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Wildcats take out frustrations in mauling of Princeton
By Dennis Marshall
MOUNT VERNON, Ind. — Four weeks of missed opportunities, turnovers and self-inflicted damage had left Mount Vernon searching for the football team it believed it could be.
It found it on Friday, Sept. 18, against Princeton.
The Wildcats (1-4, 1-2 PAC) came out of an 80-minute lightning delay and played like they had something to settle, overwhelming the Tigers (1-4, 0-3 PAC) at the line of scrimmage from the opening snap in a 56-20 homecoming victory at Memorial Field.
“We reestablished the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and were able to get the ball to the right guys at the right time, and they took advantage of it,” first-year coach Brad Higginson said. “When we execute, we’re a really good football team, and we proved that on Friday night.”
Mount Vernon wasted no time showing Princeton what kind of night was coming.
On the first play from scrimmage, Eastin Hall ripped off 44 yards. Hall then finished the opening drive with an 8-yard touchdown run, and the Wildcats added a 2-point conversion for an 8-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.
Then the defense got involved.
Joseph Lamprich blew up the Tigers’ first two plays in the backfield, helping force a punt. The kick was partially blocked. Klayton Hamilton picked the bouncing ball up and ran 30 yards for a touchdown, making it 15-0 with 8:09 left in the first quarter.
“Everybody was yelling for him to get away, and then the next thing you know they kind of let up and he just started sprinting to the ball,” Higginson said.
Mount Vernon was just getting started.
Ryan Lilleston took the first snap of the next drive 82 yards for a touchdown.
“He showed great patience to understand when to cut,” Higginson said. “A lot of people think that’s an outside zone play, and it’s really designed to run up the middle. Once he gets the ball in space, there’s not a lot of people that are going to catch him.”
Trevan Bell, crowned homecoming king before kickoff, then stopped the Tigers short of the line to gain on fourth down.
“Just doing your job — understanding block recognition, getting off blocks,” Higginson said. “The biggest thing is finishing at the point of attack, and we did that. We have the momentum on a fourth-down stop and then one or two plays later we’re in the end zone.”
Saint Henderson turned that stop into another quick strike, going for a 51-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 29-0 with 4:45 left in the first quarter. Paxton Boyd followed with a 13-yard touchdown run with 18.7 seconds remaining, giving Mount Vernon five touchdowns in the opening quarter.
The second quarter was more punishment.
Henderson went for a 44-yard touchdown run with 7:19 left in the half, stretching the lead to 42-0.
Then came another special-teams break, and this one put the offense at the doorstep. On the ensuing kickoff, Princeton let the ball go, thinking it would bounce out of bounds. It stayed in, rolled down the sideline, and Hamilton and Cael Collins were both there. Hamilton recovered at the 3.
Hall finished the short field with a touchdown run, making it 49-0 with 7:07 left.
Henderson’s final touchdown came from 49 yards with 4:46 left before halftime, making it 56-0.
Mount Vernon ran 23 times for 382 yards, an average of 16.6 yards per carry. Henderson accounted for 154 yards and three touchdowns on five carries. Hall added 83 yards and two touchdowns on four carries. Lilleston turned his lone carry into an 82-yard touchdown, and Boyd finished with 58 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries. The Wildcats finished with 438 yards of total offense and no turnovers.
“It starts from the offensive line for sure,” Henderson said. “There were huge gaps left and right. You could pick A, B or C gap and you could have run for a touchdown, honestly. All you got to do is just hit that gap, take off, make one or two guys miss, and you’re gone.”
That is the offense Higginson has been trying to put on the field since August: Hall closing downhill, Henderson still looking for the next collision after he has already beaten the first man, the line creating the kind of creases Henderson described.
“We’re going to keep on running like a train,” Henderson said.
Higginson would not call it a night of settling scores. He called the week a reset. Practice changed. The staff went back to blocking, tackling, ball security and block destruction. He said he saw the difference before the opening kick. Linemen who had not been moving people in the first two weeks were driving them off the ball in pregame.
“We’re not an 0-4 team, but we just beat ourselves, and that’s the result we got,” Hall said. “We were ready to go play some ball tonight. We came out physical. We knew our job.”
Princeton finished the first half at minus-21 yards of total offense.
Hall had eight solo tackles, a sack and two tackles for loss. Henderson added eight tackles. Lamprich was in the backfield for three tackles for loss. Brycen Riggan had a sack and a breakup. Gavin Schu and Coltyn Stillwagoner also recorded sacks.
Collins also drew Higginson’s praise for the way he handled his assignments in the secondary. Mount Vernon played mostly Cover 1 and Cover 3, but when Princeton went empty, Collins recognized an out route in match Cover 2 and closed on the receiver to force an incompletion.
“That’s a tone-setter,” Higginson said.
Was Biggerstaff provided the same kind of effort on offense, making a downfield block that helped spring Henderson on one of his long touchdown runs. Higginson later got him the ball on a short screen.
True freshman Blake Bell got an unexpected varsity debut after a pregame injury left him handling kickoffs and extra points. Bell made 6 of 7 extra points in his first varsity game.
Alumni were recognized before kickoff.
“A big part of where we are today is because of the people of our past,” Higginson said. He wants that to last past homecoming — cookouts, summer events, more of them around the program.
Hall would not let the locker room treat it like the season had been rewritten.
“I just told the guys in the huddle that we’re still 0-4 in my head,” he said. “We got to stay hungry.”
Southridge is next for Mount Vernon on Friday, Sept. 25, in Huntingburg. The Raiders (1-4, 1-3 PAC) ended the Wildcats’ season last year with a 26-7 victory in the Class 3A sectional.
