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St. Patrick shuts out St. Viator

St. Viator and St. Patrick were each looking for their first wins in the East Suburban Catholic Conference on Friday night.

Something had to give at Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights - and it wasn't St. Patrick.

The Shamrocks posted a 13-0 shutout to improve to 3-5 and 1-5.

The Lions (1-7, 0-6) were unable to cash in on six red zone opportunities.

"You're not going to win many games and get points on the board when you get in the red zone with that many turnovers," said St. Viator coach Brandon New.

The Lions took over at their own 35-yard line after a St. Patrick first-quarter score, and four consecutive carries by senior running back Joey McIntyre for a total of 21 yards got the hosts to St. Patrick's 44-yard line.

A 9-yard pass from senior quarterback Tony Nagle to senior Thomas Swiderski brought the Lions to the 35-yard line before McIntyre carried two more times to the 21.

A reception from junior Notre Dame commit Cole Kmet and another McIntyre carry brought the Lions into the red zone at the 17 - but the drive halted when St. Patrick's Arthur Cadet made an interception at the 1-yard line.

The Lions got into the red zone again on their final possession of the first half.

Seven straight McIntyre carries advanced St. Viator from their own 31-yard line to the Shamrocks' 45-yard line. Swiderski followed with seven consecutive carries to advance the Lions to St. Patrick's 15-yard-line.

However, when Viator fumbled at the 1-yard line and the Shamrocks recovered.

"When you struggle a little bit in the pass game, you have to be able to run the ball and we've figured out how to be successful running the ball," New said. "But at some point too, you're going to get stopped or be put in a bad situation based on a penalty. A lot of things can happen where the situation calls for you to have the ability to throw. And that's what we've been struggling with. The run game is great but if a team loads more guys in the box, unfortunately you're not always successful in that situation."

After the Shamrocks' second touchdown of the contest in the third quarter, the Lions took over at their own 36-yard-line.

Five consecutive carries by Swiderski advanced St. Viator to the Shamrocks' 18-yard-line but St. Patrick stopped the Lions on downs for another missed red zone scoring chance.

St. Viator gained possession at the Shamrocks' 21 early in the fourth quarter thanks to senior Bobby Dawson recovering a St. Patrick fumble.

After a 5-yard Lions false start penalty, three carries my McIntyre carries for 11 yards and a Swiderski 7-yard reception brought St. Viator to St. Patrick's 8. This time, the Shamrocks' Michael Valicento had an interception to end the drive.

A St. Patrick intentional grounding penalty on fourth down gave St. Viator the ball at the Shamrocks' 13-yard line, but a pair of McIntyre carries for no gain and two incomplete passes thrown by sophomore Bryce Hellgeth stalled the drive.

Nagle completed a 29-yard pass to Marc Clark and a pair of passes to Falbo, and a 9-yard pass to Kmet to reach the Shamrocks' 3-yard line. But a fumble on the snap and St. Patrick's recovery ended the evening's scoring hopes for St. Viator.

St. Patrick coach Dan Galante was pleased with his squad's defensive effort in stopping St. Viator from scoring six times in the red zone.

"They drove the ball down on us but it was great to see us convert and get some timely turnovers," he said. "I was really happy. A lot of guys really stepped up in a tough area and made some tremendous plays for us."

The Shamrocks got on the board with a 12-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Paddy Devlin to junior wide receiver Andrew Edgar with 6:06 remaining in the first quarter. They tacked on another score with an 18-yard TD run by John Gall with 4:29 left in the third quarter.

The Lions' defense, which had given up nearly 30 points per game through the first seven weeks, was under its season average in allowing the Shamrocks to score only 13 points.

"The defense started playing very well last week," New said. "Two weeks in a row, our defense has started playing extremely well with a lot of passion out there and flying around. That's definitely something we can build off with the way the defense has been playing."

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