Wind, St. Ignatius ground game too much for St. Viator
With some brisk winds not all that conducive to a passing game, St. Ignatius put its running game on display Friday night in Arlington Heights at the Roosevelt University football field which serves as St. Viator's home base.
The Wolfpack made itself quite at home with its triple option, led by the 131 yards of junior running back Robbie Connor and 86 from senior quarterback Jack Wanzung, and was able to post a 36-13 triumph over the Lions in a nonconference game.
"St. Ignatius is a fantastic team and obviously it was a week with an 8A team (St. Ignatius) playing a 4A team," said Lions coach Dave Archibald. "I liked how our guys fought and I told them we are a good football team and we have big-time games coming up."
"It was really great competition," said Lions offensive lineman and Army recruit Ben Konopka. "It was an example of some adversity we've faced this season. I think it was really a good moment for us to kind of take on a challenge and we are going to learn how to improve from it and grow as a team from it."
Connor finished with 3 touchdowns on runs of 34, 9 and 3 yards while Wanzung raced into the end zone twice.
The Lions defense, led by Michael Tauscher (6 solo tackles, 11 assists) and Star Gu (4 solo, 5 assists), forced a punt on the Wolfpack's opening-game drive.
However, the visitors' defense then produced a three-and-out for Viator at its own 26.
Lions punter Kevin Niemiec landed the ball on the Wolfpack 15-yard line.
But Wanzung directed an 85-yard TD drive, all on the ground, capped by his 10-yard keeper into the end zone with 1:46 left in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead.
Connor's 34-yard TD run (7:55 in the second quarter) and Wanzung's 1-yard QB sneak with no time on the clock made it 20-0 at intermission.
Viator received the second-half kickoff and started at its own 37.
Quarterback Cooper Kmet, working behind linemen Konopoka, Peter LaFleur, Sean McAndrews, Michael Lombardo and David Hosnedl, engineered an eight-play drive that finished with his 21-yard TD pass to Dayvion Ellis (seventh TD of the season) to make it 20-7 with 8:29 in the third quarter.
But St. Ignatius went back to work on the ground and a pair of TD runs by Connor had the visitors up 33-7 going into the final quarter.
"The wind did make it a particular challenge for us running an air-raid offense," Konopka added. "We weren't able to fall back on our passing close to as much as we would have liked and it was an advantage for St. Ignatius with its triple option and being able to stay on the ground."
Christian Ruiz' 23-yard field goal extended the margin to 36-7 with 2:37 left in the game before Kmet drove the Lions 67 yards in 10 plays, capped by his 7-yard TD pass to Tauscher with 43 seconds left to make it 36-13 (pass failed for 2 points).
It was Kmet's 11th TD pass of the season as he went 14-of-29 for 149 yards. Ellis caught 6 passes for 64 yards.
"We just need to flip the page and prepare with all our might and get ready for these big upcoming weeks," Archibald said. "We have to take from what we've learned from the experience playing a good team like St. Ignatius.
"The wind was a factor tonight and I would say more for us than them. Just offensively, the wind impacts our game more because it was significant but I'm proud of my guys. We went into the wind and drove the field and scored. I thought we had a solid drive where we had some good efforts."