FORTVILLE — Roncalli has provided a pretty good example over the years.
Now, Mt. Vernon will need to get past the Rebels to try to follow suit.
Friday night at Mt. Vernon, the Marauders will host Roncalli, one of the state’s most prestigious football programs, in a Class 4A regional championship game. The Rebels have won nine state championships. They have 20 sectional titles, 15 regional titles and 12 semistate championships.
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They are one of Indiana’s elite football programs. They’ve set a pretty high bar for success.
“We know they’re really physical, they’re really well-coached. They’ve got an unbelievable tradition,” Mt. Vernon coach Mike Kirschner said. “They’ve won lots of titles at all levels, in sectionals, regionals, state. You’re playing a team that football is kind of a big deal to them, and that’s what we’re trying to get done here. What we know is we’ve got to execute on all cylinders. We can’t have a bad night, we can’t have the offense be off or the defense be off or it’ll get ugly.”
The Marauders are coming off their fifth sectional championship in program history. They’ve never advanced past this point, though. They’ve never won in their four previous trips to a regional, so they’ve never had a taste of the semistate or state level.
Players on this year’s Mt. Vernon football team haven’t even gotten to this point before, as it had been seven years since sectional championship No. 4.
“The whole team is excited. This is the first time we’ve won a sectional since 2012, and we have the opportunity to win the first regional in school history,” senior quarterback Shaun Shipley said. “That’s awesome to be able to do that here (at home).”
“It’s amazing, because we’ve never done it,” senior linebacker and offensive lineman Charlie Moore added. “It’s surreal to see that we’re actually meeting our goals.”
To even experience a taste of the football success Roncalli has had, the Marauders have to find a way to win their 11th game of the season.
Mt. Vernon comes in at 10-2, winners of seven straight. The Rebels are 7-5, a record that is deceiving at first glance due to its strength of schedule, which is the third-toughest among 4A teams thanks to four games against teams in higher classes and one against 3A’s No. 1 team. Roncalli opened the season with two games against 6A teams, a game against one of Indiana’s best teams (3A’s Chatard), then faced a third 6A team.
The Rebels were blown out in all four contests, starting 0-4. They topped Scecina to get their first win, then had a lopsided loss against Brebeuf Jesuit to fall to 1-5.
Something clicked after that point.
Roncalli has ripped off six straight wins, and only one, a 19-14 win against 5A’s Bloomington North, was close. Out of their 12 games this season, only one has been decided by less than two scores. They haven’t been in a competitive game since Oct. 4.
The Marauders are coming off a back-and-forth game that came down to the final minutes, narrowly edging Pendleton Heights for the second time this year. They’ve had several close contests, including both games against the Arabians.
“I think it’ll help us a lot, especially if we get down or it’s a close game at the end,” Shipley said of those close games. “We’ll just keep fighting through like we have done many times this year.”
Both teams have balanced offenses that can run or throw the ball. Both have defenses that have played very well this year, with the Marauders allowing just 30 total points in the last five weeks and the Rebels holding their last six opponents to 14 points or less.
Limiting penalties will be one key for the Marauders, Moore said. He acknowledged that the team has struggled with them this year, and he knows his teammates will need to play “some sound football” to get past the Rebels.
Another key will be the field position battle. Kirschner is looking for ways to flip the field, which is why the Marauders focused on special teams during a cold Tuesday practice in the snow. They need to be sound there, too, with good kicks and kick returns to try to shorten the field for themselves while forcing Roncalli into long drives.
Kirschner has been to this point before with Ben Davis. Now, he sees a big-time opportunity for his Mt. Vernon team as it takes the field against the Rebels.
“We talked to them about setting a new standard,” he said. “At Mt. Vernon the standard has been, they’ve won I think this was our fifth sectional in school history, and nobody has ever won a regional. So, set a new standard. Set a new standard that everybody after you has to follow and say, we want to do what the 2019 Marauders were able to do.”
They’ve advanced into rare territory for the program already just by winning a sectional title a week ago.
Now, it’s about raising the bar and making history.
“There’s eight teams left. Eight out of 64, and you’re still standing,” Kirschner said. “You wanna be four out of 64 and have a shot. We’re just kind of working on that angle with them, that we’ve got an opportunity to do something special that nobody at Mt. Vernon has ever done. Let’s go have fun with it.”
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For more on Mt. Vernon’s matchup with Roncalli, along with the other three Class 4A regionals, jump inside to Page BX.
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