Football Championship Friday Recap
It was a big Friday night as Roncalli won the Circle City Conference Championship in football for the second straight year and fourth time overall, breaking a tie with Chatard for most football championships in the conference’s history. That plus two other conference showdowns with some crazy endings.
The Royals entered the night with a chance to finish the conference with an undefeated record and a conference championship. A tough first half led to a narrow lead for their opponent, Brebeuf, as the Braves led 14-10 behind a big first half from Taylor Clark. Roncalli was able to respond with 21 unanswered points. That comeback was led by the ground attack that has been the Royals strength all year, with one of the best offensive lines in Indiana and Luke Hanson. Hanson was able to rush for 266 yards on 43 carries (which incredibly is just 3 yards over his average on the season).
Following the win Eric Quintana when asked about what winning the conference championship in his first season as head coach at Roncalli means responded “I know there is great football teams, this conference is a top-notch conference with great football teams that compete each week.” The championship run for Roncalli was well-deserved but not easy as it took a last-minute field goal to beat Chatard and a second-half comeback on Friday. The Royals will now turn their attention to getting ready for the tournament.
While the feature game of the week was Brebeuf vs Roncalli for the championship the other two conference matchups had some crazy finishes.
Bishop Chatard hosted Guerin Catholic with a chance to finish second in the conference. Much like Roncalli, Chatard fell behind early 17-10 before scoring 21 unanswered. The Golden Eagles fought back however scoring a late TD with 30 seconds left to give them a chance to win the game. Trailing 30-31, Guerin chose to go for two and the win but came up just short securing a Trojan victory.
Heritage Christian also faced Covenant Christian in a game of conference rivals that turned into a back-and-forth game. The Eagles continued the theme of comebacks after falling behind 28-14, scoring 20 unanswered including the game-winning touchdown on a walk-off fumble recovery touchdown.
A conference championship and two games coming down to the last 30 seconds including a walk-off fumble six. It was an exciting Friday night for the conference and with the conference season wrapped up all these teams will turn their attention to their respective state tournaments in a few weeks.