Marauders’ coaches ready to finish the job at state

FORTVILLE — Mt. Vernon assistant coach Toby Jacobs has a reputation when it comes to high school football.

A standout while at Indianapolis Scecina, Jacobs, who played for coach Ott Hurrle, was with the Crusaders during their Class 2A state title runs in 1990-91. He earned all-state honors at Scecina and was named both a prep football all-star and the city’s male athlete of the year in 1992.

But, if he’s known for anything around the Mt. Vernon coaches’ office, especially to head coach Vince Lidy, it’s the offensive coordinator’s ability to serve up a delectable menu.

Compared to John Nash from the 1998 film, “A Beautiful Mind” for his creativity, Jacobs brings a five-dimensional thought process to every game plan, and that entails a plethora of options for the Marauders’ litany of playmakers.

“Someone calls it, ‘A Beautiful Mind.’ The white board is full. If someone walked in, no one would know what it is,” Lidy said. “He’ll start erasing things, so the menu goes from broad to laser focused. By game time, our kids will know what we need to do. I think that’s part of the reason we’ve been successful. We have great kids that are good football players and smart. They can handle adjustments and we coach them up to put our kids in spots to be successful.”

The Marauders’ offense has been so effective that it ranks first in the state at 48.43 points scored per game. The Marauders are averaging 200.7 passing yards per contest, 233.8 yards rushing and have amassed 6,083 yards in total offense with 6,913 all-purpose yards through 14 games.

“We try to make sure we put pressure all over the field to get vertical, to get horizontal, to make teams defend us,” Jacobs said. “In this day and age of generating stats, we talk about one stat and that’s the win. If you win, that’s the only stat that matters. I don’t pay attention to who scores or who has receptions or carries. We try to chart the touches a little bit, but we tell the guys, we’re not concerned with that. We want to know if someone is doing their job and are we putting pressure on the defense.”

The goal remains the same today during the IHSAA 4A state title game at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis when the Marauders (13-1) face Northridge (10-4) at 3:30 p.m.

The unranked Raiders are averaging 24.2 points per game, and their defense is allowing 19.6, which came in handy during their 20-14 win over No. 9 New Prairie in their semistate title game last week.

Northridge senior Tagg Gott intercepted a pass with 2 minutes, 17 seconds left in the game and on the ensuring drive, the two-way starter completed a 76-yard touchdown pass for the go-ahead touchdown.

If Jacobs and Lidy, the team’s defensive coordinator, have any say in the matter today, the margin won’t be as close, removing the possibility for any late-game heroics.

“I hate time of possession. I like scores,” Jacobs said. “Scores put pressure on people. Time of possession can, if you want to possess the ball, but the people want to see you score. It’s a tribute to those guys to want to be selfless and want to do that as well. And, you’re quarterback makes it a lot easier because he can throw it.

“When people come into a game, we want them to have the fear of knowing they have to score 35 points to win. That puts a huge measure on your brain as a coach to be able to do that.”

With senior quarterback Gehrig Slunaker under center, Jacobs has several options.

Slunaker initially transferred from rival Greenfield-Central before winning the position battle under center as a sophomore after starting at tight end. The Marauders reached semistate that season, and along with seniors Ashden Gentry, Keagan La Belle, Travon Hegler, among several junior athletes this year, the variations are endless on offense.

The Marauders have shifted into no-huddle routinely, gone wildcat, utilized jet sweeps and haven’t missed a step despite the in-game adjustments.

“Two weeks ago, Keagan La Belle said he wanted to block instead of running the ball, which makes it really easy to get Travon in to run behind him. Gentry the past two weeks, we told him we needed him to block as a wide receiver, and he never hesitated,” Jacobs said. “Guys are just selfless here, and obviously, they’re fast, which makes it a lot easy to put pressure on down the field. It’s a good mix.”

The Jacobs and Lidy combo has been just productive. The duo served as assistant coaches at Hamilton Southeastern for 18 years before joining former Mt. Vernon head coach Mike Kirschner’s staff in 2018. Together, they nearly helped lead the Royals to a 5A state title in 2005, but HSE lost to Warren Central.

Today, the two longtime friends and colleagues are focused on finishing the job after guiding the Marauders to their first state appearance.

