PENDLETON — The 2024 high school football season has been filled with weather-affected games.
Week 6 was no different.
With weather from Hurricane Helene causing issues and forcing postponements around the state, in Pendleton, Friday night’s game went on as scheduled.
In a game with steady rain and strong winds for all 48 minutes, Mt. Vernon prevailed in a Hoosier Heritage Conference meeting over Pendleton Heights 14-10.
“We made enough plays, and all I say is that you’ve only got to win by one. That’s what we care about. We had to handle this stuff, and we did that a little better than they did,” Mt. Vernon head coach Vince Lidy said. “Credit to our players and coaches. Getting two in a row feels good. We’ll enjoy it for 24 hours and then on Sunday we are on to New Castle.”
“You kind of just gameplan for something like this on the fly,” Lidy added about the weather. “You have no way to simulate how bad the wind is going to be until you get here.”
The 50-plus miles-per-hour winds made it an old-fashioned, hard-nosed game that was both won and lost at the line of scrimmage. With just six combined passes thrown, it was all about what run game could move the ball, and what defenses could make the big play.
The Marauders did a little of both those things in the opening quarter.
“You can’t simulate what happened out here. It was chaos,” Lidy said. “We knew we had to run the ball. It came down to who could run the ball the most and the best at the end.”
Five minutes into the game, a fumbled snap by Pendleton Heights quarterback Colton Frank rolled into the end zone, and the Mt. Vernon defense was there to dive on it for the first points of the night. Rylan Vinard added the extra point to put the Marauders ahead 7-0.
“One of our coaches brought up that if we won the toss we should kick off because at the start there was going to be no kicks, punts or passes going into the wind,” Lidy said. “We were going with the wind and wanted to jump on them, and we did. We got stops, scored on defense and were able to get up early.
After a quick three-and-out forced by the defense, the Mt. Vernon running attack went to work.
Playing with the wind at their back, in three plays, they pushed the lead to 14-0.
Running back Joliba Brogan broke off a 16-yard run and a 19-yard run on consecutive plays to set up quarterback Mason Meyer for the score on a 1-yard keeper.
“That was huge for us. They had to deal with the wind in that first quarter and then we just navigated the second quarter,” Lidy said. “We played to win, not to lose. Our plan was to kick it, get a stop and then score. We were able to score early, and then they made some adjustments.
On the next drive, it was Brogan making a big play on the defensive side of the ball to thwart a Pendleton Heights drive.
After Pendleton Heights running back Keaton Jones broke off runs of 19 and 20 yards to put the Arabians in a position to get points, later in the drive, Brogan stuffed Jones for a 3-yard loss to force a punt.
A 35-yard field goal by Pendleton Heights’ Wyatt DeBertrand with eight minutes to go in the half were the only points scored in the second quarter. The Arabians punted on their only other drive, and the Marauders turned the ball over on downs and punted in the period.
“Special teams was a cat and mouse game,” Lidy said. “In pregame, punts were going the other way.”
The only other score of the night came early in the third quarter.
After a pass interference by the Marauders kept a Pendleton Heights drive alive, Jones found a gap in the Marauders front and scampered in for the score from 19 yards out on fourth and two.
The teams traded punts the rest of the way, but the Arabians had their chances to score.
Down four late, the Arabians got the ball back with just over five minutes to go, but a quick three-and-out forced a punt with 3:18 on the clock.
One minute later, the Arabians got the ball back beyond midfield after a bad snap on a Mt. Vernon punt attempt.
Starting at the Marauders 41-yard line, Jones was stopped after a 3-yard run, Frank threw an incomplete pass, and Davon Williams sacked Frank for a big loss to set up fourth down.
Needing to reach the first down marker, Frank threw a pass downfield that was intercepted by Kolten Anderson to seal the win.
“We hung on. The defense came up with some big plays at the end with the sack and interception,” Lidy said. “We were fortunate to make some plays.”
–
Mt. Vernon 14, Pendleton Heights 10
Mt. Vernon (2-4, 2-2);14;0;0;0; — ;14
Pendleton Heights (2-4, 1-3);0;3;7;0; —;10
Scoring Summary
1st Quarter
MV — Mt. Vernon defense, fumble recovery in end zone (Rylan Vinard kick), 7:07
MV — Mason Meyer 1 run (Vinard kick), 5:09
2nd Quarter
PH —Wyatt DeBertrand 35 FG, 8:04
3rd Quarter
PH — Keaton Jones 19 run (DeBertrand kick), 7:52
