FORTVILLE — With the way things were going, the Mt. Vernon Marauders needed a spark on offense.
Keagan LaBelle provided it.
With neither offense able to accomplish much of anything in a scoreless first quarter, LaBelle opened the second with a 61-yard touchdown carry on his first touch of the game. He surpassed 100 yards in the first half on just seven carries, more yardage than Yorktown’s entire offense could muster.
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“We were a little sluggish. I think we had two first downs in the first quarter and they had none,” Mt. Vernon coach Mike Kirschner said. “Neither team was moving, both teams were playing great defense. But when he broke that long run, it kind of jump-started us.”
The Marauders defense had a huge first half, holding Yorktown to 107 yards — 42 on the last play of the half — while keeping the Tigers off the scoreboard. The hosts went into the break up 12-0.
With how the Mt. Vernon defense was playing, that was more than enough. The Marauders scored again late in the third and held on from there, finishing the regular season with a 19-8 win against Yorktown.
“We knew we were playing a good team. They’re 6-2, they’ve lost to the same two teams we did, Delta and New Pal,” Kirschner said. “They came in on a four-game win streak. So we knew. They have a lot of weapons. I was real pleased with how our defense played.”
Mt. Vernon (7-2, 5-2 Hoosier Heritage Conference) needed a big defensive performance with the offense struggling. A bad snap on a punt attempt early in the game gave Yorktown (6-3, 4-3) the ball on the Mt. Vernon 20 yard line, but the defense held strong and forced a fourth down incompletion.
A fumble while attempting to field a Yorktown punt in the second quarter gave the Tigers the ball just 27 yards from Mt. Vernon’s end zone. The defense held again, forcing another 4-and-out.
Both team’s passing attacks struggled early. The quarterbacks combined to complete just 5 of 20 passes in the first quarter and just 12 of 34 in the first half. It improved a bit in the second half, but Mt. Vernon got two interceptions to stall Yorktown drives.
Rylan Cole extended the Mt. Vernon lead to 19 in the third quarter, and the Marauders had a chance to put the game away to start the 4th quarter, getting to 2nd and goal from the 1. Three straight rushes failed, giving Yorktown life with 10 minutes to go.
“We had a chance to put them away, 1st and goal, and we just don’t bow up sometimes,” Kirschner said. “I don’t know why — we just don’t bow up.”
The Tigers finally sustained a drive, getting back to the Mt. Vernon red zone, before an Austin Lewis interception on 4th down ended the scoring threat.
Mt. Vernon fumbled the ball away, giving the Tigers another chance to get on the board with about five minutes left. Yorktown finally got on the board with a 1-yard TD run with 3:02 left, breaking up the shutout.
Another Marauders interception, this one from Cam Cole, ended the Tigers final attempt at a comeback.
LaBelle led the Mt. Vernon rushing attack with 11 carries for 119 yards. Rylan Cole carried 21 times for 91 yards. On the other end, the Mt. Vernon defense held Yorktown to just 44 yards on 28 carries, controlling the line of scrimmage throughout the contest.
The win keeps the Marauders moving forward as they get ready to start the tournament with a sectional opener on the road at Connersville on Friday, a 7 p.m. game in a stadium Kirschner has never coached a game in.
“It’s big. We’ve won four in a row now, we’re heading to Connersville,” Kirschner said. “We’ve got momentum. We’ve got to find out how healthy we are. We’ve got to regroup and do some things better, or the penalties and turnovers are going to get to the point where it hurts us.”