There was a noticeable sense of relief on the field after St. Anne’s-Belfield football outlasted Hargrave 12-6 Friday afternoon.
Despite all the distractions, despite all the new faces, despite so many plans changing — this game switching from an away game to a home game for instance, the Saints can still find ways to win.
“This is really big,” said STAB offensive lineman Will Edelson. “It solidifies us as a team.”
The Saints were deadlocked with the Tigers at 6-6 heading into the fourth quarter and still trailed 6-6 when they coughed the ball up on a promising drive with 9:32 to play. STAB quickly forced a punt though and then went to work on the clock, grinding it down with a clock-melting march with Gabe Decker pounding the ball up the middle throughout the drive.
“We were all individually pushing (in the first half) but once we pushed as a team it worked,” Edelson said. “We’ve been doing a lot of conditioning lately and I think we were in better shape.”
With the Tigers pushing into the box to load up against the run, the Saints called a rollout pass, sneaking fullback Joe Ambrosi into the flat. Quarterback Chase Emmert, who looked vastly improved over last season, found Ambrosi near the front pylon and put it on him. It was Ambrosi’s first varsity touchdown.
“The offensive line had played great all game,” Ambrosi said. “It was just fun blocking all the time and then finally getting your name called to go out for a pass. I made the most of my opportunity.”
After Emmert turned around on defense and snuffed out Hargrave’s drive with an interception, the Saints kneeled and celebrated starting the season 1-0.
“We played great defense all day,” said STAB coach John Blake. “We had some mistakes where we didn’t tackle well but it’s the first game. We’re a whole lot better tackling now than we were a year ago.”
The Saints got a big play from Edelson late in the first half when he blocked a punt, which in turn set up an Emmert to Myles Ward touchdown pass with just 20 seconds to go in the first half that tied the game at 6-6.
“That was huge, I told the kids at halftime we played 23 minutes of bad football and then we block a punt and get a touchdown on a fantastic catch by Myles,” Blake said. “That changed the whole game for us.”
The Saints hit the road next Saturday to take on Randolph Macon Academy at 1 p.m.
