Friday evening the sunset over Broad Ripple was breathtakingly beautiful. The last Friday night of meteorological summer saw folks all over the 'Ripple enjoying themselves. Butler coeds frolicked in the front yards of greek houses on campus. Young (or young at heart) millennials walked their rescue dogs on the Monon, stepping in time to the latest Chappel Roan jam pumping through their AirPods. Diners ordered cocktails on outdoor patios all along Broad Ripple Avenue, enjoying the cool breeze off the canal. Meanwhile, Brebeuf's football team was having maybe the worst Broad Ripple evening since 23-year-old Colts punter Pat McAfee went for a drunken midnight swim in said canal, resulting in his 2010 arrest. The Braves lost to Chatard 37-6 to fall to 0-5 on the 2025 season, getting outgained on offense 484 yards to eleven. (Eleven is a number that, according to the AP Style Guide, should be represented as 11, but it looks bigger spelled out, so eleven it is.) "How did they manage to score six?" you may be wondering. Thanks for asking, for it allows me to mention the high point of the evening: Senior LB and Dartmouth recruit Parker Maiers. Parker led Brebeuf's over-achieving defense with sixteen tackles (pound sand, AP Style Guide) and a 65-yard pick-six off of Trojans QB Jack Harrington in the second quarter that showed why he was an IndyStar USA Today Preseason Super Team member. Parker Maiers may be the best middle son from a football family since Olivia and Archie Manning's second child, Peyton, but it wasn't going to alter the outcome of this game, except for keeping the score down. Chatard is Chatard, and they rattled Braves WR-turned-QB-Four-Weeks-Ago Carter Cosgrove early and often. No use dwelling on the stats- they're attached here for the morbidly curious. Jasir King had no where to run, literally, until the final drive of the game, when he gained most of his 21 yards. Brebeuf senior punter Cameron Kelley had a great night, punting eight times for a 40 yard average, another reason the score didn't get out of hand. No rest for the Braves, who travel to 4A #8 Roncalli next week, hoping to rediscover the offensive spark they showed in last weeks game against Guerin, when they put 440 yards up against the Golden Eagles in a 36-25 loss. (Roncalli, btw, spent this Friday evening pounding Guerin 49-7, but these are football teams, not integers, so calm down with your transitive property, you smart Brebeuf people.) As summer fades away, Matt Geske may recite to his team the lovely verse of eighteenth century English poet Alexander Pope, who wrote in his 1732 poem An Essay On Man, "Hope springs eternal in the human breast, Man never Is, but always To be blest." Perhaps the first (meteorological) Fall Friday will bring Brebeuf's football team an upset victory. Go Braves!