Good Luck Raiders, But…
November 27, 2021 at 2:42 a.m.
Good Luck Raiders, But…
By Chip Davenport-
The IHSAA state football championships, six games among classes 1A through 6A, over two days has a lure to my television set until at least half of the games end up not being very competitive. It’s not always due to a team just getting hot in the postseason hitting a traditional power’s buzz saw. Sometimes it’s easy to stay tuned just to see why the victor pulled away from the runner-up.
Some very solid teams from the North are just outmatched against their foes from Central and Southern Indiana. This is what will happen to Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) member, the Northridge Raiders, when they face the Marauders of Mount Vernon (Fortville).
A public school waiting for Northridge at Lucas Oil Stadium might catch the casual high school football observer off guard. The Marauders, however, didn’t arrive in the finals on a cake walk.
They defeated two state finalists from previous seasons, Roncalli (27-24) and Evansville Memorial (42-28). While I wish our NLC reps, the Raiders, the best of luck in today’s final, the Marauders played their toughest opponents on the road to Indy.
Good luck Raiders, but it’s Mount Vernon’s time, Mount Vernon’s turn, so I’ll illustrate why.
Indianapolis Catholic school teams like Bishop Chatard, Bishop Roncalli (who was eventually Pope John XXIII), and Cathedral (when they aren’t bumped up to Class 5A and 6A due to the Tournament Success Factor – TSF) usually await the Northern Indiana finalist. One of those three schools usually wins convincingly.
Although Mount Vernon plays in a conference where its opponents are other rural consolidated schools, their conference, the Hoosier Heritage Conference, has become an impressive collection of Class 3A and 4A football programs.
This conference is the home of the New Palestine Dragons, a school whose enrollment lands them in Class 4A, but they’ve been playing Class 5A football since the middle of last decade, thanks to TSF. The Dragons won 65 consecutive regular season games, mostly in dominant fashion.
The Dragons scored 77 points against a solid New Prairie squad in 2014 in the Class 4A state finals. New Palestine reached the state finals in 2015, 2018, and 2019 all at the Class 5A level, winning two of those three clashes.
I mentioned weight training in last week’s column, and it is – again – weight training contributing the immediate dominance the Dragons displayed on-field. Kyle Ralph, their head coach since 2013, played high school ball at perennial Ohio power Cincinnati St. Xavier. He moved on the play Division I football at the University of North Carolina.
Ralph knew the benefits of intense weight training, including game day lifting, from his success playing scholastic and collegiate football.
Enter Mike Kirschner, who took over Mount Vernon’s program in 2018, the season following his Ben Davis squad’s 63-14 shellacking of Penn in the Class 6A 2017 final. It was Ben Davis’s second state championship with Kirschner at the helm.
Mount Vernon presented a challenge elite coaches love. They were tired of getting soundly beat by New Palestine, and there were likely many skeptics who believed although an elite coach like Kirschner was on board, New Palestine was too far ahead the wake it was leaving for the rest of its Hoosier Heritage Conference members.
Kirschner’s Marauders did the same thing Ralph’s Dragons did. They hit the weight room all year long, and they quickly changed their team culture. Mount Vernon made it to the 2019 Class 4A semi state but lost to eventual 4A state champion, Evansville Memorial (yes, the same Memorial I mentioned earlier).
The Marauders proved New Palestine was mortal in the 2020 regular season, ending New Pal’s 65-game regular season win streak. Kirschner’s teams were accomplishing the unthinkable. They lost to eventual 2020 Class 4A champion Roncalli in the regionals. Mount Vernon, now under the leadership of Vince Lidy, avenged another loss from previous tournament runs.
Northridge’s run includes completely turning around a sound regular season defeat, and beating impressive programs like Leo, and New Prairie. The Raiders regained their health, and they played solid defense. They’re going to look a lot like this team making the big run this year when they face next season’s NLC slate.
Northridge’s opponents on the way to state, however, pale in comparison to the Hoosier Heritage Conference’s latest turnaround story.
Mount Vernon’s wins come at the hands of programs who have made trips to Lucas Oil Stadium in the most recent years. These are schools who’ve had consistent post-season success.
Chad Eppley’s first season run has been impressive, and there are some local dragons they’ll need to slay the way Mount Vernon has slain the New Pal Dragons. Regardless of how big the Marauders win against the Northridge Raiders, Coach Eppley will very likely use the experience as a foundation for building continued success in a program from a growing school enrollment, and with consistent success in multiple sports.
