St. Vincent football is back where they want to be.
The Indians overcame a slow start to cruise past Van-Far 42-6 in the semifinals of the Class 1, District 2 semifinals on Friday night. It is the first time under current coach Tim Schumer that St. Vincent has reached the district championship game.
“It’s a testament to the players,” Schumer said. “They put in the work and to have the ability to keep playing is awesome.”
St. Vincent started slow in the opening quarter as the first points were not scored until the 2:27 mark when Cruz Reitzel scored on a 5 yard run.
“I thought we came out a little sluggish, which is something we have been doing lately,” Schumer said. “We will have to work on that this week. I thought we responded well and were able to put some points on the board to give us a halftime lead. We came out after halftime and put them away.”
St. Vincent scored three times in the second quarter taking advantage of multiple Van-Far turnovers to extend their lead. Quarterback Christian Schaaf scored on a nine yard run and added a 42 yard touchdown pass to Clayton Gremaud to go into halftime with a 28-0 lead.
Schaaf added another rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter to go ahead 35-0. The senior quarterback finished the game with three touchdowns on the ground.
This game continues a trend of stellar play from St. Vincent that has seen them win six straight contests.
“You want to be able to play your best football right now and we are certainly doing that,” Schumer said.
Van Far scored a touchdown in the final minute to get points on the board, but other than that St. Vincent dominated that side of the ball.
“Our defense did an outstanding job all game long,” Schumer said. “They had some very good skill players that if they got a hole, they can take advantage of that and run for a while. We did a good job keeping those guys contained.”
St. Vincent (8-3) will take on Crystal City (8-3) in the district championship game on Friday. The Hornets defeated Tipton 8-6 in their semifinal contest. St. Vincent and Crystal City are familiar opponents having been in the I-55 conference together until recently. The Hornets are much improved after going 0-10 as recently as 2019.
“We are familiar with them, but we haven’t played them in a couple of years,” Schumer said. “They have had a good rebuilding process in the last few years and they have come a long way.”
