St. Charles East marches over Batavia
After having a seemingly comfortable 26-7 halftime lead shrink to a one-possession game with a little more than 6 minutes remaining, St. Charles East looked for additional help from the strength of its football team.
With senior standout tailback Wes Allen watching from the sideline for the entire second half after gaining 155 yards on 21 carries and 2 touchdowns during the first 24 minutes, the Saints marched 82 yards in just 6 plays to score what proved to be an insurance TD during their 32-21 season-opening triumph over Batavia Friday night at Norris Stadium.
Kyle Wiebe (15 carries, 101 yards) and junior Jess Striedl (2 carries, 51 yards) accounted for all of the Saints' rushing yards on the final drive, which was capped by Wiebe's 2-yard TD plunge with 3:21 remaining.
"Things got a little chippy and our offensive line responded the right way - and ran them over," said Saints coach Ted Monken. "We had over 300 yards rushing (324) on them. It was a heck of a night."
A night that included a plethora of yellow flags (17 penalties), some sloppy play (4 turnovers) and plenty of offense (the teams combined for 923 yards).
In the end, the Saints' ground attack won out over the Jordan Coffey-led Bulldogs' aerial assault.
"That's just an emphasis for us," Monken said of his team's ground game. "We know that if we're going to have success, we have to run the ball against big teams, little teams, fast teams, strong teams, whatever it is.
"We've got to run the clock, keep our defense off the field and put points on the board with long drives."
The Saints began the game with a 3-and-out defensive series before grabbing an early lead on their first offensive possession.
With Allen carrying the bulk of the load, St. Charles East put together an 8-play, 58-yard drive that was culminated by quarterback Tim Russell's 4-yard TD run after he had fumbled the snap from center.
Following a missed extra point try, the Saints led 6-0 midway through the first quarter.
After the Saints' James Sheehan recovered a shanked kickoff inside Bulldog territory, the home team struck again as Allen scored on a 10-yard run through the middle of the Bulldog defense for a 12-0 lead.
"We got put back on our heels very quickly when we failed to field that kick," said Batavia coach Mike Gaspari. "We actually had talked about that before the game and gave an example of something similar that happened to us against Oswego a number of years back.
"We just didn't pick up the football."
After quarterback Jordan Coffey (18-of-43, 191 yards) connected with Ryan Webb for a 15-yard TD pass to cut the deficit to 12-7 late in the first quarter, the Saints answered with two second-quarter scores - a 64-yard bomb from Russell to Paul DeBord and Allen's 2-yard TD plunge.
"We practiced that play a couple times and our defense hates it but it's a good play," Russell said of the long pass to DeBord. "Our line protected it perfectly so I had plenty of time."
Batavia fought back with a pair of Coffey-to-Erich Zeddies touchdown tosses to pull within 26-21 with 6:06 remaining before the Saints snuffed out the Bulldogs' rally hopes with a long drive of their own.
"We had all the momentum," said Gaspari, whose team lost running back Bai Kabba to a knee injury in the first half. "We had great kick coverage (at the Saints' 18) but I guess you have to give them credit for moving the ball down the field and scoring."