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It’s a place where the tradition-rich Bishop Luers football program had never started a postseason.
The Knights (6-5) wrapped up the regular season with their worst shutout loss in school history, falling hard 62-0 to their biggest rival, Bishop Dwenger.
Luers, a seven-time state champion, has never been that far down before in beginning a run in the playoffs, but the Knights have managed to pick themselves up, regroup and are playing in tonight’s Class 2A sectional championship against Winchester (9-2).
“It was an awful night of self-destruction,” Luers coach Matt Lindsay said about the game against Dwenger.
“We just pretty much put it out of our memory. We didn’t watch that film, and we didn’t spend a lot of time on it because we knew what happened. We turned it over against a good team, and that’s what is going to happen.
“We came out that Monday with a new sense of urgency and put some fun things in practice, and it has been going well. They have responded pretty well to some adversity that we had during the regular season, and we brought it upon ourselves.”
But it wasn’t only that game.
A young Luers team, maybe the most inexperienced team Lindsay has had in his 23 years, took its lumps and some were really swollen. There was a 50-25 loss to South Side, a 36-18 loss to Wayne and a 42-35 overtime loss to Concordia. The Knights gave up 27 points per game in the regular season.
“We knew it would be a difficult SAC regular season,” Lindsay said. “We didn’t think we would go 4-5. We thought we would be on the upper end of that. We were just inexperienced enough that if you didn’t play well on a Friday night, we were going to get beat. But that is all behind us, and it is part of where we are at and where we are going to be.”
The bright side has been twofold.
Luers wasn’t going to face any team in 2A that was as talented and deep as the 4A No. 2 Saints, and it also benefited from the IHSAA tournament realignment, which had teams like Jimtown and Harding (now in 3A) and Fairfield (in a different 2A field) being shipped out of the same sectional.
“We know we aren’t going to play teams as good as that, but we also know that everybody we play is going to give us their best shot,” Lindsay said. “It doesn’t matter if we go into it 9-0, which we have over the years, or go into it 5-4 or 3-6. You better play well and you better hang onto the ball. We have done a pretty good job of that in the two games so far.”
The adversity wasn’t only in the regular season. Early in its sectional-opening 45-21 win over an 8-2 Manchester team, the Knights lost starting quarterback James Knapke to a knee injury. Leading only 10-7, backup Eric Sorg came in and helped the Knights pull away from the Squires.
“Eric Sorg came in and did a wonderful job,” Lindsay said. “You never know how that’s going to work out. The game was still in question and so if you goof up, they are pretty decent. The first play when he goes in, Eric goes 65 yards for a touchdown on a scramble. That pretty much turned that game in our favor for good. You are always dealing with something, and you have to be ready to deal with it no matter what it is.”
Knapke was back at practice the next Monday and the Knights followed that win with a 35-22 win over Eastern last Friday.
