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| | |  | Zach & Saints Football Team Finish 2nd In State To the #39 Team In the Country. |
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| Posted By: Zachery Eyre on 2007-12-04 16:18:48 EST | Email Story | Flag As Spam | Comments (1) |
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Saints 2nd in State With the Saints showing all the resilience in the world Friday night, they can truly say they left it all on the field. Unfortunately Addison Driscoll (Ranked 39th in the country by maxpreps) simply outplayed the boys for a 48-24 final. Both teams can say they showed heart and charisma. “They were the best team we played in the playoffs by far,” said Dave Schwabe, the Highlanders’ QB, after rushing for 238 yards and completing 7 of 13 passes for 96 more. “I’ve played on four state championship teams, and they are probably the best state championship opponent we’ve faced.” “We played a good football team,” said Saint coach Bobby Moews. “There is no doubt about it.”
The No. 3-ranked Saints finished with a 13-1 record, tying the best mark in school history set by the Class 3A state title team of 1994. Central won its first outright Corn Belt Conference title since 1992. “We moved the ball fairly well,” said Moews, whose team motored for 363 total yards.No. 1-ranked Addison Driscoll (14-0) upped its record for consecutive state titles to seven. Only three other schools have won more titles overall than Driscoll’s eight: Joliet Catholic (12), Chicago Mount Carmel (10) and New Lenox Providence (nine).“The offensive line played strong today,” Waldron said. “They blitzed a couple of times and we didn’t pick it up, but other than that, the offensive line played really well.” The lineman must be given credit, their work ethic at this title game was endless and each side of the ball played hard to the buzzer. The Saints showed Addison they were going to have to work a little harder if they want it after Michael Fenger’s 37-yard field goal pulled the Saints within 21-17 with 7:11 left in the third quarter. “They were physical,” Schwabe (from Addison) said. “They wanted it.” The Saints’ first score was set up by Brendan Gesell’s recovery of a Schwabe fumble. On the next play, Rebholz passed to a wide-open Safford for a 70-yard touchdown on which Safford masterfully used an official as a moving pick to avoid the final defender. Fenger made the first of three point-after kicks with 3:18 left in the first quarter.
Central was 20 yards from taking a 14-0 lead late in the first quarter, but the possession ended on Schwabe’s 26th career interception. On the next play, he scored from 94 yards out, missing the 4A title game record by one yard. Phil Albreski’s first of six point-after kicks tied it a 7-7 with 10 seconds left in the first quarter.“When we were up 7-0, we had the ball on about the 20 and then we jumped off-sides, had a bad pitch on an option and then we were sacked,” Moews said. “That was kind of tough there.” The Highlanders took a 14-7 lead with 4:13 left in the half despite a Safford punt which pinned them at the 1. Their 99-yard drive took nine plays, the last a 60-yard change-of-direction dance by Franken.
A Rebholz fumble recovered by Nick Stenzel ended the Saints’ next possession and set up a 29-yard drive Franken finished from eight yards out to make it 21-7.
“At 21-7, they had a lot of momentum,” Moews said.
The Saints bounced back with a 71-yard, eight-play march of their own keyed by 7-yard Rebholz to Safford pass on fourth down at the Driscoll 38. Safford later scored on a 5-yard reception with 16 seconds left in the half.
“It was one of our best drives of the night,” Moews said. “I kind of felt we could move the ball. It was just a matter of us being able to stop them.”
Driscoll, which had three two-way players compared to seven for the Saints, entered the game having forced 32 more turnovers than it committed. The Highlanders intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble while losing two fumbles to Gesell and Curran.
“It was a back-and-forth game,” said Burzawa, whose team topped Central 28-12 in last year’s second round. “There were a lot of big plays early back-and-forth. Ironically, we didn’t score right off the bat and they came down and scored.”
“These guys played hard,” Moews said. “They had a great year. I’m proud as heck of them.”The Highlanders will tell you it wasn’t as easy as the spread suggests. It took two touchdowns in the final nine minutes to salt this one away.
That was little consolation to the Saints on Friday night. It will mean something later, perhaps as early as next week, or a month tops.
“Character has always been kind of a strong point for our team,” Central senior center/defensive tackle Zach Eyre said. “When we’re down, we’re never really out. Everybody just has a lot of heart on the team. “I don’t think there’s anybody on the team who didn’t go out there and play hard. We might not have played our best game, but everybody was playing real hard.” |
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| Tags: Zach Eyre, Saints, Corn belt, State, Championship |
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| Posted in football, high school sports, men's athletics |
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