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St. Viator takes charge against St. Patrick

St. Viator senior quarterback Tyler Johnston is one of the top quarterbacks in the East Suburban Catholic Conference, but he sometimes gets overlooked.

Not, however, by his own teammates.

"The other players love it when Johnston is in the game, because he can do so much with the ball," said Lions coach Brandon New. "He's all about team, and it gets the rest of them going. They feed off of his energy. He has a quarterback moxie, which is something you can't teach."

Johnston came up with another fine performance in leading St. Viator to a 42-14 victory over St. Patrick at Hanson Stadium in Chicago on Saturday afternoon.

Johnston completed 16 of 24 passes with 2 interceptions for 240 yards and 2 touchdown passes. That puts him at 2,202 yards and 15 touchdown passes for the season.

Not to be forgotten is that the win gives St. Viator a 5-3 record and 4-2 in the ESCC. The win puts the Lions in the playoff-eligible department heading into next Saturday's game at Nazareth Academy.

"Everyone covets that fifth win," said New. "We've got good playoff points and we've played a tough schedule."

"This is something that we've been working for all summer," said Johnston. " to be playoff eligible. St. Pat has had our number the last few years. We had to come out and stay on top of them. Breaking out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead and then 28-0 in the second quarter gave us the momentum. It was a good game for our offensive line and for all of us."

Matt Darling started the scoring against the Shamrocks (2-6, 0-6). On play that started at the 6, Darling was stopped at the 9 but reversed his field and scampered in for a 7-0 lead with 8:03 left in the first quarter.

Joey McIntyre (27 carries, 97 yards) scored on a pair of 1-yards runs in the quarter for the 21-0 Lions lead.

Luke Fulton, who recovered 3 fumbles, set the third score up by recovering the ball on the St. Patrick 1.

Ben Dickey's 48-yard catch down the sideline from Johnston made the score 28-0 with 6:40 left in the first half.

St. Patrick's Mike Glaesser returned a Johnston pass on the second play of the third quarter 30 yards for a Shamrocks touchdown.

Johnston made up for the miscue by connecting with Sal Cannella on a 19-yard strike a few minutes later for a 35-7 lead.

St. Patrick's Zach Fuller (10-for-25, 149 yards) connected with junior Patrick Devlin on a 42-yard reception for the Shamrocks' other score with 1:35 left in the quarter.

Thomas Swiderski finished the Lions' scoring with an 18-yard touchdown run with 6:15 left in the game.

St. Viator accounted for 453 yards of offense with 213 rushing and 240 passing yards. Michael Fitzpatrick connected on all six point after touchdown attempts.

The Lions defense held St. Patrick to 39 yards rushing.

"We focused on their formations and had a real good defensive game plan," said Fulton. "We just had to execute it. We're excited as a team to make the playoffs. We know we have a tough task at Nazareth next week. We're hoping we can give them a loss and peak going into the playoffs."

"The players new that Pat's had got the best of us the last few years," said New. "Maybe it was a different mindset. We went out and played with effort and excitement."

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