Riverton Parke ready to chase elusive sectional title

With a historic regular season now in the rearview mirror, the Riverton Parke football team and head coach Bradley Sanders now turn attention to chasing a Class A Sectional 45 crown. 

The regular season saw Riverton Parke finish 9-0, averaging 52 points and allowing close to 6 points per contest. Six times the Panthers held opponents to six points or less, while Riverton Parke scored 61, 69, 74 and 52 the last four games of the regular season en route to winning the Wabash River Conference title outright. 

Sanders said winning the conference title was always a personal goal for him. 

"As an alumni of Riverton Parke, I know what winning a conference championship means to myself, as well as the alumni. It is a great feeling to finally see our name at the top of that list. Winning the WRC was extremely important for our program and has generated a lot of excitement at all levels throughout the program, as well as in the community," Sanders said. 

In the regular season finale, Riverton Parke throttled Covington, 52-6, as Sean Vester rushed for 113 yards and four trips to the end zone. Vester has surpassed 1,000 yards on the season at running back. 

"The regular season was, obviously, a great year for our program, accomplishing our first undefeated season. It was also one of adversity. It seemed like not only us but as well as other teams throughout the WRC all dealt with a lot of adversity with injuries this season. Luckily for us, we have great depth this season and have been able to maintain a high level of play regardless of some key guys being out at times. I couldn't be any more proud of our guys for fighting through all of the adversity and thankfully we are close to being completely healthy," Sanders admitted. 

The road to Lucas Oil Stadium opens Friday for the Panthers at North Vermillion. Riverton Parke upended the Falcons, 49-3 on Sept. 19. 

The winner will play the winner of Covington vs. North Central. Riverton Parke did not play North Central this season. Favorite South Putnam is on the other end of the bracket and would not see the Panthers unless they both advance to the sectional final. 

"The draw is what it is. To accomplish our goal of winning a sectional title we know who we will have to beat to accomplish that goal. Right now our focus is on North Vermillion in round one. We know from experience that anything can happen in the postseason losing to Covington a few years back pretty handily during the regular season and turning around and knocking them off two weeks later in the 2nd round to get to a championship game. We have to be ready for round one first and 1-0 is the goal right now," Sanders said. 

Regardless of the draw, Sanders notes he is ready to lead his team to a title chase. 

"I think, obviously, for us our strength on the field is our guys up front and our depth in the backfield. As for our weaknesses, I know there are some things I would definitely like to be better at, but that's every coach I guess. I wouldn't change anything about the guys we have. I love our guys. We will let our opponents try to exploit what they think our weaknesses are when we play them," Sanders said.