By Steve Joos
Bragging rights were on the line Friday night at the North Posey football field and there was one big reason in particular why the Mount Vernon Wildcats came away bragging.
Jason Stemple.
The senior quarterback completed 25 of 32 passes for 315 yards and five touchdowns as the Cats took over right before halftime and went from there to post a 48-29 victory.
“Not too shabby,” Wildcats’ coach Paul Maier said. “I think he’s going to be a pretty good quarterback someday. They blitzed us a ton and we checked it down to a backfield. He did everything we did in practice all week, we hit our hot reads and it was a good night for Jason.”
Stemple audibled well and made numerous check-offs, Maier said, adding that the Wildcat coaches had seen some things while watching film of the North Posey defense that enabled them to go underneath the Vikings and spring open some big gains.
“We played the same defense as they do,” Maier explained. “And we know that there are some things that gives us fits and we tried to exploit them tonight.”
Mount Vernon showed some versatility on offense when necessary, mounting a major scoring drive late in the second quarter to go up 21-14 on a two-yard toss from Stemple to Tim Davis. The Wildcats benefitted from a pass interference call on fourth and goal with under a minute left in the half to score. They then opened the third quarter with a drive that soaked up six minutes worth of clock and ended with Stemple’s nine-yard toss to Will Terbeck.
Terbeck grabbed six passes for 73 yards and two touchdowns Friday, as five different Cats caught passes. Davis hauled in four for 35 yards and a score, while adding a team-high 99 yards rushing for another TD (Stemple gained 51 yards with a score).
Vikings’ coach Joe Gengelbach thought his team played well—on one side of the ball.
“We had a lot of problems defensively,” Gengelbach said. “We didn’t cover, we blew a lot of assignments. We feel that on one side of the ball, we’re playing better, but on the other side of the ball, it’s like we haven’t even seen a ball go in.”
Gengelbach was surprised that many of the defensive players are back from last season’s team and they need to get focused on their assignments defensively.
North Posey signal-caller Colton Motz had a respectable night—213 yards passing and two touchdowns—but the Viking defense was riddled for 464 yards in total offense as Mount Vernon’s passing game was complemented by 149 yards on the ground.
“Stemple’s a good quarterback,” Gengelbach said. “He does a good job of reading the defense, he hit the little quick passes and that’s just the same as a running play. He’s a good quarterback and he did a good job tonight.”
The Vikings actually struck first, as Motz moved the team 59 yards in four plays before Wes Harness got away for a 10-yard scoring run. Rylan Gentil’s kick gave North Posey a 7-0 lead with 6:39 left in the opening chapter, the Wildcats came back with a quick strike of their own, as Terbeck hauled in a 20-yard pass from Stemple with 4:19 left on the clock in the period. The first of six Zac Deig extra points knotted things up at 7-7 and that’s how it stayed until Motz connected with Nick Neidig from eight yards out with just under four minutes gone in the second quarter.
Stemple answered back for the Wildcats, this time hitting Aaron Straub from 18 yards out with 4:38 remaining in the first half before Mount Vernon went on its first extended drive, capped by Stemple’s two-yard toss to Davis with 10 seconds left in the quarter. The Deig kick made it 21-14 at halftime.
In the third quarter, that same combination of play action passes and short tosses that started in the second quarter and deliberately moved the Cats downfield until connecting with Terbeck at the 6:35 mark or the third quarter.
The county rivalry’s back and forth nature continued on the next series, as Motz took just 31 seconds to lead the Vikings downfield, overcoming a touchback into a two-play drive that culminated in a 29-yard scoring strike to Neidig after a 42-yard pass play. Gentil’s kick made it 28-21 Cats, but then Mount Vernon started pulling away.
Stemple marched the team 80 yards over the next three minutes and capped things off with a 10-yard run as Mount Vernon took a 35-21 lead into the fourth quarter.
Stemple added a 44-yard pass to Blake Marshall for another touchdown with just under six minutes left in the game to put the Cats up 42-21.
Cameron Calvert closed out the scoring for North Posey on an eight-yard run with 2:22 to go in the contest, with Motz’s two-point conversion pass to Jared Reidford making the score 42-29. The Vikings tried an onsides kick, but Tyler Ritzert recovered it and Davis broke through the defense for a 52-yard run that capped the scoring.
After tearing up South Spencer for over 200 yards in the season opener, Harness was limited to 64 yards against Mount Vernon, while Calvert led the team with 73 yards rushing. Reidford took in six passes for 102 yards to pace the Viking receivers.
For the second straight week, the Vikings scored a lot of points. Unfortunately for them, Mount Vernon scored more.
And they had Stemple.
Against Tell City, the Wildcats ran the ball more, against North Posey, they went to the air, Maier added.
They take what the defense was giving and on Friday night, it was short passing routes.