INDIANAPOLIS
A top-tier opposing quarterback and a few errors that are common for opening games combined to doom Roncalli’s football team in its season opener Friday at Southport.
The Cardinals’ Eddie Schott, a Ball State recruit, threw for 301 yards and a pair of touchdowns, and the Southport secondary collected four interceptions, including two key picks in the fourth quarter, as the host Cardinals upset the Class 5A No. 4 Rebels, 36-28.
Southport’s Steven Pagel hauled in both of those fourth-quarter interceptions. The first came with 5:00 remaining and Roncalli attempting a potential go-ahead drive with the Cardinals leading 29-28. The second ended the Rebels’ last gasp after Southport had extended its lead to 36-28 with 2:04 to play.
“Some of those throws that he made were really tough throws,” Roncalli coach Scott Marsh said of Schott. “Those weren’t throws you were going to see every night from a high school quarterback.”
Rebels running back Elijah Mahan tried to match Schott, rushing for 182 yards on 39 carries and two touchdowns. All but eight of those yards came on Roncalli’s four scoring drives, each of which lasted at least 65 yards.
However, Schott and the Southport receiving corps outdid Mahan. He completed 19 of 27 passes for those 301 yards, an average of 11.1 yards per attempt.
Roncalli seemed to take some semblance of control with its opening drive of the third quarter, taking a 21-13 lead after an eight-play, 68-yard drive ended with a 22-yard Alex Volk touchdown run. The Rebels’ Ethan Lockard then recovered a Southport fumble at the Southport 19-yard line, but Roncalli couldn’t advance the ball past the Cardinals’ 18 and then missed a field goal attempt.
Southport responded with a nine-play, 80-yard scoring drive, which ended with a Schott touchdown pass to Ryan Lezon. The pair connected again on a two-point conversion to tie the game at 21-21.
The Rebels then put together a 12-play, 65-yard scoring drive, capped by a Mahan touchdown with 9:57 to play. But the Cardinals needed just eight plays to go 77 yards, and when Jalen Caldwell scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 6:14 left and Lezon hauled in another two-point conversion catch, Southport took the lead for good, 29-28.
“They beat us,” Marsh said. They made plays to beat us. We were our own worst enemy at times, but we still forced them to go out and make plays, and they did, so hats off to them.”
Roncalli will play next Friday at Franklin Central.
