FORTVILLE — The Mt. Vernon defense came out fired up Friday night, helping the offense jump out to a quick 7-0 lead against visiting Hamilton Heights.
Mistakes brought that early momentum to a screeching halt for the Marauders, as they fell behind 16-7 early in the second quarter.
Miscues would be the theme of the night for the hosts, but Mt. Vernon was able to settle in during the second quarter with a pair of long touchdown passes and an interception to head into the break up 29-16.
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The Huskies closed it to one score again before Mt. Vernon pulled away for good, and the Marauders opened their season with a 44-23 win despite their mistakes.
“We’ve gotta be more coachable in practice, bottom line,” Mt. Vernon coach Mike Kirschner said. “We did some things tonight, there were a couple specific plays that we specifically went over and told them not to do in practice yesterday, and we did it today and it cost us. That’s the stuff that as a coach frustrates me to no end.”
The defense had started out hot, with back-to-back sacks from Matt Foor and Charlie Moore. That backed the Huskies up to their own 5-yard line for a punt, giving Mt. Vernon the ball just 17 yards from the end zone on their opening drive. Quarterback Shaun Shipley found Ashden Gentry for a 6-yard TD just minutes into the season.
The offense then stalled, turning the ball over four straight times — two fumbles, a safety and an interception.
Once the Marauders got a safety of their own halfway through the second quarter on a snap that went out of the back of the end zone, the offense caught fire itself. Gehrig Slunaker, rotating at quarterback with Shipley, found Dawan Langston on three straight drives, connecting for TD passes of 47, 38 and 32 yards within a five-minute span.
Slunaker finished 10 of 17 for 175 yards and three TDs, along with 38 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Shipley finished 4 of 10 for 13 yards and three INTs.
Both struggled at various points in the game and had plenty of room for improvement, Kirschner said.
“We don’t do what we’ve been taught to do. I’m just being honest. We didn’t read the defense,” he said. “When you’re playing this game, you don’t have any film to go on. They were playing seven in the box, trying to take away the inside run, their safeties were playing back but rolling down tight … there were certain things they were giving up, and we couldn’t get our quarterbacks to read it. It wasn’t one quarterback or the other. It was both.”
Mt. Vernon finished the game with three interceptions, two lost fumbles, a turnover on downs and a safety.
Despite the win, it was not the kind of start Kirschner and his coaching staff were hoping to see out of a Marauders team that finished 7-4 a year ago.
“We turned it over five times. It was more than just one guy. We had five turnovers that directly led to 23 points,” Kirschner said. “It’s that kind of stuff that has got to end. Tomorrow’s another day, but it wasn’t what we had hoped for.
“We had some mental breakdowns. It’s that kind of stuff if you don’t get fixed, you’ll just be an average team.”
Rylan Cole led the Mt. Vernon rushing attack with 18 carries for 145 yards and a touchdown. He also intercepted a pass on defense.
The Marauders had five sacks in the game, with Moore finishing with 2.5 sacks, Foor notching 1.5 and Mekhi Richmond picking up one of his own. The Mt. Vernon defense allowed 179 passing yards and 73 rush yards in the win.
It was a similar final result but different kind of game from a year ago, when Mike Kirschner’s new team topped his son, Jon’s, new Hamilton Heights team. Mt. Vernon was the team that forced seven turnovers in the 2018 contest.
Even with the early deficit and the mistakes, Kirschner didn’t see his team get down on themselves while winning the second-straight Kirschner coaching matchup.
“I think that mentality is no longer in them. I think we kind of got them out of them after last year a little bit, a little bit of the success we had,” he said. “But at the same time, some of this should have not happened. My son’s team did a great job. They are so much improved over last year.”
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New Palestine at Center Grove, 7 p.m.
Richmond at Mt. Vernon, 7 p.m.
Eastern Hancock at Wes-Del, 7 p.m.
Whiteland at Greenfield-Central, 7:30 p.m.
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