INDIANAPOLIS — It may have been nine months since their 2022 high school football seasons ended, but for the four Hancock County participants in Friday night’s 57th Annual Murat Shrine North/South Football All-Star Classic, it was as if they hadn’t missed a beat.
Greenfield-Central’s Andrew Zellers and Garrett Taylor and Mt. Vernon’s Kyler Grill represented the South team as players in the annual game, while Trent Taylor, also representing Greenfield-Central, served as an assistant coach for the South.
The South defeated the North 21-2 Friday evening at Decatur Central High School.
Zellers— as he did many times in a Greenfield-Central uniform — found the end zone in what would be his last appearance at the running back position. He finished the game with three carries for eight yards and a touchdown.
“It was a great way to go out and be able to get a touchdown and represent the South well,” Zellers said.
With the South up 7-2, Zellers increased the lead with a four-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter.
“It was a great feeling to come through for the team and to have a touchdown in a big game like this,” Zellers said. “The line blocked it perfectly, and it was just one cut, and I was there.”
Zellers ran for 1,065 yards and scored 15 touchdowns in his senior season. Helping him do so was teammate Garrett Taylor, an offensive lineman.
“It’s always an honor. He’s a great running back, and I can’t say enough about him,” Garrett said. “He just does everything right. I promised him [a second] touchdown, and I wish we could’ve gotten him it, but it was nice to have somebody back there that I knew.”
Garrett got one more chance to block, not just for Zellers, but for one final time. With no plans to play college football, the game served as a send-off for his football career.
With his dad on the field as one of the South’s defensive coaches and a teammate running behind him, he couldn’t have asked for more in his final game.
“It was absolutely amazing,” Garrett said. “He wasn’t my coach, but he was there all week, and although I didn’t get a lot of personal coaching from him, it was great to just have him there by my side.”
After falling behind 2-0 on a safety, Garrett, in his first series, and the rest of the South offensive line made a statement.
Leaning on the legs of running back Luke Hansen (Roncalli) and quarterback Nick Patterson (Mooresville), the South marched 62 yards down the field and scored on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Patterson to Parker Burk (Tri-High), 51 of the 62 yards on the drive came on the ground.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Garrett said. “I thought I played pretty well, but it’s definitely different not being in season and a little out of shape and out of tune.”
While Garrett, Zellers, and the rest of the South offense took care of that side of the ball, Grill and Trent Taylor did their thing defensively.
Taylor, the defensive coordinator for the Cougars during the 2022 season, helped coach the South defense to a shutout, with the North’s only two points coming on a safety.
“I’ve coached a long time, and this group of eight guys that I had on the defensive line were absolutely phenomenal. They absorbed everything that I talked about and brought great information themselves,” coach Taylor said. “We just worked our way into a position where we knew what we wanted to do to the North’s offensive line. We just brought wave after wave of guys at them.
Grill made his presence known at the linebacker position.
He finished with four tackles, including a two-yard tackle for a loss in the second quarter.
“The energy was great, and we had a great time all week just being with the guys all day,” Grill said. “It was just a really great experience, and if I could do it all over again, I would.”
On the drives that he was on the field for, the North team compiled just 35 yards and went scoreless.
In his lone drive of the first quarter, the South defense came away with an interception. In the second quarter, the North went three-and-out and missed a 37-yard field goal while Grill was on the field. In the third, he was on the field once again for a South interception, and in the fourth, he was in for the final drive of the game and capped off the scoreless defensive effort.
“Everything our coaches called just really stuck with us,” Grill said. “When you have a bunch of studs out there that know how to do their jobs and play, it feels good because you’re able to just focus solely on your job and get to continue playing football.”
While Friday night served as the conclusion to the high school careers of Zellers and Grill, they hope that success follows them to the next level.
Zellers will play linebacker collegiately at the University of Saint Francis, and Grill will play the same position at Taylor University.
“It was great and just a really fun experience,” Grill said. “To compete with guys that are playing big at that next level feels good and definitely gives me some confidence going into college.”
For Trent and Garrett Taylor, Friday night was a bittersweet one.
Not only was it a football send-off for Garrett, but it was the last time Trent would coach and share the field with his son. While Garrett is done playing, Trent will continue his coaching career as the head coach of Knightstown this upcoming season.
“It was wonderful to be out there with Garrett one more time,” coach Taylor said. “As we were checking in all week long, the one thing that we talked about was that Garrett has always punched above his weight class. He did so this week against some of the state’s best, and we’re just so thrilled and proud of him. It’s a great moment.”
