Long drives lead to Viator victory

After a long drive to Plainfield North, St. Viator needed to take another long trip to clinch its second victory. And the Lions did just that, eating up the final 7:25 of the clock to hold off Plainfield North 19-17 in Friday's nonconference football game.

"We needed that drive," St. Viator coach Chris Kirkpatrick said. "We were lucky at times tonight, but sometimes you make your own luck."

The Lions used some of that luck to turn 2 fumbles into touchdowns in the first quarter.

Shane Martin stopped a Plainfield North drive at the Viator 12 and the Lions went to work. After moving the ball the midfield, Julian Sipiora connected with a wide open Kevin Hulsebosch to make it 7-0 with 2:27 left in the first quarter.

The Lions' Tom Supplitt recovered a fumbled snap on the following series at the Tigers' 34 and St. Viator was in business again.

Two plays later Sipiora found Jake Mastrangeli in the back of the end zone for 31 yards with 23.7 seconds left in the first quarter. But the conversion kick was wide, keeping the score 13-0.

"I was just looking to make some plays tonight," said Sipiora, who was 10-of-20 for 130 yards.

Plainfield North was able to come back in the second quarter and take a 14-13 halftime lead on 2 short touchdown runs by Jacob Arnold.

The Lions took the lead for good when Nick Niro crashed over from the 1 on fourth down to make it 19-14 with 7:27 left in the third quarter. Plainfield cut the lead to 19-17 on a 31-yard field goal.

The Tigers were theatening again midway through the fourth quarter when the Lions' David Alameda intercepted a pass at his own 3 and returned it to the Viator 16.

"I forced my guy to the sideline and then turned and saw the ball coming," Alameda said. "I just wanted to get the ball back in our offense's hands."

And they never gave it back to the Tigers, moving the ball from their own 16 to the Plainfield 20 while running out the clock.

"Our defense made some big stops tonight," said defensive back Dan Faerber. "But the offense stepped out when we needed them."