Lesson learned, St. Viator bounces back
Sometimes it is not a moment on the field that defines a team's season, but instead a moment outside the lines.
St. Viator's football team believes it experienced such a moment before its 49-32-homecoming victory over Marian Central on Friday night.
After a difficult week of practice, St. Viator (4-3, 3-2) had a team meeting on Thursday to discuss bigger-picture issues. Coach Brandon New said the meeting talked about how football is not about wins and losses, but about teaching the lessons to win in life.
"Thursday we decided to sit down and have a talk," Lions wide receiver Matt Darling said. "It really changed our perspective on not only the game, but life. They (the coaching staff) told us about so many different things. It was great."
Darling thinks the team meeting could be a turning point for St. Viator's season.
"That was a perfect conversation," Darling said. "It kind of stinks that we had it Week 7, but I think it was perfectly timed, actually. It was amazing."
St. Viator quarterback Tyler Johnston said the Lions, as many high school football teams do, went on a team trip to North Central College in the summer to bond as a team. That strong bond began to erode over the course of the season, though.
"After a poor week of practice, and a poor game at Carmel (last week), we knew something had to change," Johnston said. "Everyone wasn't clicking like we were a few weeks ago, and we just needed to talk to each other. It was a great time, and we all, as you saw from the game, came together."
In the game, the St. Viator passing attack led the way. Johnston completed 23-of-34 passes for 264 yards and 4 touchdowns. His favorite targets were Darling (9 catches, 64 yards), Sal Cannella (4 catches, 119 yards, 3 touchdowns), Ben Dickey (5 catches, 49 yards) and Dareonta Jackson (3 catches, 46 yards, 1 touchdown).
"That's our forte a little bit," New said of the passing game. "Sometimes you have to be able to throw to set up the run. Some teams can run to set up the pass… I almost at one point thought it was going to be whoever has the ball last is going to win this game."
Every time Viator was able to build a lead, Marian Central (4-3, 3-2) answered with scores of its own.
After a double pass that resulted in Dickey throwing a 60-yard touchdown to Cannella to put Viator up 35-18 in the third quarter, it looked like the game might be decided. Hurricanes' quarterback Billy Bahl (2 touchdown runs, 2 touchdown passes), then ran in a score and connected with Jordan Niemeyer to make it 35-32 before the quarter was over.
It took resiliency from St. Viator to hold onto the lead and win the game.
"A problem that we've had all year is we get ahead and then a team comes back and we don't know what to do," Johnston said. "We're not used to winning and that's exactly what that Thursday meeting was about. We need to figure ourselves out, figure our identity, and that's exactly what we did."
Marian Central had some miscues that could have led to a different outcome.
"Well we dropped some balls on offense that were touchdowns, and our defensive play - we just didn't play well," Marian Central coach Ed Brucker said. "We knew what they were going to do and they just ran right by us."