Mater Dei has a Field Day
On August 26, I covered my first high school football game in Evansville. Is started last year on December 1st, so I didn’t get any football in at the high school level, only the Colts. Neither USI nor UE have football teams either, so high school dominates in this little city. Hasn’t taken me long to figure out who the good teams are either. Mater Dei, the West Side’s major Catholic School, has a legitimate shot to win the state title the year, but they’ll have to get past the West Side’s public football powerhouse, Reitz High. Oddly enough, the two West Side rivals share the same field, the Reitz Bowl, at Reitz High School. So far I’ve only covered Mater Dei, and their impressive 49-6 win on the 26th in this game over Central High and another the following week over Memorial.
Mater Dei has a pretty complete package on offense. Wide receiver Hunter Owen breaks a lot of tackles, he’s quick and has good hands, not much more you can ask for there. They’ve got a strong running back and strong quarterback too and I’m not sure I’ve seen their QB, Dane Maurer, get touched in the pocket by the defense yet. The odd thing is, all these star players seem to play on the defensive side of the ball too. I don’t know if that’s a product of Mater Dei being a private school with limited depth on the team, or maybe they’re just really that good all around, but they’re not giving points up either so if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.
Mater Dei wide receiver Hunter Owen (11) shakes off the tackling attempt of Central safety Austin Fuchs (10) on a long pass play in which Owen found himself wide open in the second quarter of a game at the Reitz Bowl on Friday night, August 26, 2011. Mater Dei scored 42 unanswered points in the first half of the game with Owen scoring on a punt return and on a reception in which he flipped over a defender and into the end zone.
