Blue Ridge was averaging 45.5 points per game. St. Anne’s-Belfield was clocking in at 37.4 per game.
So of course those two offenses battled it out to the tune of a 14-10 victory for STAB Saturday.
With both squads all set to run it back and play another next week, Saturday’s game played just like you’d expect.
“It was a typical game for two teams that know they’ve got to play each other next week,” said STAB coach John Blake. “It looked like ‘okay what play do we really want to run…um no, let’s run that next week.’ I’m sure next week it’ll be a lot more fun to watch and everybody will be wide open and ready to go.”
With the hard-fought victory in a game that featured 10 punts between the two teams, the Saints earn a home game Friday in the state semifinals at 7 p.m. with Blue Ridge as the repeat opponent.
“A couple of years ago, same situation, Christchurch tore us up in the regular season and we came back and beat them in the playoffs,” said Blue Ridge coach Tim Thomas. “This was a good battle.”
Of course, in that situation, at least a couple of weeks separated the rematch. This time they’ll go at it again in six days.
That strange added dimension of knowing they’d have to play each other right away again seemed to lead to the lack of offensive productivity, with both units finishing with less than 250 yards of total offense. STAB put quarterback Jalen Harrison under center for the most part early and ran a massive heaping of the Saints’ off tackle type runs out of that formation, apparently looking to control the clock without running their usual stuff which would’ve allowed Blue Ridge’s defense to get comfortable going into next week.
The Barons, meanwhile, were particularly out of sync because quarterback Justin Armwood got knocked out of the game in the first half, which led to playmaker Malik Johnson moving over to quarterback after the break.
Instead of working their usual productive systems, for both squads, it came down to someone making a big individual play in the second half.
At the break, STAB led 7-2, bouncing back from an intentional grounding in the endzone that gave the Barons a safety to take the lead on a 10-yard touchdown pass by Jalen Harrison to Chris Barry, who also had two sacks for the Saints defensively.
Johnson unleashed a 63-yard scramble and sprint down the sideline that put Blue Ridge up 10-7. STAB answered a few minutes later when Michael DiGiacomo powered in on a 25-yard run to push STAB ahead 14-10 with 46 seconds left in the third quarter.
“This late in the year and everybody is in the game and it’s almost that next man up mentality,” Blake said. “Michael made a great play and we made some of those plays throughout the game and they did — I mean, the touchdown that Malik scored, give me a break, that was a great run. What are we supposed to do about that?”
From there, STAB held on with the secondary stepping up against Johnson and Jemeil King who were both trying to fill in at quarterback, with the Barons switching back and forth on the final possession in an effort to prolong drives and allow King to throw while Johnson mostly ran.
“We got through a pretty good season pretty comfortably by score indications and we got a little bit tested today and I was proud of our kids, they rose up,” Thomas said.
Korben London came up big right after the DiGiacomo touchdown, picking off a pass with 28 seconds to play in the third quarter. Eventually though, Blue Ridge got the ball moving a little after taking over possession with 3:08 left. The Barons couldn’t find the end zone though as an incompletion with 16 seconds left near the front corner of the endzone ended Blue Ridge’s rally attempt.
“It was a good performance by the secondary, we stepped it up late and that last play was pretty good,” said senior cornerback Campbell Miller. “Korben works hard every practice and every week and to see him get a pick was really exciting.”
Cameron Carr led the STAB offense with 129 yards on 19 carries. He played a big role in STAB’s attempts to control the clock and possession along with Harrison who helped STAB convert three of four fourth down attempts including two on one fourth quarter drive that allowed the Saints to melt the clock with the 14-10 lead.
Now both squads will run it back and play again Friday at STAB in the VISAA Division II state semifinals.
