Shipley’s forced fumble propels St. Francis past Prairie Ridge

Who would be the first to blink?

As the St. Francis and Prairie Ridge offenses went down the field Saturday, scoring touchdowns on nine straight possessions, it looked as though whoever had the ball last was going to win.

Having already allowed conversions of several fourth-down plays, Peyton Shipley and the St. Francis defense made its impact. Shipley made the biggest play of the Spartans’ season as he forced a fumble on another fourth-down play late in the third quarter as St. Francis recovered and seized control in a 41-38 victory to knock off the previously unbeaten and Class 5A top-seeded Wolves.

“Effort, honestly. That’s what it took from our entire defense and that’s what we’ve preached all week,” Shipley said. “[Prairie Ridge] gives you a lot of tempo and a lot of different looks with their [triple-option offense]. We faced a lot of adversity as a defense today, but we did our best to adjust quickly and made the stops when we needed to.”

Shipley’s forced fumble gave the Spartans (8-3) the ball back already ahead, 34-32. Three plays later, quarterback Brock Phillip put the finishing touches on a career day on the ground, scoring his fourth and final touchdown of the game from 20 yards out.

St. Francis scored touchdowns on each of its six drives that were not halted by the half or end of the game.

“I’m honestly just so proud of the way this team fought today,” said Phillip, who also finished the game 8-for-9 with two passing touchdowns to go along his four rushing scores in Saturday’s win. “It wasn’t the prettiest and it wasn’t easy, but this shows we can play with anyone. We have much bigger goals ahead, but we will definitely enjoy this one.”

The Spartans weren’t in the clear after Phillip’s final touchdown run, especially with Prairie Ridge quarterback Luke Vanderwiel manning the triple option.

Vanderwiel matched Phillip’s day on the ground with 182 rushing yards and four rushing scores of his own, including a 13-yard score on fourth-and-7 with 4:49 remaining to pull the Wolves (10-1) back within three.

Prairie Ridge recovered the ensuing onside kick, but the St. Francis defense forced a turnover on downs as Vanderwiel’s only pass attempt of the day fell incomplete on fourth-and-14 with 2:18 to play.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Vanderwiel said. “We got behind the sticks and had some plays there not go our way, but that’s football. It was fun to play one last time with the boys.”

“[Vanderwiel] is such a special player,” St. Francis coach Bob McMillen said. “That is such a good football team that we beat today. They play the game the right way, make things very difficult on you and you can understand why they are consistently in the hunt year after year.

“We know we have some things to clean up, but we knew we needed one [defensive] stop the way our offense was going today and we were able to get a couple there in some big moments.”

Zach Washington and Dario Milivojevic were each on the receiving end of a Phillip touchdown pass, while Tivias Caldwell rushed for 123 yards in the win for St. Francis.

Sophomore Vincent Byk added 129 yards on the ground and Logan Thennes added a touchdown run for Prairie Ridge.

St. Francis will head on the road in the 5A quarterfinals next week and take on the winner of Saturday night’s matchup between No. 13 Chicago King (6-4) and No. 5 Chicago Corliss (8-2).