Wildcats love it when plan comes together, gain 45-14 win

Mount Vernon senior Brycen Riggan finds a new way to get into the end zone on Friday night against Washington. The Wildcats won their second game in three weeks.

Photo by Garry Beeson

By Dave Pearce

The Mount Vernon Wildcat football team has depended all season on the leadership of the seniors to help lead the team into the Brad Higginson Era of the program.

On Friday night, Higginson put those seniors to work and came out with a lop-sided 45-14 win over the Washington Hatchets in the final regular-season home game of the year. The Wildcats found out Sunday evening that they will open sectional action at Corydon Central. They finish the regular season this Friday at North Posey in the annual county rivalry contest on Joe Gengelbaugh Field in Poseyville.

But first things first. In a season that has featured a good teacher and better-than-average students, the Wildcats have made the best of a small roster and have improved in nearly every aspect of the game as the season has gone along, winning two of their last three games and playing highly-regarded Heritage Hills close for the game before falling 35-10 last week.

But Higginson is not surprised at the progress his team has made because with the group he had, he expected it.

“We have been getting better every week,” Higginson said following the win over Washinton’s Hatchets. “We got up to a little bit of a slow start but we fixed the tempo and corrected some of our mistakes from the first two drives (one of offense and one on defense) and our guys started dialing in and played pretty disciplined football. We were able to execute and win at the line of scrimmage.

No where was that more apparent than on the rushing sheet where nine Mount Vernon Wildcats were credited for carries as the Wildcats rolled up 262 yards on the ground. Senior Eastin Hall carried the brunt of the load and Saint Henderson carried nine times for 62 yards. Collins carried twice for 32. Crowe, Riggan, and Lilleston rounded out the rushing yards for the Wildcats.

Through the air, Ryan Lilleston again led the team in receptions with three catches for 63 yards and Maddox Salee snagged a catch and rambled 59 yards on his only catch of the night. Collins caught three passes for 31 yards.

The line eliminated some mistakes and with the Wildcat size up front, they feel they have matched up size-wise with most of their opponents.

“We have had a mistake here and a mistake there and the defense finds us and sometimes our bigs versus our opponents’ speed has given us some problems” Higginson said. “But at the end of the day, our guys did their assignment well and we got behind our pads and were able to move the football.”

Higginson was complimentary of Hall who had perhaps his best night of the season and his teammates were able to control the line of scrimmage essentially from the beginning to the end of the game. That allowed Hall to get downhill and roll up some big numbers.

The Hatchets have some injuries, just as the Wildcats do, and they played some of their younger players at times, just as the Wildcats did. The coach indicated how important every player was in this victory.

Higginson said that with the skill players the Hatchets were able to exhibit that his Wildcats really matched up well with the visitors.

“We were able to take advantage of some of those match-ups with our speed and size in certain situations,” Higginson said. “We executed the gameplan well and we spread the ball out pretty well. We were able to set a lot of our seniors the ball and give them an opportunity to go out (on Senior Night) with a good game. The seniors really stepped up and did a good job. We had seven dressed and eight total. All seven of them made contributions. That was good to see and helped the younger guys see the culture of toughness we are trying to build here.”

Bryson Riggan put on a defensive performance as a senior as he had 10 tackles and an interception. Lilleston had seven tackles while Henderson had six. Hall and jones finished with four each while Maddox Salee, Gavin Schu, and Klayton Hamilton were credited with three apiece. Jordan Greathouse finished with a pair of tackles and an interception while Cael Collins, Was Biggerstaff, Gabriel Nunn, Henry Scates, and Brayden Ford all got in on the action with a tackle apiece.

The sectional draw was held on Sunday evening and the Wildcats will open tourney play at Corydon Central (2-6 and 1-5 in the conference) in game four and the winner will face the winner of Princeton and Mater Dei. It the top half of the bracket, Southridge will open at Gibson Southern and Evansville Memorial will travel to North Harrison (1-7, 0-6).

Gametime Friday evening in Poseyville is 6:30 p.m.