FORTVILLE — After their opening-night loss at home, 2-1, against Indianapolis Bishop Chatard this past August, the Mt. Vernon Marauders came out firing.
All the Mt. Vernon girls soccer team needed were a few self-reflecting nights to turn the page.
And, the results were instantaneous.
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From 0-1 to 6-1, the Marauders outscored their opponents 40-4 while winning six straight games from Aug. 20-Sept. 9.
Then, it happened again.
The Class 3A 10th-ranked Marauders shockingly lost to Hoosier Heritage Conference foe Yorktown, 1-0, at home on Sept. 12, which essentially cost them a chance at a repeat league title.
The loss washed away any potential overconfidence the group might have possessed up to that point, but it didn’t deter their focus.
Instead, it grounded them and supplied them with a new chip to perch atop their shoulders.
No longer the team to beat in the HHC, they set their sights on a much grander label, one they achieved by sweeping through the East Central Sectional last week to win the program’s first championship since 2015 and third overall.
“Once we lost to Yorktown and we came back and beat (Hamilton Southeastern), something kind of clicked in our brains, and we knew if we put the work in, we could do it,” Mt. Vernon senior Katie Gawrys said.
“This is exactly what we worked for all season. We had our one setback with Yorktown, and after that it pushed us to go even harder. And, this is exactly what we wanted.”
One loss fueled the Marauders (15-2) to prove everyone outside their circle wrong.
One key, bounce-back win last month now has them set to compete in the East Central Regional this Saturday against Roncalli (10-6-1) in the semifinals at noon.
What started with a 4-0 win over 12th-ranked 3A Fishers at home on Sept. 14, followed by a 1-0 victory over then third-ranked 3A Hamilton Southeastern on Sept. 17, snowballed into a nine-game winning streak.
Their program’s first-ever triumph against HSE showed the Marauders what they were capable of accomplishing, collectively, if they stuck to their approach.
The Marauders are now ranked in the state’s top 10 after sitting at 15th a week ago, and 14th nationally, according to MaxPreps.
Through the past nine contests, Mt. Vernon has outscored opposing teams 49-4 with six shutouts en route to a program-record, single-season 10, including back-to-back in the sectional semifinals (3-0 vs. East Central) and championship game (3-0 vs. New Palestine).
Seven players have five or more goals to their credit this season and the team is averaging 5.5 goals a game.
Talent plays a big part in the numbers, Mt. Vernon head coach Steve Williams says. Camaraderie is another vital component.
“It takes a lot of team chemistry. We have done team bonding. We make sure we connect at practices. We would not be able to play the game that we do, if we weren’t as close as we are,” Gawrys said.
For some of the Marauders, connectivity is natural.
Gawrys, a Bellarmine recruit, has eight goals and seven assists this year, and more importantly, her younger sister, Ellie, a freshman, in the starting lineup as a fellow defender.
Senior Anna Isger, who leads the Marauders with 25 goals and 18 assists, plays alongside her younger sister, Mattie, a freshman, who has 12 goals and six assists.
The two attackers are the daughters of Matt Isger, who teamed with Indiana University men’s soccer legend Ken Snow, a former Hermann Trophy winner that led the Hoosiers men’s team to a national title in 1988.
The quartet once trained together on the same club team for a duration, but since the families have taken different offseason routes.
In-season, however, they are unified, and the families add a dynamic that’s been developing quickly with both freshmen exceeding expectations in their first year.
“The freshmen bring a big aspect that we weren’t even expecting. They picked up big roles, and then we have the seniors, who play even bigger roles and with the different talent and people we have on our team, we can go far,” Mt. Vernon junior Shay Shipley said. “We should continue on.”
Every Marauder will be counted on at regional against Roncalli, which won its third straight by knocking off Lawrence North, 2-0, in the Warren Central Sectional championship.
In the other regional semifinal on Saturday, No. 2 Guerin Catholic (13-1-2) will face No. 7 Brownsburg (12-6-1) at 10 a.m. The championship game is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Guerin Catholic is ranked second in the nation by MaxPreps, while Brownsburg is 11th. Guerin Catholic hasn’t lost a game since falling to Carmel, 2-0, on Aug. 22, with 12 wins and two ties amassed prior to entering this weekend.
The Guerin Catholic offense is led by senior Quincy McMahon, a UCLA recruit, with 16 goals in 15 games, along with 16 assists.
While a daunting task to face, the Marauders are eyeing the program’s first potential regional championship since 1996 before girls soccer shifted to classification.
Mt. Vernon’s last trip to regional was in 2015 when the team was in 2A.
If the Marauders do reach the regional finals, they will utilize their strengths, Williams said, which entails their height, length, stamina, communication and I.Q.
Each quality proved invaluable against East Central, which was ranked 11th in 3A before the Marauders handed the Trojans their first loss against an Indiana opponent.
“This group is the best team I’ve ever had,” Williams said. “They study the film. They took East Central apart on the film, and they did that on their own. They came in and they were all psyched up the next day. They knew exactly what they wanted to do and how they wanted to play them. This is an easy team to coach.”
And, they aren’t overlooking any team, regardless of how the matchup looks on paper.
They already made that mistake nine games ago, and the HHC runner-up Marauders aren’t into rehashing old trends.
“We knew we had to be smart (at sectional) because if we came out of the games on top, we had another game to play next week (at regional),” Shipley said. “We couldn’t just goof around. We had to focus. To overlook New Pal (in the finals) would have been silly. They could have punished us for that, so I’m glad we came in with the right mindset to win the game.”
