St. Edward falls to Chicago Christian, suffering first loss of year

The St. Edward football team thought it had the go-ahead touchdown twice Friday night.

The referees disagreed - even with each other on one of the plays.

In the end, the Green Wave made too many mistakes and suffered their first loss of the season, 19-16, to Chicago Christian at Greg True Field.

"A lot of questionable things at the end, but at the end of the day it shouldn't have come down to that," Green Wave coach Mike Rolando said. "There's enough blame to go around - coaching staff, players, everybody."

St. Edward (3-1, 1-1 Suburban Christian Gold) trailed 19-16 midway through the fourth quarter and had a 1st-and-10 on the Knights' 33-yard line. Ben Lehman threw deep over the middle to Sam Pozezinski, who went up in the air to make the catch. He came down, hit the ground with a defender falling on top of him and the ball came out with 5:12 remaining in the game. The back judge, who had the play unfolding right in front of him, signaled touchdown. The refs got together and ruled the pass incomplete.

The Green Wave stayed composed and eventually got the ball down to the 1 after an 8-yard run from David Hoebbel. Jon Keokanlaya was stuffed on second down. Jordan Torres took the third-down handoff and appeared to get into the end zone, but the officials did not make a call. All the refs moved toward the pile and while Torres laid in the end zone, the refs marked the ball after a foot short of the goal line. Torres was then stopped on fourth down as the Green Wave went for the win instead of a possible game-tying field goal.

"I was over the (goal line). That was a touchdown," said Torres, who finished with 68 yards rushing on 15 carries. "But you have to go by what the ref calls."

The Green Wave needed to rally after a poor opening 8 minutes, which included two lost fumbles, both resulting in Chicago Christian (2-2, 1-1) touchdowns and a 13-0 deficit. St. Edward got within 13-7 after a Torres 12-yard touchdown run with 46 seconds left in the first quarter.

Lehman and Pozezinski connected on a 46-yard touchdown with 2:32 remaining in the first half as the Green Wave took a 14-13 halftime lead.

Knights quarterback Jason VanderLaan scored on a 9-yard run, his second rushing touchdown, with 9:01 remaining after an interception by Alec Kowalczyk. The Knights were stopped on a 2-point conversion attempt, making the score 19-14.

St. Edward cut the deficit to 19-16 with a safety after a Lehman punt was downed inside the 1. That led to the potential game-winning drive that was stopped. St. Edward forced the Knights to put with 18.8 seconds left, but the punt was fumbled and the Knights recovered.

"We didn't come prepared," Torres said. "We looked past this team and you saw the conclusion."