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By Logan Riddick / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
As North Cross was climbing back from a 22-point halftime deficit, St. Anne’s coach John Blake must have wondered if his Saints would suffer a close loss for the third time in the season’s first five games.
“I’ll be honest with you, I had that nightmare this afternoon that we got a big lead and lost,” Blake said.
Instead, junior Rob Schotta fell on a bouncing onside kick with three minutes left, and the offense picked up the first down it desperately needed to break the program’s 14-game losing streak with a 22-20 win over the visiting Raiders.
“Some of these games we’ve played this year, we’ve played just well enough to lose. Tonight, we played well enough to win,” said Blake. “I’m proud of them. It’s been 14 weeks here since we’ve won a football game. For our kids to hang in there and to listen to us when we told them we knew our first four games were going to be real tough, and that we had chances to win the rest of the year, I’ve got to give it to them. We didn’t lose any of them, and I’m sure we’re going to have happier kids this week.”
Following a turnover on downs and blocked field goal attempt in the early going, the Saints opened the scoring after sophomore Kareem Johnson setup the offense with his recovery and return of the Raiders’ second fumble of the first quarter. Junior quarterback Lee Parkhill then connected with him for an 18-yard pickup into the redzone. Three plays later, on an option pass, sophomore flanker Jalen Harrison hit him for a 16-yard touchdown.
“I saw a laser play and I was like, ‘oh, a pass play; let’s go ahead and try it.’ I just knew that Kareem was going to get open so I rolled out and threw the ball to him,” said Harrison, who added the two-point conversion with a one-handed grab of Patrick Blake’s pass.
After a North Cross punt pinned STAB at the 3 yard line, the Saints drove for their second touchdown in seven plays. Parkhill hit sophomore Campbell Miller for a 61-yard gain to flip the field, and then completed a pair of passes to Harrison to move the chains. Johnson capped the drive with an 18-yard catch-and-run on a second-and-long pass from Parkhill. Johnson also recovered STAB’s ensuing pooch kickoff, which allowed the Saints to control the ball for more than eight straight minutes in the second quarter. Although the second possession ended on downs at the 5, the defense held in four plays and the special teams unit blocked the Raiders’ punt. On first and goal from the 1, Parkhill found Johnson for the third time in the first half.
“We had the perfect play to get the corner to jump at you,” said Johnson. “Perfect pass and it was wide open. I’ve been dropping passes for a while, but my teammates have been trying to get me to get ready for those passes. I just felt like I couldn’t drop the ball now.”
Leading 22-0 at halftime, STAB dominated the statistics with 247 yards of offense to 46 for North Cross.
The Raiders came back after the break with noticeable energy. After the defense stuffed STAB for minus-3 yards in three plays, a shanked punt set up the offense at the Saints’ 35. Junior running back Isaiah Harris took the first handoff all the way for six.
STAB went three-and-out on two of its next four series, and the two not resulting in punts ended with interceptions on third and long. After the first pick, North Cross junior back Ryan Dent scored on a 10-yard run on the last play of the third quarter; however, the extra point sailed wide left, a critical miss as the Raiders still trailed by two scores at 22-13. The second pick came at the STAB 30 with just over 4 minutes remaining. On the subsequent fourth and two for North Cross, Revercomb completed a pass to sophomore Joseph Cartledge for a 22-yard touchdown, cutting the lead to 2 with 3:01 to play.
Schotta then saved the game for STAB by fielding the kickoff. With the Raiders down to one timeout, the offense managed to pickup 13 of its 19 total second-half yards to move the chains once. Thanks to an encroachment penalty that cost North Cross 25 more seconds, STAB could kneel on third down and claim the 22-20 victory.
STAB senior Derek Kaschak led all rushers with 65 yards on seven carries. Junior Brodie Phillips got the bulk of the carries, going for 41 yards on 19 attempts. Parkhill completed 8-of-17 passes for 123 yards and two scores, all before halftime. Johnson made four receptions for a game-high 53 yards and three touchdowns.
For North Cross, Dent carried 16 times for 60 yards and a score. Harris also finished with 60 yards and a touchdown on five carries. Revercomb went 13-of-27 for 79 yards.
STAB (1-4) will look for two in a row next Friday on a trip to Isle of Wight (4-2).
