St. Francis wins Class 5A state title
CHAMPAIGN - From 3-6 to state champion. Hard to believe even for a member of the St. Francis Spartans.
"It's like a dream come true," said senior Brett Robinson. "I don't think I would have imagined this ever. I don't know if it actually hit me yet."
In Saturday's Class 5A championship at Memorial Stadium, St. Francis hit the jackpot with its first state title, 49-35 over favored Metamora.
"It's probably one of the most satisfying things I've ever been a part of as a football coach, to see these young men after going 3-6," said second-year Spartans coach Greg Purnell, who won his fourth overall state title, the prior three in a 21-year hall of fame career in Iowa.
St. Francis (13-1) set Class 5A title game records for points. The Spartans and Metamora (13-1) combined for 5A title records for combined points and offensive yardage (824 yards).
"We knew that our offense was going to keep moving, the offensive line was going to keep opening up holes, and we knew that this game was going to have to be won by our defense," said running back-linebacker Stan Bobowski.
Coming off a 14-14 halftime tie, St. Francis capitalized on a special-teams play and one on defense.
Kevin Fassnacht's recovery of a Metamora punt that glanced off a Redbird returned possession to St. Francis, and the Spartans went ahead on Mark Kachmer's 33-yard run and Matt Krese's kick.
As it did most of the morning Metamora answered to tie 21-21 at 4:53 of the third quarter, but on the next series St. Francis quarterback Jeff Reckards' 70-yard touchdown pass to Robinson - a backside post pattern run for the first time this season - put the Spartans ahead to stay.
In the first half Metamora fumbled four times, recovering each. The Redbirds couldn't hold off fate forever. St. Francis defensive lineman Joe Pfeiffer's fumble recovery late led to Stan Bobowski's 2-yard touchdown run for a 35-21 lead with 9:38 left in the game.
"Before that series my lineman coach, coach Jackson (Vandiver), came up to me and said, 'This is your chance to make a play, let's do it.' On that series I was just looking to make a play, and it worked out that way," Pfeiffer said.
St. Francis' defense held Metamora an inch short on quarterback Michael Fay's shovel pass on fourth-and-7, and with 3:52 left Bobowski's 11-yard run put the Spartans up 42-21.
"We feel like it's a game we could have won," said Metamora coach Pat Ryan, "but they made more big plays than we did. We just couldn't get them stopped enough, and then when we did they got it right back."
St. Francis' fans moved from the grandstand to behind the awards podium even as Metamora got within 42-28 on Cody Kanaga's 11-yard touchdown catch. Bobowski immediately answered with a 57-yard touchdown run with 1:22 left.
Fay's 130 yards rushing led all ball carriers. Bobowski ran for 125 on 21 carries, while Kachmer gained 124 yards on 12 carries with first-half touchdown runs of 58 and 2 yards.
The all-state halfback finished his senior season with 1,988 yards and 33 TD runs. And St. Francis' first state football title.
"We've been going into games as the least favored or underdogs the entire playoffs," Kachmer said. "We didn't approach it differently. We weren't scared, we weren't intimidated. We took it as an even game and that's how we played."
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