MUNCIE — Following an emotional win last week over rival New Palestine, it’d be understandable if the newly-minted Class 4A top-ranked Mt. Vernon Marauders missed a step against Delta.
There were some hiccups along the way, but the Marauders didn’t look like a team whose focus wasn’t on the task at hand, grounding the eighth-ranked Eagles – a team they hadn’t beaten in their previous two meetings – 35-0.
The victory puts the Marauders on top of the Hoosier Heritage Conference and moves them to 5-0 to start a season for the first time since 2004.
Marauders coach Mike Kirschner was a little concerned about his team’s mentality coming into this game because he wasn’t happy with the way they prepared during the week.
“We were worried about a letdown because we stunk at practice all week,” Kirschner said without mincing his words. “We weren’t good, we didn’t have their attention, we knew we were playing a great team … and we didn’t play our best game tonight.”
Though the shutout seemed indicative of the Marauders playing at a high level, Kirschner was quick to point out his team’s mistakes. He noted specifically the woes on offense where his team saw eight holding penalties including one that brought back a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to start the second half.
Delta’s front line being better than the Marauders was Kirschner’s explanation for the holding fouls, though both team’s defensive fronts wreaked havoc all night long.
Those shortcomings on offense were made up in the other two phases of the game. On defense, Mt. Vernon turned Delta over four times with two interceptions coming by the sure hands of George Burhenn.
Yet, the real game-changing plays came in the third phase where the Marauders scribed a whole new chapter on how to win the special teams’ battle.
The Marauders’ first score of the night was set up by a Ashden Gentry 71-yard punt return, taken all the way to the Delta 3-yard line and subsequently punched in by Gehrig Slunaker on the very next play.
On the second drive in the second quarter, Keagan La Belle picked up a crucial first down, taking a fake punt way past the first-down marker to keep a Marauder drive alive.
Yet, sandwiched in between those two plays was what might be one of the more bizarre plays in what is already a strange high school football season.
Facing a fourth-and-6 on their own 44-yard line, the Marauder long snapper skied the ball over punter Joel Ratliff’s head. Ratliff was able to get the ball off from his own 25-yard line, but the ball never made it to the original line of scrimmage.
According to the IHSAA rule book: “Any kicking player may catch or recover a scrimmage kick while it is in or behind the neutral zone and advance, unless it is during a try.”
Tanner Koziol did just that, snagging the ball, which had been tipped by a Delta player, 60 yards for Mt. Vernon’s third score of the day.
“It’s a rule not too many people know about, but we’ve practiced that situation,” Kirschner said. “We were screaming at him to pick the ball up and go.”
With the victory, the 2020 edition of Mt. Vernon football has corrected two of three blemishes from their 2019 campaign that resulted in sectional and regional titles. It’s a good step in the right direction for the Marauders and one that left Kirschner saying he was proud of his team, compelling some of his players to cheer that their coach lavished them with some praise.
“Their argument is that they don’t hear it enough,” Kirschner joked. “I’m always proud of them, but there’s a level of expectation we aspire to be.”
The Marauders are back on the road next Friday against league rival Pendleton Heights. Mt. Vernon went 2-0 against the Arabians last season including a memorable 21-14 victory last November for the program’s first sectional championship in seven seasons.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Scoreline” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Mt. Vernon 35, Delta 0
MV (5-0, 3-0 HHC);14;14;7;0;-;35
D (3-1, 2-1 HHC);0;0;0;0;-;0
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
MV – Gehrig Slunaker 3 yd run (AJ Swingle kick), 7:30
MV – Tanner Koziol 9 yd pass from Slunaker (Swingle kick), 1:18
2nd Quarter
MV – Koziol 60 yd rush (Swingle kick), 10:51
MV – Keagan LaBelle 45 yd run (Swingle kick), 1:20
3rd Quarter
MV – Ashden Gentry 20 yd pass from Slunaker (Swingle kick), 5:00
[sc:pullout-text-end]
