Top-seed St. Vincent handled Russellville after the opening drive to the tune of a 56-6 victory on Friday night. It is the second time this season that St. Vincent has surpassed the 50 point plateau.
“The one thing I told the players after the game is that we have never been to Week 12 since I have been the coach,” St. Vincent coach Time Schumer said. “It feels good to get the win and move on.”
Russellville looked like it would make it a game early as they ran off nearly half of the first quarter clock with the opening drive of the game, only for it to end with a punt.
The Indians took over from there.
Quarterback Christian Schaaf scored on a one-yard touchdown run to open the scoring with 2:27 left in the first quarter to go up 7-0. Then Russellville fumbled near midfield and Schaaf connected with Simon Barber on a 30-yard pass to get near the redzone. After a St. Vincent penalty, Cruz Reitzel took a Schaaf pass 35 yards for a touchdown to go up 14-0.
Reitzel added a short touchdown run late in the second quarter to put the Indians up 21-0 with 2:55 left in the first half.
Russellville fumbled early on in the ensuing drive and St. Vincent made them pay with a 20-yard pass from Schaaf to John Schwartz to put St. Vincent up 28-0 at the half.
“Those close games like we had against Jefferson is good for us late in the season,” Schumer said. “However, it’s good for us coaches sometimes to have games like this too. We were able to take advantage of some of their turnovers and turn them into points.”
St. Vincent, normally known for its passing offense has had success on the ground late in the season. Reitzel has been the biggest part of that success and he added two more rushing touchdowns to go with the 12, he had entering the game. Schumer said the rushing attack has not been a focal point of the offense, but has been in the flow of the overall gameplan.
“We’ve been coming together as a team,” Schumer said. “Our offensive line was young to start the season and as they have played 10 games together, they have been able to gel as a unit. As the season has progressed, Cruz has taken a step forward and is approaching some touchdown records on the year which is pretty cool.”
St. Vincent added a touchdown to start the second half to start the running clock and got some younger players into the game to experience a district game atmosphere.
St. Vincent (7-3) will take on Van-Far (6-4) this Friday at home. Van-Far defeated Chaffee 46-9 in their district matchup, and the teams look pretty even on paper. St. Vincent has been to the district semifinals for the past five seasons, but has yet to reach the district championship game. Schumer is aware of that, but setting his eyes on Van-Far and no further.
“We are one of the last 16 teams playing in Class 1 and we just want to stay focused on the task at hand,” Schumer said. “It has been the monkey on our back. I feel like we keep playing like we have, those types of things will take care of themselves.”
