The St. Vincent Indians scored early and often Friday night, in a 34-0 route of the Ste. Genevieve Dragons.
After kicking off to the Dragons, St. Vincent’s defense made their first big play of the night on the first snap of the game, when Gavin Hotop intercepted the Ste. Genevieve quarterback, giving his offense excellent field percentage. This allowed junior Indian Layton Cheaney to put St. Vincent on the board with a 4-yard touchdown run just 10 seconds into the game. Following a missed extra point, the lead was 6-0.
The Indians offense found the end zone two more times in the first quarter, first on a 44-yard pass from Andrew Schumer to Case Huber, and again on a 3-yard Schumer keeper. One made extra point and one blocked extra point made the score 19-0 in favor of St. Vincent at the end of the first quarter.
The Indians offense slowed down in the second quarter, only scoring once on a 23-yard Schumer touchdown pass, again to Huber. The defense continued to shut down the Dragons, keeping the score 25-0 at halftime.
St. Vincent got the ball back at the start of the second half, and after a two minute drive, Schumer and Huber connected for their third touchdown of the night, this one going 11-yards through the air, bringing the score to 32-0 after the extra point.
The third Schumer-Huber connection was the final score of the night for the offense, but two more points would come via the defense on a fourth quarter safety, forced by Gavin Hotop.
Ste. Genevieve threatened to score and break the shutout late in the fourth quarter on a long drive while St. Vincent subbed in some younger players, but the defense forced a turnover on downs, allowing the Indians to enter victory formation and run out the final minute, taking the 34-0 shutout victory, improving their record to 2-0.
St. Vincent head coach Tim Schumer said he was impressed with how his team was able to score as fast as they did and keep that intensity and pace throughout the game.
“We talked all week about starting fast and we come out first play and Gavin bats the ball down, intercepts it and then tries to go score,” Schumer said. “And next play we score and punch one in there to take an early lead and that kind of calms everybody down with the early game jitters, and I thought after that we responded on both sides of the ball.”
Schumer said the big lead gave him a valuable opportunity to experiment with the lineup late, giving underclassmen a chance to get some real game experience early in their varsity careers.
“You want to play underneath the Friday night lights, so anytime you’re a freshman, sophomore, and you can get out there, you take advantage of it, and that’s what keeps them coming back,” he said. “I thought they came in and did an exceptional job, at the end of the game, we were able to get on both sides of the ball, the younger guys in there, and let them have some fun, and that was huge for us.”
St. Vincent will turn their attention to this Friday night, when they face their cross-town rivals the Perryville Pirates, who will come into the game with a 1-1 record following a Thursday night loss to DeSoto.
“We’re gonna have to celebrate this win and then tomorrow we’ll get the film and we’ll go to work on them,” Schumer said. “You know, early season there is still stuff that we got to work on but also, you got to start getting ready and game planning after you get a couple films on a team to really find some tendencies. So we’ll have our work cut out for us. It’s always a good environment with both teams in the town. And so we’re looking forward to it. We have a good week of preparation ahead to get ready for the Pirates.”
Kickoff from Pirate stadium is scheduled for 7:00 P.M.
