On a cool, windy Friday night in Indianapolis the two undefeated Catholic rivals looked to add to their storied rivalry against one another.

“This game is always physical,” head coach Rob Doyle said. “We put it on out offensive line to go win this football game.”

Roncalli would receive the opening kickoff and start to make easy work of a stingy Trojan defense. Quarterback Jayden Buchanan was hitting his targets in stride, and making excellent reads on some creative RPO concepts drawn up by head coach Rob Otley.

Buchanan even had a touchdown pass that went straight through the hands of his receiver, that would come back to haunt the Royals offense for the rest of the night.

As Chatard took possession, quarterback Jack Harrington was able to put his strong running on display but would ultimately stall out and punt back to the Royals.

As the game matured into the second quarter, both teams were exchanging defensive body blows before Roncalli was able to steal some momentum late in the half as they blocked a Trojan punt with just over a minute left to play.

Buchanan continued to run all around the field — in a Johnny Maziel-type fashion — that helped get enough positive yardage for kicker Gavin Louthain to send the teams into the lockers with a 3-0 Roncalli lead on the scoreboard.

Coming out the half, both squads continued to exchange three-and-outs before Harrington was able to find one of receiver Kalen Sargent down the sideline for a 33 yard gain before running back Daniel Shaw plowed into the endzone for six.

Both teams continued to exchange defensive pleasantries, before a Chatard sack and forced punt to start the fourth quarter put the outcome of the game in their hands.

The Trojans methodically drove down the field before converting two crucial fourth downs in Royal territory as the clock slowly drained down to two minutes and counting. Harrington would scramble around in the pocket on fourth and 10 before finding Daniel Adams just past the sticks, to what they thought would be the game winning play.

Still in clock-draining mode, Harrington would roll out to his right and lose possession of the ball to give Roncalli life with just under two minutes to play.

While the heroics of Buchanan had been a saving grace for the Royals, it would wound up to give as much as it takes as he scrambled around and would get sacked at the two-yard-line with little life to live.

In a savvy move, coach Otley would elect to take a safety to give his team a fighting chance at an onside recovery on the safety kick rather than fourth-and-18 from his own goal line. A bubbling onside kick attempt would be muffed once by the Trojans, before ultimately falling into their possession and ending the game.

With a final score of 9-3, this game was won and loss within the trenches and the more physical team went home with the win.

“Our defense has been young,” Doyle said. “I’ve always thought that we can pick it up and be very close to what we were last year, just takes time [but], they showed me a ton tonight. I was super proud of our defense, we put them in some bad spots, and we were in the hole all night.”

This grinder of a win extends the Trojan win streak to 24 games as they prepare to take on Cathedral next week in what will be a tough task for reigning 3A state champs.

“It’s fun to have a win streak, but I’ll be honest, we just want to get better each week,” Doyle said. “Cathedral is a really fine football team and we have to be ready for them, win streak or not. There is some things I tell the boys that carry over every week and that’s being physical, playing fast, playing smart and what we try to emphasize all the time: playing for your brothers. Whether we are on a losing streak or a winning streak, that’s our goal every night.”