The IHSAA state football championships, six games among classes 1A through 6A, over two days has a lure to my television set until at least half of the games end up not being very competitive. It’s not always due to a team just getting hot in the postseason hitting a traditional power’s buzz saw. Sometimes it’s easy to stay tuned just to see why the victor pulled away from the runner-up.
Some very solid teams from the North are just outmatched against their foes from Central and Southern Indiana. This is what will happen to Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) member, the Northridge Raiders, when they face the Marauders of Mount Vernon (Fortville).
A public school waiting for Northridge at Lucas Oil Stadium might catch the casual high school football observer off guard. The Marauders, however, didn’t arrive in the finals on a cake walk.
They defeated two state finalists from previous seasons, Roncalli (27-24) and Evansville Memorial (42-28). While I wish our NLC reps, the Raiders, the best of luck in today’s final, the Marauders played their toughest opponents on the road to Indy.
Good luck Raiders, but it’s Mount Vernon’s time, Mount Vernon’s turn, so I’ll illustrate why.
Indianapolis Catholic school teams like Bishop Chatard, Bishop Roncalli (who was eventually Pope John XXIII), and Cathedral (when they aren’t bumped up to Class 5A and 6A due to the Tournament Success Factor – TSF) usually await the Northern Indiana finalist. One of those three schools usually wins convincingly.
Although Mount Vernon plays in a conference where its opponents are other rural consolidated schools, their conference, the Hoosier Heritage Conference, has become an impressive collection of Class 3A and 4A football programs.
This conference is the home of the New Palestine Dragons, a school whose enrollment lands them in Class 4A, but they’ve been playing Class 5A football since the middle of last decade, thanks to TSF. The Dragons won 65 consecutive regular season games, mostly in dominant fashion.
The Dragons scored 77 points against a solid New Prairie squad in 2014 in the Class 4A state finals. New Palestine reached the state finals in 2015, 2018, and 2019 all at the Class 5A level, winning two of those three clashes.
I mentioned weight training in last week’s column, and it is – again – weight training contributing the immediate dominance the Dragons displayed on-field. Kyle Ralph, their head coach since 2013, played high school ball at perennial Ohio power Cincinnati St. Xavier. He moved on the play Division I football at the University of North Carolina.
Ralph knew the benefits of intense weight training, including game day lifting, from his success playing scholastic and collegiate football.
Enter Mike Kirschner, who took over Mount Vernon’s program in 2018, the season following his Ben Davis squad’s 63-14 shellacking of Penn in the Class 6A 2017 final. It was Ben Davis’s second state championship with Kirschner at the helm.
Mount Vernon presented a challenge elite coaches love. They were tired of getting soundly beat by New Palestine, and there were likely many skeptics who believed although an elite coach like Kirschner was on board, New Palestine was too far ahead the wake it was leaving for the rest of its Hoosier Heritage Conference members.
Kirschner’s Marauders did the same thing Ralph’s Dragons did. They hit the weight room all year long, and they quickly changed their team culture. Mount Vernon made it to the 2019 Class 4A semi state but lost to eventual 4A state champion, Evansville Memorial (yes, the same Memorial I mentioned earlier).
The Marauders proved New Palestine was mortal in the 2020 regular season, ending New Pal’s 65-game regular season win streak. Kirschner’s teams were accomplishing the unthinkable. They lost to eventual 2020 Class 4A champion Roncalli in the regionals. Mount Vernon, now under the leadership of Vince Lidy, avenged another loss from previous tournament runs.
Northridge’s run includes completely turning around a sound regular season defeat, and beating impressive programs like Leo, and New Prairie. The Raiders regained their health, and they played solid defense. They’re going to look a lot like this team making the big run this year when they face next season’s NLC slate.
Northridge’s opponents on the way to state, however, pale in comparison to the Hoosier Heritage Conference’s latest turnaround story.
Mount Vernon’s wins come at the hands of programs who have made trips to Lucas Oil Stadium in the most recent years. These are schools who’ve had consistent post-season success.
Chad Eppley’s first season run has been impressive, and there are some local dragons they’ll need to slay the way Mount Vernon has slain the New Pal Dragons. Regardless of how big the Marauders win against the Northridge Raiders, Coach Eppley will very likely use the experience as a foundation for building continued success in a program from a growing school enrollment, and with consistent success in multiple sports.
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