St. Francis 28, Nazareth 27

As a sophomore on the St. Francis varsity football team last year, Mark Kachmer played mostly at safety.

But in the last three games of the season, he got some action at running back. In Saturday's 2007 season opener against Nazareth, Kachmer showed offense is where he belongs.

Kachmer ran for 263 yards on 12 carries and 3 touchdowns in leading the Spartans to a hard-fought 28-27 nonconference victory over the Roadrunners, who hosted the game at Lyons Twp. in Western Springs because their new field surface in LaGrange Park is being finished. Kachmer's effort and that of his teammates helped new coach Greg Purnell notch his first win at the helm.

"It's ridiculous," said Kachmer when told that he rushed for 263 yards. "It's very exciting -- to get our first win. The line did awesome."

"He is a great back," said Purnell, who joined St. Francis this year after an impressive 19-year tenure at Linn-Marr High School in Iowa, where he led the team to three state titles. "The linemen up front did an awesome job and (Spartans quarterback Jeff Reckards) really executed the offense."

Reckards showed a lot of poise in orchestrating the Wing-T, a misdirection set that keeps opposing defenses guessing. The junior signal-caller passed for 79 yards and a 7-yard touchdown toss to Ryan Ferguson, but he was really tough to read when it came to the defense trying to figure out who was getting the ball out of the back field.

Kachmer could not be stopped when running on the outside, while power back Stan Bobowski was a workhorse in pounding the ball up the middle. That balance made it tough for Nazareth to key on any one player.

After the Roadrunners went ahead 13-7 early in the second quarter on a 91-yard kickoff return by speedy back La Steven McKinney, Kachmer gave the Spartans a lead they would never lose with a 59-yard sideline run that left the pursuit eating his dust. Kachmer added another 32-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, but his highlight score of the afternoon was when he went for 87 yards to give the Spartans (1-0) a 28-19 lead with 4:56 to play in the third quarter.

Nazareth did make things interesting when it scored late in the fourth quarter on McKinney's second rushing touchdown of the game with 4:08 remaining in the contest. Purnell was pleased with the play of his defense which stood tall late. Jason Lombardi had a key sack of Roadrunners quarterback Phillip Kaiser. Safety Matt Fuller, defensive lineman Nate Olver and Ferguson were active as well.

"I am really happy for the entire program," Purnell said.