Saints start, finish fast
Upstate Eight Conference co-champion St. Charles East has accomplished plenty of noteworthy things to impress coach Ted Monken, and now you can add "quick learners" to the list.
A week after a disastrous first quarter put the Saints in 14-0 and 21-7 holes they couldn't recover from against St. Charles North, it was an entirely different story in Dolton.
St. Charles East jumped to a 20-0 lead after one quarter on its way to a 39-0 win over Thornridge, its third shutout this year. The victory improved the Saints to 7-2 heading into the playoffs.
"There's a great statistic that the team who scores first wins 78.2 percent of the games," Monken said. "So getting off to a good start is definitely important. We felt a lot better about getting the ball going and getting in the end zone."
The 28-26 loss to the North Stars last week cost the Saints an outright conference championship, and had them eager to take out their frustrations on the 1-8 Falcons.
"We always like to get off on the right foot and keep proceeding from there," said St. Charles East defensive tackle Dave Mashal, who recorded 1 of the team's 7 sacks that went for a 7-yard loss and a safety in the fourth quarter. "We never like to get off on the wrong foot because that always leads to something else."
The Saints took advantage of a short field throughout the first quarter. Thornridge punted three times, and the ball traveled 18, 7 and 20 yards.
That led to 32-, 27- and 44-yard scoring drives. Quarterback Sam Gunther, who completed his first 6 passes, hit Matt Hammer for a 12-yard touchdown strike to open the scoring.
"Our defense did a great job getting three-and-outs and plus them kicking against the wind gave us short fields," Monken said. "When you start inside the 50 it's easy to score."
Wes Allen put the next 2 touchdowns on the board, running through big holes on 27- and 10-yard touchdown runs.
The Saints finished the first 12 minutes with 103 yards of offense and 6 first downs to the Falcons' 1 yard and 0 first downs.
The pace didn't quiet keep up from there, though St. Charles East finished with a commanding 350-70 edge in total yards, including 263 rushing yards. Allen and Peter Chacon both topped the 100-yard mark with 118 and 107 yards, respectively.
Thornridge's defense tightened in the second quarter and limited the Saints to a 30-yard field goal by David Winn. Chris Caci and Chacon added second-half touchdown runs, while junior Tim Russell played most of the second half at quarterback, giving Gunther a break.
Monken rested several of his regulars in the second half before instructing his team to get dressed fast so they could get back to St. Charles and find out their playoff opponent.
"Our playoff points aren't quite what we'd like," Monken said. "The year we thought was going to be rolled up with so many tough opponents, our opponents didn't get as many wins as we anticipated."