FESTUS — Third-seeded St. Vincent put up a heck of a fight Friday, but it wasn’t enough to get past a well-prepared St. Pius X team in the Class 2, District 1 semifinals at Father Dalton Stadium in Festus.
The Lancers (6-5) beat St. Vincent (7-4) 41-33 to advance to the district championship game against Caruthersville.
“Hats off to St. Pius, they executed their game plan and made the plays that they had to do to win the game,” said St. Vincent coach Tim Schumer. “We just came up short a little bit at times, but I was really proud of the players. I thought they fought hard and played hard all game long.”
St. Vincent senior quarterback Wyatt Winkler put in a lot of work for the Indians, completing 18-of-35 passing attempts for 279 yards and 4 touchdowns with 2 interceptions.
As usual, Winkler’s favorite target was senior receiver Max Wheeler, who caught 6 passes for 132 yards and 2 touchdowns. Junior Adam Brickhaus had 1 catch for 29 yards and a touchdown, and senior Jack Seabaugh caught 2 for 26 yards and a touchdown.
Senior Kellan Pitts had 3 catches for 40 yards, senior Kale Meyer had 3 for 29, and senior Andrew Hotop had 3 for 23.
“We scored five times,” Schumer said, “but like I said, St. Pius did a good job of sticking to their game plan. And they kept things on the ground, kept control of the clock.”
That fifth score came on the ground when Seabaugh managed a single scoring run. He finished with 50 yards on 7 carries.
St. Pius led 28-19 at the half. Schumer said the main difference was the Indians’ inability to convert early in the game when it mattered.
“We actually drove down and got in the red zone and just kind of stalled out there and ended up turning over on fourth down,” Schumer said. “We just couldn’t convert the first down or get it in the end zone to get some points on the board, but then we came down and scored two other times right before halftime to give us some momentum.”
Unfortunately, the second half opened much the same way. Schumer said his team had other opportunities to score but were unable to convert in the red zone, which proved to be the difference in the game.
“We came out in the second half and then drove right down the field and got stopped in the red zone again,” Schumer said. “That was the difference in the game. I think if we were able to convert both of those into points, I feel like we could have got away with a hard-fought victory, but unfortunately, we came up short.”
