St. Francis tops ACC

St. Francis senior Colin O'Donnell provided quite the headache for Aurora Central Catholic.

O'Donnell recorded a touchdown reception, a rushing touchdown and returned the opening punt as the Spartans rolled to a 42-7 victory in Glen Ellyn at the College of DuPage.

"Colin's a quick, talented kid," St. Francis coach Greg Purnell said "Putting him in the wingback position has really helped our offense."

The Suburban Christian Conference matchup was lopsided early. O'Donnell returned a punt 45 yards to open the scoring for St. Francis after a Chargers three-and-out. On the next Spartans drive senior running back Ben Trimble rumbled for an 8-yard score to give the Spartans a 14-0 advantage mid-way through the first quarter. Senior Bob Miller recorded the third touchdown for St. Francis, an 11-yard scamper to give the Spartans a 21-0 lead.

O'Donnell answered with his second touchdown of the game, hauling in a pass from senior Nick Donati, and taking it 39 yards for a 28-0 advantage. O'Donnell notched his third score, this time an 8-yard run, to give St. Francis a 35-0 cushion heading into the half.

"We really focused all week, and we all know the situation we're in," O'Donnell said. "We wanted to put the pressure on them early and we hit them right off the bat. We had great blocking all night."

Sophomore Dan Beck uncorked a 20-yard touchdown run to record the final St. Francis score, making it 42-0 early in the third quarter. The Spartans (5-3, 2-3) tallied 273 yards on the ground and 348 total yards for the night.

"They have great running backs in the offense, and we acknowledge that," Chargers coach Brian Casey said. "We knew those guys could run, but we were most concerned about Miller coming in."

Aurora Central (2-6, 1-4) struggled to muster any scoring until the third quarter. Junior Kyle Clechenko rushed for a 5-yard touchdown to prevent the Spartans from notching a shutout.