“We had to try to find a way to evolve the offense a little bit,” said Lidy, who won a 5A state title at Castle in 1994 as a player for his father John. “At HSE, we had Gary Harris, and he was lights out. We wanted our best athletes, who didn’t specialize, to really grow our offense. We evolved into more more of a tempo and spread.”

The Marauders often share the wealth on offense with Slunaker passing for 31 touchdowns, 10 different players rushing for at least one of the team’s 56 TDs and 31 receiving TDs going to eight different players.

“At the end of the day, coach Lidy wants kids to be successful. He’s going to put them in the right spots to be successful, and as for me, he’s put me in a great opportunity to be successful as a coach. Helping him out has been great,” Jacobs said. “When Mike (Kirschner) got the job here, my first call was to Mike to tell him he needed to get Vince because I knew he wasn’t going to go back to HSE to coach. He lives in Fortville. He’s not coaching. It’s a two-minute drive and he’ll do unbelievable things.”

Winning a state title as a coach is one of them, which would put Lidy and his late father in the IHSAA record books. If the Marauders beat the Raiders, the Lidys would be only the third father-son coaching duo to win state championships, joining Nick Hart (Gibson Southern) and John Hart (Evansville Reitz/Warren Central) and Bud Wright of Sheridan and son Kevin Wright of Warren Central and Carmel.

For Lidy and Jacobs, it would further continue their achievements, including three sectional titles, two regional crowns, a semistate and a pair of Hoosier Heritage Conference championships while at Mt. Vernon.

“We’ve had a lot of pictures taken together over the years because you have to enjoy success,” Jacobs said. “You always have to appreciate victories no matter where you’re playing, who you’re playing or anytime because they’re so hard to come by. Sometimes it’s hard to score. You can be beat any time.”

MV Defense Ready to Go

When your team is known for offense, the defense can sometimes fall to the wayside. The Mt. Vernon Marauders don’t care who gets the headlines, but it’s not because the defense isn’t worthy.

Point proven, last week during the Class 4A semistate title game, Mt. Vernon allowed 165 yards rushing and 90 more passing against host Evansville Memorial. The Tigers production resulted in four first-half touchdowns.

In the second half, the Marauders defense shut the Tigers down. Evansville Memorial only mustered 70 yards of total offense in the second half, punted three times and turned the ball over on downs three times as Mt. Vernon won 42-28 in a slugfest.

“We took it personal. We knew if we didn’t stop them, then they were going to win the game,” Mt. Vernon senior defensive tackle Owen Johnson said. “At halftime, we made a couple of adjustments, and it worked the first time, and we kept going with it. They couldn’t break it.”

This season, Mt. Vernon has posted four shutouts, including a 70-0 win over Connersville to win the Sectional 21 title in the finals. Overall, the Marauders are allowing 19.1 points per game. The only team to scored 35 points or more against them was Noblesville in the season opener that Mt. Vernon lost 57-36.

“We’re a good run-first defense. We have solid corners and defensive backs, but I think we can stop the run,” Mt. Vernon senior linebacker Luke Hiner said. “The offense gets a lot of credit, but our defense does a lot and can hold teams down.”

The defense thrives on speed and quickness which accounts for its 92.0 tackles for a loss, 818 tackles overall, 28.0 sacks (led by Johnson’s 7.5) and nine interceptions.

Senior Avery Williams Jr. had the most recent pick during the semistate title game on Enlow Field in Evansville, which he returned 93 yards for a touchdown that put Mt. Vernon ahead 28-21 late in the second quarter.

“A lot of people said, that (interception return) was the momentum changer,” Johnson said. “That won us the game. I think everything else we did won us the game, but that play was a big momentum changer and showed us what we were capable of doing.”

The focal point for the defense will be to slow down Northridge quarterback Tagg Gott, who has eight passing touchdowns and 15 rushing with 1,030 yards on the ground and 1,018 through the air.

The one time Mt. Vernon’s defense was bested came against Noblesville, which rushed for more than 500 yards. It hasn’t happened since the loss.

“I think it really humbled us. We thought we couldn’t lose. The year before we beat them fairly easily and we just thought we were going to do it again,” Mt. Vernon senior linebacker Max Hayse said. “That loss reflected on how we practiced, and after that game, we were humbled and we knew we had to step it up big time.”