Driscoll 42, St. Edward 16
Driscoll made one of the oldest cliches in all of sports a reality Friday night in Addison against St. Edward as the defending state champion Highlanders won the football game 42-16.
Close till kickoff.
The Green Wave received the opening kickoff and fumbled 3 plays later, setting up an Austin Baker 17-yard touchdown reception from Dave Schwabe with 10:28 remaining in the first quarter.
Less than two minutes later, St. Edward fumbled again on a pitch and Driscoll's Tim Franken took a handoff and bounced it to the outside and went in for a 58-yard touchdown run.
The Highlanders scored two touchdowns on their first three offensive plays of the game.
"Last week we had some letdowns and didn't do what we needed to do," Franken said. "This was our homecoming game and we wanted to go out and play Driscoll football. We did that tonight on both sides of the ball. We are pretty satisfied with how we played, but we can still play better."
Later in the first quarter Driscoll once again scored touchdowns in very fast fashion as it put up 14 points in a 2:40 span.
Schwabe scored on a quarterback keeper around the left side for a 39-yard score, and then Franken caught a 7-yard strike from Schwabe with five seconds remaining in the first quarter.
In that first quarter the Highlanders put 28 points up on the board in just 13 plays.
"We came out thinking that we can play with them," St. Edward's Moises Quiroga said. "After the first series it looked like some of us were scared to be playing against a six-time defending state champion. We already thought we were beat before we stepped onto the field."
Midway through the third period Ricky Divito scored on a 19-yard pass from Steve Schwabe to put Driscoll up 42-0, forcing the running clock into effect.
"In five of the six games this season, we have been able to give our starters some nice rest time because they have played well in the first half and built big leads," Driscoll coach Mike Burzawa said. "We wanted to come out and execute and feed off the homecoming momentum and we did."
The Green Wave, which lost for the 25th straight time, was able to make the game closer by Quiroga scoring on an 85-yard kickoff return and then recovering an onside kick and scoring on a Ryan Gilbert keeper and once again converting on the 2-point conversion.
Even though the game looked lopsided, St. Edward still came away with a confidence boost. Despite an 0-6 record and 0-4 in conference, three of the losses were by a combined 8 points.
"The 16 points we put up tonight were not a fluke," Quiroga said. "We played really tough against Marian earlier this season. And the 42 points they put up was a little confusing. They didn't play that well to put up that many points on us tonight."
Franken played one half and had 149 yards on 7 carries and 3 touchdowns.
Quiroga and Jimmy Mathisen combined for 93 yards on 20 carries in the loss.