By Drew Goodman / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
It had been nothing but smooth sailing since The Covenant School made the permanent switch to eight-man football in the fall of 2018.
The Eagles passed their first 16 eight-man tests with flying colors, dating back to last season, with each game typically well in hand by the end of the first quarter.
But heading into Friday night’s rivalry contest at St. Anne’s Belfield, Covenant knew that it could face adversity for the first time since the 2017 campaign.
The Eagles’ prediction came true, as the undefeated Saints went blow-for-blow with the visitors for the first 26 minutes of the game.
STAB trailed by just six points early in the second quarter, before Covenant flipped the switched, and proved why it was the defending VISFL 8-Man Football League Champion.
The Eagles, behind an eight-touchdown performance from Jonas Sanker, piled on 26 unanswered points, and walked away with a 60-36 triumph over the Saints.
Friday’s battle of the unbeatens was undoubtedly the biggest crowd that Covenant had seen all season. In addition to the appeal of a crosstown rivalry, the game coincided with STAB’s Fall Family Picnic, which created an electric environment, particularly with how the game was going.
Despite being in their first close game in nearly two years, the Covenant staff remained calm, and told their team to stick to the game plan.
“As I told the guys, ‘This is what we are built for.’ We are built to be tested and we’re constantly trying to challenge ourselves,” Covenant coach Seth Wilson said. “I’m really proud of our guys, because they had no quit in them.”
Covenant (6-0) used two big plays to take the crowd out of the game.
After STAB found the end zone on its first series of the second half, Sanker needed just one quick strike to recapture the momentum for his team.
With the entire St. Anne’s defense seemingly expecting a run, the junior hit Michael Asher on a short pass, and the senior raced 55 yards for a touchdown.
Several minutes later, STAB marched all the way to the red zone, and faced a key fourth-down-and-one at the 13-yardline. TCS had struggled to stop the run for much of the game, but a flock of Eagles prevented STAB’s Nolan Burton from crossing the line of scrimmage, to force a turnover on downs.
That defensive stop set the tone for the rest of the game.
Covenant responded with a methodical, 87-yard drive that culminated with an eight-yard touchdown run by Cole Finley.
Sanker later added a 60-yard pick-six and a short touchdown run for his seventh and eighth TDs of the night.
The dynamic junior made an impact in all three phases of the game, and could only be slowed down by a minor hamstring injury that he sustained late in the fourth quarter.
Sanker racked up 427 yards of total offense, highlighted by a 58-yard touchdown run on Covenant’s first offensive play following the Saints’ first score of the night.
On the other side of the ball, in addition to the interception for a touchdown, Sanker delivered the hit of the night, when he laid the lumber on STAB fullback Gabe Decker in the second quarter. Decker bounced back quickly.
Friday’s game represented the first time since Sanker took the reigns at quarterback that he would have to make plays in the second half to keep a lead, but he was proud of the way his team answered the call.
“I think we really responded well,” Sanker said. “We didn’t give up, we didn’t get down ourselves, and we kind of stayed unified. We just played together, and when we play together, we’re really hard to beat.”
The Covenant offense maintained its season average in points, but the defense became the first team all year to slow down the high-flying Saints.
STAB had eclipsed 50 points in three of its five wins, and were on pace to do the same in the second half. The stop on fourth down early in the third quarter was the beginning of an inspiring effort from a Covenant defense that was on its heels at the time. The Eagles stopped the home team again on fourth down on the ensuing series, before Sanker ripped off the 60-yard interception for a score.
St. Anne’s did not find the end zone again until the 1:34 mark of the fourth quarter, when the game was well in hand.
“Honestly, I think we started a little slow and the defense wasn’t clicking immediately. [STAB] had a big line, good runners, so we kind of had to get them figured out,” Sanker said. “We just stuck to our assignments. A lot of guys were trying to make plays that we didn’t need to make, so it was just sticking to our assignments, being where we needed to be, and just wanting it. I felt like we didn’t want it that much in the first half that much. We were kind of just having them in the shootout, and that’s not what we wanted. We wanted it to be a defensive battle.”
Sanker and his brother Nic were plenty familiar with the Saints, but it was Asher’s first taste of the Covenant/STAB rivalry. The tall wideout proved to be a valuable weapon downfield for Sanker, as well as a powerful blocker on the edge.
Asher finished with four big catches and two touchdowns, including the back-breaking 55-yarder shortly after the Saints clawed back to within six. The senior’s shortest catch of the night was seven yards, but it was a for a touchdown that lifted Covenant to a 14-point lead at halftime. He was excited to take the field in front of a raucous crowd and help lift his team to a big win.
“It’s crazy, definitely the biggest atmosphere that I’ve personally played in in my career,” Asher said. “[STAB] was really backing up pretty quickly, so I just took advantage of that, it was short, short, short, and we took advantage of that.”
Covenant raced out to a 12-0 lead before Amani Woods finally broke through on a six-yard touchdown run for STAB. Woods led the Saints on the ground with three TDs, including a 17-yard scamper on the third offensive play of the second half.
Early in the second quarter, after Decker took that big hit from Sanker, the junior got up and scored from four yards out to trim Covenant’s lead to just 20-14.
STAB rarely went to the air, but when it did, the Eagles were caught off guard. Nic Reese got behind the Covenant defense for a 29-yard touchdown reception early in the second quarter to help keep the Saints within striking distance.
St. Anne’s Belfield will conclude its regular season next Friday at Kenston Forest, while Covenant will welcome Greenbrier Christian on October 26 for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
Covenant’s Michael Asher talks about the Eagles’ win over STAB Friday night in a critical eight-man battle in First Off the Field presented by @PT_acac pic.twitter.com/KiJ65CMXeQ
— scrimmageplay (@scrimmageplay) October 19, 2019
