Mt. Vernon’s Luke Ertel drops back to pass in the Marauders game against Franklin. On Friday, Ertel threw two touchdown passes and rushed for another in a 31-20 win over Delta.
Tom Russo | Daily Reporter
Staff report
FORTVILLE — Mt. Vernon scored the first 10 points of the second half to break a 14-14 halftime tie, and went on to defeat Delta 31-20 at Mt. Vernon High School Friday.
The Marauders jumped out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead. Domanic Barnett caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Luke Ertel for the game’s opening score with 6:56 left in the first quarter. Joliba Brogan added a 1-yard TD run, set up his 25-yard dash to the Delta 1, with 43 seconds left in the quarter.
Delta answered with 14 second-quarter points.
With 4:40 left in the third quarter, Rylan Vinard, who had kicked two PATs in the first half, gave the Marauders the lead with a 39-yard field goal.
On a second-and-17 play from the Delta 31, Ertel connected with Kaidan Smith on a fourth-quarter score to increase Mt. Vernon’s lead to 24-14 with 8:53 to go.
Delta cut it to 24-20, but late in the fourth quarter and deep in its own territory, a failed fourth-down conversion gave the Marauders the ball with great field position.
The last MV score came on an Ertel 7-yard run with 1:58 remaining in the game.
The win ends a Marauder two-game losing streak. Mt. Vernon is 2-3 overall and 1-2 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference.
Delta came in ranked No. 9 in Class 3A and was undefeated on the season. The Eagles are now 4-1 overall and 2-1 in the HHC.
Mt. Vernon hosts Pendleton Heights (3-2, 1-2) Friday. Delta is also home next week against New Castle (1-4, 0-3).
