Saints lose their heart and sole, then their season

At 6-foot-2 and 265 pounds, St. Charles East defensive lineman Dave Mashal is hard to miss.

Even before the senior steps on a football field or makes a huge tackle, Mashal's mere presence is tough to ignore.

This is a player who was dubbed the Saints' heart and soul of the team. Mashal is the guy who is pumping his team up, goes nuts after a huge play and gets the crowd going.

But what happens when the heart and soul goes down with an injury?

That's exactly what happened Friday night in the Saints' second round Class 7A playoff game against Geneva at Burgess Field, when the Vikings beat St. Charles East, 35-14.

With the Saints up 7-0 and 48.2 seconds remaining in the first quarter, Mashal went down with a knee injury. He was assisted off the field and the diagnosis was every player's nightmare -- a torn ACL.

Just like that, the heart and soul was done.

"(My knee) hurt, but I didn't think it would be my ACL," Mashal said. "Stuff like that happens all the time. You just have to deal with it the best you can."

Two plays later, Geneva's tough-to-stop running back, Michael Ratay, scored the Vikings' first touchdown.

For most of the second quarter, the game was tied -- all while Mashal was on the trainer's table with his right knee packed in ice and mud and grass still stuck in his cleats.

At the half, he was hobbling around on crutches. Players from St. Charles East went up to him and gave him handshakes and words of encouragement.

Mashal began the second half of the game back on the trainer's table. By the middle of the quarter, he stood alone on crutches, silent.

This was not the Dave Mashal the Saints are used to seeing.

"Defense is so emotional," St. Charles East coach Ted Monken said. "The best defenses I've ever seen are the teams that fly around and are just fanatical. They are nuts. They are hooting and hollering, they run to the ball, they are screaming and yelling and smacking each other in the head. To me, that is great defense because they have that enthusiasm and fire in them. Dave brought some of that, probably more than we've had in the four years I've been here. We are sure going to miss that."

The Saints defense didn't look bad -- it's just that it missed its leader, No. 50, someone they were used to having on the field.

"There's that, 'Uh oh, what do we do now?' kind of thing, but I think the defense, for the most part, responded well," Monken said. "The ball going over our defensive back's head or missing a tackle when we were trying to break up a pass had nothing to do with (Mashal) not being in there. He can't make every play, other guys have to step up, so by and large up front, I thought they did a great job in his absence."

Saints middle linebacker Pat Friel said Mashal's absence was worse emotionally than physically.

"It was rough because he's our anchor," Friel said. "But there's no excuse. We should have stepped up and played better."

Mashal did yell out, "Come on, defense," and "Let's go, offense," and pushed his crutches in the grass out of frustration, so even though he was in pain on the sidelines, he did not lack the passion he had for his Saints.

Even a pair of Geneva players -- Greg Gregory and Eric Strauss -- gave Mashal a pat on the back after the game.

By the end of the game and after Monken spoke to his Saints, Mashal said he was more worried about his team than his knee.

Still, while holding back tears, Mashal said this was one season he will never forget.

"It was the best year I've ever had in my whole entire life," Mashal said. "I loved every day of it. It was the best year of my life."

Friel, a junior, knew this would be his last season with Mashal. It's just too bad his high school career was cut three quarters short.

"He's a great player," Friel said of Mashal. "He's like a brother to me. I'll miss him a lot next year."

Cbolin@dailyherald.com