Chris Hugo
Section618.com
MT. CARMEL — The Mt. Vernon Rams walked into renovated Riverview Stadium in Mt. Carmel on Friday night with nothing to lose and walked off the new turf a 34-33 winner in double overtime over the 3A state ranked Golden Aces. The loss not only dashed hopes of an undefeated regular season for Mt. Carmel, but it snapped the Aces’ 25-game regular season winning streak.
The deck certainly seemed to favor the Aces early when on the opening kickoff, Mt. Carmel stripped Mylan Nettles during the return and recovered the fumble. The turnover led to an early 6-0 lead when Asher Kight ran in a 12-yard TD just a little over four minutes into the game.
Once the Rams finally had the ball, they moved the chains with ease. Anthony Lash, Jr.’s 31-yard run setup a first and goal, and Lash finished off the drive with a 3-yard TD run to give the Rams a 7-6 advantage less than two minutes later.
On the next Mt. Carmel drive the Aces were threatening inside the 10 when Mt. Vernon’s Ethan Rivera recovered an Aces fumble at the 8-yard line. That led to a Rivera 49-yard TD run with just :34 remaining in the first giving the Rams a 13-6 lead.
Neither team’s offense could put anything together in the second quarter, but the Rams’ Harry Rudolph, Jr., would come up with a big tackle on a Golden Aces 4th and 1 at the Mt. Vernon 18 with 5 minutes to go in the 3rd.
After taking over, the Rams nearly went 3-and-out until on 4th down Dazhion Baker was waiting for a Peyton McMillen pass over the middle for a 28-yard TD extending the lead to 19-6.
The next drive saw the Rams gift the Golden Aces a kickoff out of bounds allowing Mt. Carmel to start with strong field position on an illegal procedure penalty. After driving into the red zone, the Aces took advantage of a facemask penalty and an offside penalty each against Mt. Vernon. Kight did the rest from 2-yards out to cut the deficit to 19-13 with 2:12 left in the 3rd quarter.
Mt. Carmel thought they tied the game with 6:20 left in the 4th, but a holding penalty wiped a 41-yard Kight TD run off of the board. Less than two minutes later the drive would pay off anyway as quarterback Blayne Sisson ran in the tying
score from the 5-yard line. The Aces had a chance to take the lead, but the Rams blocked the extra point, their second block of the night.
Both teams failed to score the rest of the way, sending the game to overtime.
In the first OT, Mt. Vernon scored on the first play when Ethan Rivera took it in for a 10-yard TD. An offside penalty on the Aces cut the distance in half on the extra point, so the Rams chose to go for two and got it on a Rivera run to take
a 27-19 lead. Down to their final play on 4th and goal from the three, the Aces called on receiver Andrew Gillihan who ran it in to cut Mt. Vernon’s lead to 27-25. After a false start penalty pushed the 2-point conversion attempt back to the eight, Sisson connected with a diving Gage Kennard in the endzone to force a second overtime.
In the second OT, the Aces got the ball first, and Sisson ran in a 7-yard TD, but the Rams successfully defended the 2-point conversion, so Mt. Carmel’s lead was 33-27.
Enter Fischer Davis. The Rams’ Swiss Army Knife got the call out of the backfield and scored on a 10-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 33. Then Davis, who had missed a pair of extra points earlier in the game, booted the game winner through the uprights, sending Mt. Vernon home with a 34-33 win.
The loss was Mt. Carmel’s first in the regular season since 2019 when the Aces fell to Vincennes Lincoln in Big Eight Conference play. The win gave the Rams their first winning regular season since 2013.
Sisson finished 9-14 passing for 149 yards and added 166 yards rushing on 23 carries. Kight had 16 carries for 42 yards along with the two touchdowns for the Aces.
Rivera led the Rams’ offensive charge with 161 yards rushing on 24 carries and two touchdowns. McMillen was 2-4 passing for 44 yards and the one touchdown.
After winning four games the previous six seasons, the Rams finish the regular season 5-4 in Dan Mings’ return to the Mt. Vernon sideline. The Aces fall to 8-1. Both teams will find out their playoff seeding and first round opponents when the IHSA announces the brackets Saturday night.