The St. Vincent football season may have ended a little sooner than the coaches and players may have wanted, but that doesn’t make it any less successful. The Indians fell to Marionville 38-7 in the Class 1 State semifinal on Saturday.
Marionville had not lost a regular season game in four years and Schumer thought his team gave good effort despite the loss.
“Marionville is a very good team and we did a lot this year that hasn’t been done here in a long time,” St. Vincent coach Tim Schumer said. “It was a very successful season.”
St. Vincent finished the year at 9-4, which is the most wins the team has had in nearly two decades. The team captured its first district title since 2009 with a 45-14 victory over Crystal City and the program’s second straight conference title.
“There’s a lot to hold our head high about,” Schumer said.
St. Vincent was playing its best football at the right time of the season. The Indians have won their last seven games, and had not lost since Sept. 22 to Valle Catholic, before the loss in the final four. The Indians started 0-2 with losses to Thayer and Scott City by a combined five points. The team had to replace 10 seniors from last year and Schumer said it took a few weeks to gel together as a team.
“Coming in we were a young team,” Schumer said. “We were a little inexperienced and we took those lessons we learned at the beginning of the year and used them to our advantage. We worked on the little things and it has turned out to be good for us.”
Those lessons are evident has they won their two district games by a combined score of 143-26.
“Our defense did a good job of keeping the opponent at bay and not giving up too many points on the scoreboard,” Schumer said. “Our offense has been able to take the opportunities given to them and put points on the board. They feed off one another.”
A big part of that offense has been the emergence of the running attack. Cruz Reitzel has been a key component of that with 19 touchdowns and quarterback Christian Schaaf has added double digit rushing touchdowns as well to go with the consistent passing attack from the three-year starter. He had a career high 21 touchdown passes this year
“The rushing effort has been excellent this year,” Schumer said. “It’s helped us be a little bit more balanced this year, where in the past we may have leaned more on our passing game to open things up on the ground. Right now it seems like we can do both. We take what the defense gives and take advantage of those looks.”
St. Vincent loses six seniors, and while that may not seem like a bunch, it includes quarterback Christian Schaaf and middle linebacker Drake Robinson, who had more than 150 tackles this season.
“We have 10 starters on defense and seven on offense coming back,” Schumer said. “We have a lot coming back, but with Drake and Christian those are big shoes to fill. It’s going to take a lot to get back where we were and that takes putting in time in the offseason.”
