23 games had passed, each and every one marked by an L in the win-loss column, at the very bottom of the MIC conference standings, written in agate font on page C13 or so of The Indianapolis Star. But on Homecoming, Sept. 12, 2014, the losing streak finally came to an end. The football team won a game, as defeating North Central 32-13 at Dwaine C. Bell Stadium.

The Wildcats came into the season poised to accomplish at least one thing: to win at least game, as their coach Patrick Mallory repeated on Cat’s Eye the week of every game.

“[The team] will win at least one game. I can’t guarantee it will be this week, but we will win one,” Mallory said.

The fact that the win came against North Central also meant that it was the first MIC conference win since 2011, when they defeated Terre Haute South and North Central. The win was also Mallory’s first as coach at LN.

The Wildcats nearly beat Noblesville in the first game of the season, but they were defeated by the Millers, 36-33.

“I cried after that one. [The Noblesville game] was intense,” sophomore Kyle Malone-Codozor said.

That game was followed by losses to Brownsburg and MIC and township foe Lawrence Central. Then came the North Central game, which concluded with the students storming the field to celebrate the first win of the season and for many of them the first win they had seen at LN. The last time the ‘Cats won, the current seniors were freshmen.

The matchup with North Central was an emotional game all around,for the seniors especially because some of them had never won a game on the varsity team, Mallory and Malone-Codozor said.

“It felt like a sectional game,” Malone-Codozor said.