming win for the Millers.

“I just want to beat Brownsburg again, play well, win, and earn the respect from our peers that we don’t have. I want our team to compete,” Compton said.