In an odd twist of scheduling, Brebeuf played all four of their home football games in the first six weeks of the season this year, meaning that Friday’s game with Roncalli was both Homecoming and Senior Night. It felt strange, having Senior Night before the calendar even turns to October. So the team commemorated the occasion by playing strangely. The Braves played like seniors, but the Mitch McConnell kind, not the 18-year-old football warrior kind. Just as Senator McConnell was last seen being pushed around in a wheelchair on the senate floor, so did Roncalli push Brebeuf around all evening en route to a 25-0 victory that was the Braves’ first time being shut out since a 28-0 playoff loss to Chatard on October 26, 2012. Credit to the Royals, whose quarterback Dom Cromer threw two touchdown passes, including a beautiful 68-yard rainbow to Will Hegwood in the second quarter, and whose tailback Alex Jarvis carried 21 times for 106 yards to lead a 190-yard Roncalli rushing performance. They beat Brebeuf for the fourth consecutive time, and seventh in the last ten meetings, but this game felt more like a Brebeuf whiff than a Roncalli tour de force. Speaking of whiff, hold your nose while you read these bullet points: • Brebeuf entered the red zone only twice all evening, once resulting in an interception, and once a turnover on downs. • Brebeuf had five second half possessions netting three first downs and 57 yards • Braves quarterbacks Keegan Bouwkamp and Zeb Cox completed only 13 of 29 passes for 120 yards, both season lows, while being chased around most of the night. 120 passing yards in a Matt Geske offense is usually a slightly below-average half. • Brebeuf’s running game produced only 2.0 yards per rush, another season low, and was partially responsible for the team’s season low 3rd-down conversion (3/14) and 4th-down conversion (1/4) rates. • The play of the night for Brebeuf, and the only play to go over 20 yards, was a beautifully-executed fake punt at the end of the first quarter, a 22-yard pass from senior punter/WR/last years QB Carter Cosgrove to senior DB Cam Walters, which gave the Braves a first down at the Roncalli 22. Four plays and three yards later, the team turned the ball over on downs. • Roncalli’s final drive was 15 plays and 98 yards, ending at Brebeuf’s one yard line as time expired. The drive consumed 8:18 of clock time, more possession than the Braves had the entire second half (6:39.) Ultimately what was most frustrating to Geske and his staff was that this is not a Goliath of a Roncalli team. This Roncalli team was 3-2, had lost to Chatard worse than we had, and had struggled with Guerin more than we had. By all the indicators- especially playing on Senior Night- this should have been a close game. But these are kids, and kids will sometimes make the adults who love them and coach them crazy. The good news is this: Brebeuf returns to the road for the final three games of the season, at Columbus North, Bloomington South and Cardinal Ritter. This team has played it’s best games (Mt. Vernon, Guerin) on the road this season. The team could take a lesson from one of the honored Homecoming guests that was on the Brebeuf sideline Friday night: Derrick Ozobu, class of ’17. Ozobu led a team (which also included a lanky senior wideout, coach Jacob Pressler, and a snot-nosed sophomore linebacker named Jay Higgins) all the way to the Class 3A State Championship game in the dome. That 2017 season turned on a dime after an awful 2-4 start which included a 45-18 loss to Roncalli in Week 6. After that loss, Ozobu’s team won eight straight, knocking off #1-ranked West Lafayette in a regional that will live forever in the minds of those who saw it, before losing a hard-fought title game to Evansville Memorial. Will this team, now 3-3 after an awful loss to Roncalli in Week 6, follow a similar path? It could. The talent is on the roster. Come to Bartholomew County next Friday night to find out. Kick at Columbus North is 7pm. Go Braves!