ACC battles but can't deny St. Edward playoff berth
Making the playoffs has never come easily for St. Edward, so it was little surprise that for at least a half Friday night at Aurora Central that goal once again became a struggle.
The Green Wave barely had the ball in the opening 24 minutes, clinging to a 7-0 lead while losing the battle in the trenches on both sides. The second half was an entirely different story, a dominating performance by St. Edward with 24 unanswered points for a 31-0 victory.
St. Edward (6-1, 4-0) is headed to the playoffs for the second straight year the first time in program history and just the fourth time ever.
"It's huge for the school, it's huge for our program," sixth-year St. Edward coach Mike Rolando said, taking a break from dozens of hugs with former players, current players, assistant coaches anyone and everyone in green.
"It's nice to get tested like this and to buckle down and come through when we needed to. A lot of people around now don't remember where we were four or five years ago with 0-9 and 0-9 and 1-8. These kids play for them, they play for the history and tradition of the program."
St. Edward quarterback Ben Lehman threw for 183 yards and a pair of touchdowns including a 67-yarder on the Green Wave's first play from scrimmage to Matt Brockner.
Other than that, Aurora Central Catholic (2-5, 1-3) used its ground game to keep the Green Wave offense off the field in the first half.
The Chargers ran 48 plays to 10 for St. Edward in the first half. They held and 11:42-: 18 time of possession advantage in the first quarter and 19:04-4:56 in the first half.
But each time the Chargers got deep into St. Edward territory the Green Wave held. They stopped Aurora Central on downs at their own 33, their own 12 and own 10.
And the Green Wave still walked off the field ahead 7-0 on Lehman's long toss to Brockner.
"There was a little bit of frustration but in the end there was nothing to be frustrated about, the score was 7-0," Lehman said. "They (ACC) have a great offense, they were running up and down the field."
Junior Kyle Clechenko did most of the running with a career-high 100 yards on 27 carries, many of them direct snaps. The Chargers converted their first three third downs and six of seven in the first quarter.
"It was kind of what we expected," Rolando said. "They are bigger than us. They play hard, they run hard, they were always moving forward. Tough kids.
"Our defense was stepping up huge in the red zone several times. To pitch a shutout like that is pretty unbelievable. The defense has carried us a lot of times this year when we needed them to."
Rolando told his team at halftime that coaches had several pass plays that could exploit the blitzing Chargers, they just didn't have time to call them while on the field for 10 plays in the first half.
Sure enough, on the opening drive of the third quarter Lehman found Olenek for a 31-yard completion and then again wide open for a 22-yard touchdown that made it 14-0.
Olenek followed with a 26-yard field goal for a 17-0 lead after three quarters. Sophomore Maurice Jackson and freshman DeVontae Elam ran for 58- and 8-yard touchdowns, respectively, in the fourth quarter.
Those two backs filled in for Jon Keokanlaya, who left the game early with a knee sprain. Bobby Waclawik stepped into Keokanlaya's linebacker spot on defense.
"Fighting for a home playoff game, fighting for a SCC championship those were our goals and they still are," Rolando said. "The games the rest of the season are going to get even tougher."
The Chargers finished with an 18-11 advantage in first downs and 215-143 on the ground despite losing quarterback Stewart deWaard (ribs) in the second half. They are looking for some of those big plays Lehman and the Green Wave connected on.
"We've had that problem all year, we've had trouble finishing," ACC coach Brian Casey said. "It's a combination of things. I think our red zone problem is we need to be more explosive."