St. Vincent proves its point against Valle

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The St. Vincent football team has come a long way in the last month.

And now they're headed to the Class 1 quarterfinals, courtesy of Wednesday night's impressive 17-7 sectional victory over visiting Ste. Genevieve Valle Catholic.

"The boys played real well and I'm proud of them," St. Vincent coach Keith Winkler said.

The tradition-rich Indians were saddled with a 2-4 record in early October, at which time even advancing to Wednesday's game probably seemed a bit far-fetched -- at least to those outside the program.

But not to the Indians.

"Everybody was talking about how down St. Vincent was this year," Winkler said. "The kids took it personally. They wanted to keep the St. Vincent tradition going.

"We had a lot of young guys and we got off to a slow start, but they just kept working hard and they've really gotten better."

Wednesday's win was St. Vincent's fifth straight. The Indians (7-4), who have qualified for the playoffs nine times in the past 14 years -- they won a state title in 2004 -- will hit the road Monday to face top-ranked Marionville (11-0).

"We had a rough start, but we knew we could put it together," said senior Greg Finger. "Hopefully we can keep winning."

Finger and fellow senior Lucas Robinson said a perceived slight by the Warriors (7-4) helped fuel what is already an intense rivalry between the Catholic schools.

St. Vincent won at Valle 13-12 on Sept. 15, which was actually one of the Indians' few impressive early-season performances.

But, after the sectional matchup was set, the Indians heard that the word from the Valle camp was that St. Vincent's earlier triumph had been nothing but luck.

"We heard they said something about it being a fluke," Finger said. "But we proved we're the better team."

Said Robinson: "We kept hearing how it was a fluke and that motivated us."

Asked about that, Winkler said, "There was some talk ... this is a big rivalry. But we have a lot of respect for Valle. They've got a very good team."

The Indians rode an opportunistic, ball-control offense and a stifling, hard-hitting defense to victory, and they particularly set the tone during a dominant first half that ended 14-0.

Valle actually had a chance to strike first after St. Vincent fumbled the opening kickoff and the Warriors recovered at the Indians' 34-yard line.

Two running plays gained nine yards, but then the Indians stiffened and a fourth-and-2 run was stopped short of a first down.

"Stopping them there was a big key," Winkler said.

After a scoreless first quarter, St. Vincent took advantage of two Valle mistakes to gain control.

Early in the second quarter, Valle punter Nathan Grass could not cleanly field a high snap and was forced to run. He was stopped well short of the first down and St. Vincent took over at the Warriors' 46-yard line.

The Indians covered the distance in eight plays, including a pair of 20-yard pass completions from senior quarterback Tim Guilliams, the first to sophomore wide out Justin L'Hote and the second to senior fullback Chris Fischer.

With a first-and-goal from the 5-yard line, it took the Indians four plays to score, Finger going over from 2 yards out on fourth down. Robinson's extra point made it 7-0 with nine minutes remaining before halftime.

"Getting up early was big momentum for us," Robinson said.

Later in the period, St. Vincent junior Ryan Geile recovered a fumble at the Valle 31-yard line.

After one first down, Guilliams hit L'Hote with a perfect 19-yard touchdown pass. Robinson's point after made it 14-0 with 4:05 left, and the Indians carried that advantage into the break.

St. Vincent limited Valle to just 23 first-half yards and no first downs, while the Indians had 117 yards of offense in the half.

"We really came out focused," Finger said. "We had a lot of long practices and we were ready."

Valle, unable to get its normally strong running game going, turned to the air and put together its only good drive of the night to cut into St. Vincent's lead.

A 54-yard completion from Ryan Dalton to Casey Koller led to Colby Schilly's 5-yard run with 8:41 left in the third quarter, pulling the Warriors within 14-7.

St. Vincent answered right back with a drive that led to Robinson's 32-yard field goal with 4:07 remaining in the third period, putting the Indians ahead 17-7.

The Indians' defense and running game did the rest as St. Vincent pounded out one first down after another to control the ball. The Warriors never came close to scoring again.

"I thought our defense played really well," Winkler said. "You also have to tip your hat to the offense and the offensive line. We really controlled time of possession."

While St. Vincent did not have that big an advantage in total yards -- 226 to 154 -- a key statistic was the Indians' 58 offensive plays compared to just 35 for Valle.

The Indians ground out 172 yards rushing on 53 attempts while limiting the Warriors to 48 yards rushing on 20 attempts.

"That was by far the best defensive game we've played," Robinson said.

Robinson rushed for 78 yards on 17 carries. Finger and Fischer added 58 and 54 yards, respectively. Finger also had an interception.

Guilliams completed four of five passes for 61 yards.

Another key was the leg of Robinson. In addition to kicking a field goal and two extra points, he booted three of four kickoffs either into or through the end zone for touchbacks.

"Everybody played really good," Finger said.