Everyone knows who the Bishop Chatard High School football team is, with its record nine state titles. Now, Bishop Chatard knows exactly who Evansville Memorial is.

The Trojans' 15-game postseason winning streak and hopes for a third consecutive Class 3A state title were ended by Evansville Memorial 27-14 in the semistate last season. They'll have their much-anticipated semistate rematch with the Tigers at 6 p.m. Saturday at Tech.

"I guarantee (Bishop Chatard) will be up and ready to go," Evansville Memorial coach John Hurley said. "Our kids need to understand that this year it's not, 'Who's Memorial?' (Bishop Chatard) will be mentally ready to go."

Bishop Chatard coach Vince Lorenzano could not be reached for comment.

Last year, Evansville Memorial quarterback Grant Gribbins threw for 253 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 41 yards and three scores. He returns as the state's leading passer with 2,905 yards -- he passed Warren Central's Jeff George last week and moved into eighth place in career yards at 8,257 -- and has thrown 31 touchdown passes, at least one in each game.

Evansville Memorial started the season 1-3, but the losses came to schools in larger classifications with a combined record of 33-4. It had to replace four of its five starting offensive linemen, and Hurley credits the team's improved play to a greater emphasis on the running game out of its spread offense, led by Ryan Hatler (1,120 rushing yards).

Hurley believes his team has its own motivation, too. After beating Bishop Chatard to earn the program's first-ever state championship berth, it lost to Bellmont in the title game, 28-14.

"It helps having played (Bishop Chatard)," Hurley said. "Everybody knows who Chatard is. Their reputation precedes them. It's a tremendous program. (But) these guys were 3-8 as sophomores, so they've been on the bottom. They were close to being on top last year and (now) realize beating (Bishop Chatard) wasn't a state championship game."