Saints post another shutout
Halloween came one week early in St. Charles Friday night.
In a game that featured some strange occurrences, including an opening drive that took more than 45 minutes to complete due to a late October thunderstorm, St. Charles East displayed its overall dominance.
Scoring on their first 5 possessions, the Saints (7-2) exploded to a 35-0 halftime lead and ultimately cruised to a 42-0 nonconference triumph over visiting Thornridge (1-8) at rain-soaked Norris Stadium.
"We just wanted to come out and play good football," said Saints coach Ted Monken. "We didn't want to be sloppy - we wanted to look like a good football team."
The Saints accomplished just that, driving 65 yards in 9 plays for the game's first touchdown.
After recording a pair of first downs 2 minutes into the contest, a 30-minute lightning delay was about the only thing that could slow down the Saints.
When play resumed, it took the Saints just 4 plays to finish the drive, as quarterback Tim Russell tossed a 4-yard TD pass to Dan White for a 7-0 lead with 8:14 left in the first quarter. Russell, who finished 7-of-7 for 80 yards, completed 4 passes for 38 yards on the scoring march.
"Tim's getting better and better and we're getting better and better with the situations we're giving him," said Monken. "We're finding out what he does best and their defensive secondary gave us some things that we wanted to take advantage of so that's what we did."
After a botched snap on a punt attempt gave the Saints the ball deep in Falcons territory, senior tailback Wes Allen (13 carries, 117 yards) powered his way into the end zone from 3 yards out to make it 14-0.
On their third possession of the opening quarter, Russell connected with Kyle Wiebe for an 18-yard TD toss and 21-0 advantage.
"It was supposed to be for Tyler (Nutting)," said Monken, "but we had the wrong personnel in the game. Danny White's touchdown was Tyler's spot again. We threw Danny in at wide receiver so Tyler got robbed of two touchdowns."
Allen capped the first half with TD runs covering 43 and 3 yards - his 25th and 26th touchdowns of the season - as the Saints built a 35-0 cushion.
When St. Charles East touched the football for the first time in the second half, it was Eian O'Brien who returned a punt 50 yards for the Saints' sixth touchdown - and set off a running clock (IHSA rules after a team goes up by at least 40 points).
"I've been waiting to break one for a long time," O'Brien said of his first punt return for a TD this season.
From there, the Saints turned to some fresh faces like RBs Tommy Smith (12 carries, 73 yards), Chris Gatrel and Andrew Gomez while the defense went on to record its second consecutive shutout.
"You know you're not giving up big plays," said Monken said of his defensive unit that hasn't allowed a TD in 12 quarters. "That's the biggest thing."
After watching his team allow just one first down while outgaining the Falcons 329-24, Monken admittedly still has some concerns heading into next week's opening round of the state playoffs.
"It's risky to go into the playoffs after a game like this," he said. "You don't want to be overconfident. That's why we wanted to keep the guys loose and not make too big a deal out of this."