Merrillville senior safety Greg Hughes was filled with emotion and understandably so.

Hughes wasn’t alone. For the Pirates, it was a long-awaited moment.

“I’ve been playing for all four years, and I had to experience all of the losses, all of the heartbreaks,” he said. “Last year was my first time crying after a loss in I don’t know how long. I was like, ‘I can’t feel that again. We have to play at Lucas Oil.’

“We’ve been working hard all season, going at it in practice, to conditioning, to weights, to all of it. We’ve just been getting it done to go to state.”

Hughes and the Pirates are headed there after defeating Concord 41-14 in a Class 5A semistate in Merrillville on Friday night.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Hughes had a momentum-swinging fumble recovery and made a key interception for the Pirates (11-2), who were making their sixth semistate appearance in seven seasons but had yet to win one. They will play New Palestine (13-0), which won the 4A state title last season and is ranked No. 1 in the final 5A coaches poll, in the state championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium at 6 p.m. Nov. 28.

“We knew we’d have a chance to get to this point,” Merrillville coach Brad Seiss said. “It’s just what you do in this game. For us to break through in a big way, you feel awesome for the kids. Us coaches, it was kind of the elephant in the room. So it was awesome to break through. We’ve been so close.”

Merrillville’s Greg Hughes, bottom, tackles Concord’s Reese Breveard during a Class 5A semistate game in Merrillville on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (Andy Lavalley / Post-Tribune)

The No. 5 Pirates came close to falling behind by two touchdowns against the No. 6 Minutemen (11-2) early in the second quarter. But just as Concord senior quarterback Bo Brunner was about to cross the goal line, Merrillville senior safety Warren Brown III knocked the ball loose, and Hughes recovered it in the end zone.

“He’s an elusive guy,” Hughes said of Brunner. “We had to get him down. I was running with the receiver at first, and I saw him take off, and I saw the ball on the ground. I had to get it. We needed the ball back. We needed a big play, and I had to step up.”

Hughes, who entered the game with 54 tackles, made another big play, coming up with his second interception of the season with the score tied early in the second quarter.

“We’ve been working plays like that all week in practice,” he said. “They’ve been trying to get the ball in there, and I saw him looking, and I was like, ‘I have to attack the ball.’

“Just to go to state, impact players make impact plays. The crowd was hype. It was just an amazing feeling.”

Seiss praised Hughes’ performance.

“Huge interception when they were in the red zone, and when Warren punched it out, you still have to get on the ball, and he was able to do that,” Seiss said. “That was the game-changing play. All the momentum was with us, and we were just able to go from there.”

Hughes, who junior running back Cameron Jordan said “has a nose for the ball,” also didn’t surprise senior running back Jac’Quarious “JQ” Johnson.

“Greg has been starting since sophomore year right along with us,” Johnson said. “We just have that chemistry. We told everybody in eighth grade we were going to do this, and we finally did it.”

Merrillville’s Michael Hill Jr., left, holds up three fingers for teammate Cameron Jordan, center, in the end zone after Jordan scored the third of his four touchdowns against Concord during a Class 5A semistate game in Merrillville on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (Andy Lavalley / Post-Tribune)

Jordan and Johnson had big games too.

Jordan ran for 179 yards and four touchdowns on 13 carries. The highlight was an 80-yard burst on the first play after Hughes’ fumble recovery to get the Pirates on the scoreboard. He had fumbled on the 15th play of the opening drive, ending what had been an impressive Merrillville march.

“I faced a little adversity with the fumble, and I had to come back for my teammates,” Jordan said. “I have to have it in the back of my mind it’s the playoffs and you can’t dwell on one play. You have to go to the next play.”

Johnson ran for 214 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. His signature play was a 60-yard score on which he somehow broke a simultaneous tackle between two Concord players, squeezing through and shaking loose to go the distance.

“This has been a long time coming,” Johnson said. “I’m finally ready to just embrace the moment and break the curse. I told my teammates after we lost to Warsaw last year, ‘This is going to be the year.’ After Warsaw, Thanksgiving break, we got right into the weight room and just got bigger and stronger.”

Merrillville’s Jac’Quarious “JQ” Johnson (2) runs to the end zone during a Class 5A semistate game against Concord in Merrillville on Friday, Nov. 21, 2025. (Andy Lavalley / Post-Tribune)

Michael Hill Jr., Merrillville’s prolific junior quarterback, orchestrated the run-focused offense.

“It was a little rainy, playoff football,” Seiss said. “You have to be able to run the ball. Obviously, we chucked the ball around all the beginning of the year, knowing you’re going to have to run the ball at some point. Come the playoffs, we’ve done that.

“Cam and JQ, everybody knew about them last year, and they did a great job of just seeing their blocks. Coach (Josh) Sabinas, our offensive coordinator, got us in great spots to get some leverage, and we hit some home runs, which was huge.”

The Pirates have earned the opportunity to play on the biggest stage and will seek their first state title since 1976.

“Once we saw the clock hit zeroes, there was so much excitement,” Hughes said. “Just finally being able to live these dreams that we always had, it’s great. Amazing.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/21/football-5a-semistate-concord-merrillville-greg-hughes/