Productive Nazareth handles QB Kmet, St. Viator

A couple of University of Notre Dame recruits - St. Viator junior wide receiver Cole Kmet and Nazareth Academy senior running back Julian Love - graced the Robert Morris University football field on Friday night.

While the back drop may not have included Touchdown Jesus, there sure were plenty of touchdowns scored.

The majority belonged to the visiting Roadrunners, who ran past the Lions 49-22 in the final regular-season game.

Love made his impact felt at defensive back less than two minutes into the East Suburban Conference game.

He recovered quarterback Kmet's fumble - yes, quarterback - and went 55 yards to the end zone for a 7-0 lead.

Love also scored TDs on 14 and 2-yard runs and caught a 13-yard pass from Carson Bartels as Nazareth (7-2) finished 5-2 in the ESCC.

After the game, Love exchanged pleasantries with his future teammate, a wide receiver (more than 300 yards receiving this fall) who happened to start the game operating as the Lions' QB in the Wildcat offense.

"We were joking around in practice this week," said Lions coach Brandon New. "He started throwing the football around and obviously he's a baseball player (pitcher and first baseman). Hey, why not put your best player where he can get the ball? And for a week's notice, he didn't look too bad."

Kmet carried the ball on six of Viator's first seven plays from scrimmage, picking up 55 yards. He also completed a 6-yard pass to Joey McIntyre early in the second quarter.

"We knew they were 1-7 and had nothing to lose," Love said. "We knew something different could happen but didn't know it would be that drastic of a change (Kmet starting at QB). After the game I told him 'good game and finish off high school strong.' "

The Lions (1-8, 0-7) finished their season playing with heart to the very end as senior Eric Mitalo raced 8 yards for a TD with 1:33 left and Thomas Swiderski ran it in for the 2-point conversion.

The Lions were running behind linemen Adam Kujawa, Brett DeSelm, Max Hogan. Connor Phelan and Anthony Maraviglia. They also protected junior QB Tommy Majerus, who threw a 34-yard pass to Marc Clark which tied the game at 7-7 midway through the first quarter before Nazareth ran off 6 unanswered touchdowns.

"Oh my goodness, all the credit to them," said Lions defensive lineman Tom Cleary. "We respected them a lot.

"Our plan was to jump out on them early. We kept it close for a while but then they started finding holes in our defense. We fought our tails off all season and with these guys coming back, they (St. Viator) are going to be very good next year."

New would hardly disagree with Cleary's assessment of the Lions' hard work from day one.

"No matter what happened at any point over the season, the thing I am most proud of is that on every Monday these kids came ready to work. As a coach, that is what I am most proud."

The Lions' penultimate TD was set up by Michael Ragauskis' 75-yard kickoff return that gave Viator the ball at the Nazareth 13-yard line with just over nine minutes left in the third quarter.

Three plays later, junior Darreonta Jackson went 9 yards for the Lions' second touchdown.

Mitalo's final TD was fitting because he also scored his freshman team's first TD four years ago on a 98-yard pass play from classmate Dominic Lamick against Antioch.

"Sometimes weird things just happen like that," Mitalo said of starting and ending his football career at St. Viator with a touchdown.