St. Vincent crushes Crystal City, repeats as C1D1 champions

PERRYVILLE — History has repeated itself in Perryville.

But with a twist.

The St. Vincent Indians successfully defended their title by once again dominating the Crystal City Hornets 42-0 in the Class 1 District 1 championship game Friday, Nov. 22.

On top of winning its second consecutive district title, St. Vincent will enter the Class 1 semifinals with a perfect 12-0 record. The Indians haven’t won that many games in a season since the year they won the state championship in 2004.

“These players have worked hard,” St. Vincent head coach Tim Schumer said. “With how last year went, they wanted to be right back here and they did the work. Now they’re going out and having fun.”

More importantly to Schumer was the Indians completing a perfect 7-0 home slate.

“We wanted to protect the house,” Schumer said.

St. Vincent’s defense was the story of not just this game, but the entire playoff run. With their second shutout victory, the Indians have allowed a total of eight points through their district run.

“If you score, you may win,” Schumer said, “but if they don’t score, you can’t lose.”

The Indians asserted their dominance early in the first half with two passing touchdowns from senior quarterback Nick Buchheit to senior receiver John Schwartz to go up 14-0.

“Our speed is good,” Schwartz said. “We have a great tempo offense that we can pretty much wear out any team with.”

Schwartz has assumed a larger role on offense this season for the first time in his four years with the Indians. While he’s been an outstanding defensive back, he now has double-digit receiving touchdowns to add to his stellar senior season.

“Nick has the luxury of picking his poison back there and John reaps the benefit of that,” Schumer said. “He’s a fantastic athlete, a hard worker and he’s been awesome on both sides of the ball.”

St. Vincent added to its lead with two more passing touchdowns to senior Clayton Gremaud and junior Max Wheeler to extend the Indians’ lead to 27-0 in the second quarter. Because of one of the most talented receiving corps in Class 1, Buchheit has thrown for 40 touchdowns in his only season as a starter.

“It definitely makes it a lot easier with their speed, being able to outrun everybody,” Buchheit said. “I can just throw it up and I know they’re gonna go get it.”

The Indians rounded out the scoring with rushing touchdowns by senior running backs Cruz Reitzel and Eli Abernathy.

St. Vincent will travel to take on Adrian in the Class 1 semifinal Saturday, Nov. 30. Last year was a surprise. This year, St. Vincent has high hopes for more.

“We got a good shot at state this year,” Schwartz said.