INDIANAPOLIS
The game plan was simple on Friday night for Class 4A No. 2 Roncalli against visiting rival Bishop Chatard, the No. 1 team in 3A. Snap the ball, hand it to senior running back Luke Hansen and let him and the offensive line do the rest.
It worked.
Hansen rumbled for over 100 yards in the first half, tying the score in the final minute of the half with a 10-yard touchdown.
Despite a huge workload in the first half, Hansen didn’t slow down in the second half, and Roncalli needed every yard and every carry from the senior. The game came down to the final seconds, when Roncalli’s Levi Wisler kicked a game-winning 29-yard field goal, giving the hosts a 17-14 win against their conference rival.
“I’ve been a part of this now forever, and these games are always like this,” said Roncalli coach Eric Quintana, who is in his first year at Roncalli after spending the last five as a Chatard assistant. “You roll up the paper, you throw it away, and whoever is the toughest team wins. Kudos to those guys, but our guys got the job done and got the win.”
That was in large part thanks to a third straight huge game from Hansen. The senior, who ran 63 times for 517 yards and 7 touchdowns in the first two games of the season, added to his numbers in a big way Friday.
He carried the ball 47 times for 233 yards and two touchdowns, helping the hosts control the clock and grind down Chatard, converting several fourth downs along the way.
“Luke’s our guy. There’s no hiding from it,” Quintana said. “We’re going to ride him, and he’s going to win a lot of football games for us.”
Hansen employed a patient approach as Chatard loaded the box in an attempt to slow the Royals’ offense. He was calm and picked his spots, averaging five yards per carry behind an offensive line that controlled the line of scrimmage for most of the game.
“Any glory I get, it’s equal glory for them,” Hansen said of his linemen. “They’re just the best in the state and they get the job done.”
Roncalli (3-0, 1-0 Circle City) put together what seemed like a statement drive in the third quarter, grinding out 80 yards on 16 plays and taking more than eight minutes off the clock before Hansen scored from 19 yards out on a fourth-down run.
Chatard responded, though. A 30-yard pass followed by a 16-yard run put the Trojans in position, and they scored a few minutes later to tie the game with 10:43 remaining.
The Royals countered, putting together a 17-play drive that took eight more minutes off the clock. With less than three minutes remaining, the hosts lined up for what would be the leading field goal, but a miscue on the hold caused a miss.
Despite that failed attempt, there was no doubt on the Roncalli sideline when they sent Wisler and the kicking team out for the winning field goal just two and a half minutes later.
“What’s awesome about Levi is he plays linebacker with us during the week. He’s a tough kid,” Quintana said. “I had no doubt. We had a little mishap with the hold, but I knew that he was going to put it in and win the football game.”
Chatard amassed 186 yards through the air and 92 yards on the ground, a test for a Roncalli defense that had only given up seven points through the first two weeks of the season.
But the defense was up to the challenge, picking up two big sacks, an interception in the end zone from senior George Marten, and a big late-game play, a forced fumble by senior Judson Lawrie and recovered by senior Joey Uberta that gave the hosts the ball back immediately following their missed field goal.
It was a third straight victory against the Trojans (2-1, 1-1) for the Royals, who travel to Columbus North next week with a pretty good idea of what to expect out of themselves and the hosts.
“We know what teams are going to give us,” Quintana said. “They’re going to put a bunch of guys in (the box), and they’re going to try to stop us from running the ball. We have the best O-line in the state of Indiana, and we’re going to prove it each week.”
