Late St. Francis rally falls short
From Submitted report October 27, 2012 6:54PM
Updated: November 29, 2012 6:59AM
JOLIET — Grand View built a 23-0 lead early in the third quarter and held off a late charge by St. Francis as the No. 9 Vikings defeated the No. 17 Saints 23-16 in a Mid-States Football Association Midwest League game Saturday at ATI Field.
The loss eliminated the Saints (5-4, 3-2) from conference title contention. USF shared the league title with Grand View a season ago.
Grand View (7-2, 5-0) opened the scoring on a Charles Badgett 36-yard run at the 5:22 mark of the first quarter. Badgett, who had two fumbles, rushed for 75 yards on 18 carries in the game.
The Vikings scored the first of their two defensive touchdowns less than two minutes later when Dudley Bickham’s sack of St. Francis quarterback E.J. White resulted in a fumble that Josh Moncivais returned 32 yards to the end zone.
Ben Hurley’s 32-yard field goal early in the second quarter gave the Vikings a 16-0 lead at halftime.
St. Francis took possession to start the second half, but on the third play of the drive Brodrick Patton picked off White and sprinted 30 yards for a touchdown to increase Grand View’s advantage to 23-0.
St. Francis got on the board with 11:11 to go in the third quarter when White hooked up with Malik Norman for a 56-yard touchdown.
Sean Murray’s 32-yard field goal three minutes later trimmed Grand View’s lead to 23-9 after three quarters.
The Saints made it a one-possession game when White delivered a 23-yard scoring strike to Desmond Page with 4:12 remaining in the contest.
After forcing a Grand View punt, the Saints started their final drive from their own 42-yard line with 1:37 to go and no timeouts left. St. Francis managed only three yards before a fourth-down pass fell incomplete.
“In the first half Grand View gave us some different looks,” St. Francis coach Joe Curry said. “We made some good adjustments to get away from the pressure in the second half, but we just got in too big a hole to climb out of.”
Grand View held the Saints to 224 yards of total offense — 190 yards below their season average.
White completed 12-of-34 passes for 137 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.
Anthony Hubert rushed for 99 yards on 26 carries for St. Francis.
Grand View’s win marked the first victory for the visiting team in the series’ five-year history and gave the Vikings a 3-2 all-time edge.
St. Francis plays its final home game of the season on Saturday against Menlo College. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.
