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Fort Wayne Bishop Luers made a defensive stand at its own goal line with 6:32 left to go and then melted away the remaining clock for a 24-17 victory over Monrovia in the Class 2A state championship game.

Leading by seven, Luers’ Jordan Presley and Steve Kiermaier stuffed Monrovia’s Garrett Johnson inside the one yard line on fourth and goal from the one. Luers then converted on a pair of crucial third down plays including a 29 yard pass from James Knapke to Kameron Mack on third and six from its own 38.

It was the eighth state championship for unranked Bishop Luers (10-5) and the fourth this decade. All but one have come with coach Matt Lindsay at the Luers helm. Lindsay is the third coach in state history with at least seven state championships.

Luers running back Ken Mullen scored on runs of three and two yards, the latter of which came just :17 seconds before halftime and cut the Monrovia lead to 17-14.

Luers’ Alex Stronzcek nailed a 44-yard field goal at the 7:01 mark of the third quarter to knot the game at 17-17 and Steve Kiermaier scored the go-ahead touchdown with his two yard burst with :20 seconds left in the quarter.

Third-ranked Monrovia (14-1) took an early 3-0 lead on Dean Reeves’ 26-yard field goal on the game’s opening possession.
Mullen’s three yard score with 1:44 left in the first quarter got Luers on the board for a 7-3 advantage.

Monrovia then scored 14 points on back-to-back second quarter possessions as Johnson scored from three yards away and Austin Parks scored from one yard out. Parks carried 20 times for 167 yards.

Third year head coach Kevin Hutchins led Monrovia to its first state championship game in any sport.

Monrovia’s Timothy Connor Named Eskew Mental Attitude Award Recipient
Timothy Connor of Monrovia High School was named winner of the 2009 Phil N. Eskew Mental Attitude Award for Class 2A Football by members of the IHSAA Executive Committee.

The award is presented annually to a senior in each classification who best demonstrates excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability.  

Connor is a senior class officer, National Honor Society officer and is a leader of the Teen Student Leadership Academy.  He is an active church volunteer, a tutor, and has led clothing drives.

Conner is a football team captain, two-year starter at quarterback and free safety, and a four year starter on the boys basketball team.  He was named All-West Central Conference in basketball and football as well as a two year member of the Academic All-Conference team.

Connor ranks fourth in his class at Monrovia and carries a 4.06 GPA on a 4.0 scale. He plans to attend Wabash or Franklin College and major in Sports Medicine. He has been named to the honor roll all four years of high school.

He is the son of Tim and Julie Connor of Monrovia.

Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate partner, presented a scholarship check for $1,000.00 to Monrovia High School in the name of Connor.  Since 1989, more than $575,000 in college scholarships has been presented by Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance to deserving high school students in Indiana.

Class 2A State Championship Game Quotes

Fort Wayne Bishop Luers Coach Matt Lindsay
“This state title was so unexpected.  We’ve had so many ebs and flows over this year.  It’s a young, talented team.  We just got on a roll and right now I know that this team is pretty dog-gone good.  We weren’t there all year, that’s for sure.”

“I never wanted to get too far behind Monrovia because they can control the ball.  The first half we played into their hands until we got that late score before halftime.  We then started to feel pretty good about ourselves.  We felt really confident at halftime.”

“We came back against them how we have been doing it all tournament- guts, heart, and hard work.”

(On goal line stand and tackle by Jordan Presley) “The kid made a play. He made a play when he had to.”

“It was important that we kept the ball away from them at the end of the game.  We didn’t want them to have the ball unless we were up more than one score.”

Ken Mullen, Fort Wayne Bishop Luers Running Back/Defensive Back
“Their running attack was right on the money.  Our defense played well.  We needed a big stop from our defense on fourth down on our one.  We’ve been in that situation before in the Cass game - so our boys were ready for it.”

Monrovia Coach Kevin Hutchins
“We played pretty well.  It’s one of those things, both teams played pretty well tonight.”

“They’ve got a great group of kids up there at Luers.  We came up a little short tonight.  I’m proud of these boys.  We literally came up a foot short.”

“It’s hard man.  There’s nothing that our boys need to hang their heads about.  We had an unbelievable year.  We played with the best of them in 2A.”

“We just came up a foot short.  The kids gave it their all.  These kids are amazing.”

“For three years they played really hard and helped turn this thing around.  No matter what you can’t take away the facts from these kids (Monrovia).”

(On the fourth down play) “You have to let your kids run with it and it just didn’t work out. They were able to sustain that last drive and we just couldn’t get it back.”