Etchingham pick lifts St. Viator

Hersey was looking for a game-changing play when St. Viator linebacker Jack Etchingham took those hopes away Friday night.

The Lions were trying to make the only score of the annual season-opening battle for Arlington Heights bragging rights hold up midway through the fourth quarter before a full house at Hersey. Then Etchingham read a slant pattern and stepped in front of a pass from Brandon Klein.

"All I saw was grass and my eyes lit up," Etchingham said.

And 35 yards later, Etchingham was in the end zone with 6:29 to play to give Viator a tough 14-0 victory which was its fifth straight in the series.

"That's what wins championships for you," Viator coach Chris Kirkpatrick said of his team allowing only 126 total yards with 10 stops for negative yardage. "If our defense can play like this we're going to be successful."

Joe Falduto also had an interception and Connor Ptacin, Matt Barry, Sean Conerty, Justin Johnson, Will Tumberger, Mike Krzoska and Kevin Gannon helped lead the Lions' first shutout since Week 6 of 2006. John Sandmeier played a big role with field position by averaging 35.8 yards on 4 punts.

"We're good on defense and confident on defense," Etchingham said. "Our secondary is young but very, very good."

Viator finally broke through 2:15 before halftime when Julian Sipiora (168 total yards) hit Jake Mastrangeli for a 5-yard score. Hersey's defense led by linebacker Jake Knauss, Fred Scales, Tyler Beaulieu, Jason Olson and Grant Reed allowed 186 yards and stopped three trips inside its 20.

"We had maximum effort from a lot of guys," said Hersey coach Mark Gunther.

"It's encouraging for everyone on the defensive side to shut down one of the top offenses in the state to 7 points," Knauss said. "Our thing was shutting down Sipiora and (Richard) McLoughlin (2 catches, 26 yards) and I thought we did a good job of that, but they had other players step up."

Hersey came up empty on drives to the Viator 19 at the end of the half and the 25 late in the third.

"We didn't think this would be a cupcake," Etchingham said. "We knew Hersey would be good."