St.Charles East authors story it will love to read

Saints alive.

Saints 30, Batavia 7.

That's Batavia, 2006 Class 6A state runner-ups.

And the score wasn't that close.

Better make thatȢ₈¬Ã‚ˆ¦

Saints Alive!

Those Saints stormed into the Batavia's backfield all night, pressuring Jordan Coffey and allowing J.R. Kabba no room to get going.

Those Saints sprinted into the Batavia secondary, with Wes Allen scoring 3 touchdowns and Matt Hammer and a host of talented receivers repeatedly finding holes in the Batavia defense, usually on third downs.

Saints 30, Batavia 7.

Those Saints simply stunned an overflow Batavia crowd - and truth be told, even a few of their own fans - sending the Bulldogs off their own field shaking their heads.

On second thought, better make thatȢ₈¬Ã‚ˆ¦

Saints ALIVE!

Alive and with a chip on their shoulder, it turns out. It's one thing to play a great nonconference schedule, as St. Charles East always has done under coach Ted Monken against the likes of Glenbard North and Hinsdale South.

It's another thing when the great team is in your own backyard, and that team is coming off the best season in school history, and you have to read about it everywhere you look.

It turns out quarterback Sam Gunther had an easier time moving the ball against Batavia's defense than he did reading the newspaper this week.

"Nobody was picking us for this game, and we were surprised because Batavia lost a lot of their starters from last year," Gunther said. "But they were getting a lot of hype from the Daily Herald and other newspapers. We were pretty mad about that but it feels better to win when you are the underdog."

Sam, guilty as charged. But it wasn't so much hyping Batavia as giving the Bulldogs respect for what they accomplished last year (the most exciting postseason run I've had a chance to cover here), and looking ahead to the challenges they face following that up.

Gunther wasn't alone. His favorite target, Hammer, said the Saints had extra motivation.

"Everyone in the state pretty much thought we were going to lose this game," Hammer said. "The team took the approach we are going to come out and prove who we are, that no one should be taking us lightly. We worked hard all week and it obviously paid off for us tonight."

Those same expectations that pumped up the Saints had an opposite effect on Batavia.

"It's high school football. I think our kids probably felt a lot of pressure coming in," Batavia coach Mike Gaspari said.

"It's a great group of kids we have, maybe a bit too high expectations at times. It can put pressure on high school kids. As I told the guys, pressure is off now. Now we start over."

One person not buying into the talk was Monken, who has worked wonders for the Saints program. Saturday night was the signature win in his four years. It came in a rivalry that dates back to 1911 and was finally renewed after a 43-year wait.

"We kind of touched on that a little bit, but if you need that to get hyped up for this game, we probably aren't going to win the game anyway," Monken said. "What a great rivalry I think we have brought back. We lost 65-0 (actually 67-0 last time) so hopefully we gave those guys some respect back."

You can be sure Lincoln-Way East, the next heavyweight on the Saints' loaded schedule, will respect the Saints.

They'll respect an offense that converted 7 of its first 9 third-down situations, continually moving the chains and taking the life out of a Batavia crowd that never had much to cheer about.

They'll respect a defense easily could have had a shutout. The first-team defense did, led by inspirational nose guard Dave Mashal who had plenty of help up and down his unit.

"People were saying we weren't going to win and stuff and it got us angry and we came out here and played our game," linebacker Pat Friel said.

"Our coaches had a great game plan for us all week. That's how our defense plays, as a unit."

A unit that left the field to celebrate with the fans in orange and black. They left a field and could see the water tower south of Bulldog Stadium proclaiming this is the home of the Battling Bulldogs.

Maybe so, but this night belonged entirely to the Fighting Saints.

jlemon@dailyherald.com