Eagles rush past St. Paul, 42-19
by Cedric Inglehart
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Gonzales Cannon Article | St. Paul Cardinal Football | Shiner Home Page
SHINER -- A strong ground game laid the foundation for Brazos Christian’s 42-19 win over defending state champion St. Paul in the Division IV, District 3 opener Saturday night at Shiner’s Comanche Stadium.
The Eagles (7-0, 1-0) ran for 435 yards with the majority of the damage coming from the two-man wrecking crew of Jaxton McNair and Brad Brown, who combined for 403 yards and accounted for all of Brazos Christian’s points.
The Cardinals (5-2, 0-1) didn’t have much trouble moving the ball early on, but they were taken out of three scoring situations in the first half due to miscues. St. Paul was flagged 10 times for a total of 85 penalty yards and also lost both of their fumbles.
"We blew a lot of opportunities,"d said St. Paul head coach Paul Johnston. "There were mistakes made from me on down. We knew our offensive and defensive lines were the most inexperienced part of our ball club, and they exposed it tonight."
The Eagles didn’t vary much from their rushing attack, which was straight-forward for the most part. The Cardinals were aggressive on defense, but several missed tackles proved to be their undoing.
"We’ve experienced that (missed tackles) from time to time before, but our coaches do a great job of getting guys into position," said Johnston. "Our kids are playing hard, but we’re starting so many both ways that sometimes it’s hard to get the execution and the results you want."
In the first quarter, St. Paul was marching toward an apparent score before Brown intercepted Dakota Kresta at the Eagle 4. On the next play, he went 96 yards for a touchdown to give Brazos Christian the early 6-0 lead.
The Cardinals responded on the opening play of the second quarter when Kresta hooked up with Justin Natal for a 50-yard pass for a touchdown. The kick failed to leave the game tied at 6-6.
About a minute later, McNair ripped off a 60-yard run for a score. The conversion run failed and the Eagles went into the intermission up 12-6.
McNair found the end zone again early in the third quarter with a 36-yard scamper. He then ran in the two-point conversion.
St. Paul opened their second half possession with a nice kickoff return by Martin Kennedy to the Cardinal 44. Eleven plays later, Adam Hollenbach capped the drive with a two-yard plunge and Cole Hybner’s extra point kick closed the gap to 20-13.
But Brazos Christian refused to go away and answered with an 11-play drive that ended in an eight-yard scoring run by McNair, who also ran in another two-point conversion to increase the Eagle lead to 28-13.
On their ensuing drive, the Cardinals were facing a third and 15 when Brazos recovered a fumble at their 44. Kennedy was injured on the play and an eerie silence fell over the stadium as the junior was tended to on the field by medical personnel for nearly 30 minutes.
"He got his bell rung, so part of it was head stuff," Johnston explained. "The biggest thing was he had a stress fracture in his back last spring and he said he was feeling pain in his lower back. That was the reason we got out the board and got him stabilized as a precaution."
Initial reports said Kennedy had movement in his extremities and speculation was he aggravated the back injury and sustained a possible concussion.
When play resumed, McNair scored on the second play on a 54-yard run and Brown added the extra point kick. St. Paul opened their next possession with three incomplete passes before Kresta was sacked on fourth down to turn the ball over.
Four plays later, Brown scored on a 30-yard run and then he kicked the extra point with 6:14 left to play.
The Cardinals came out with a five-play drive that closed with a 29-yard pass from Kresta to Natal. The conversion pass failed to account for the final score.
GAME STATISTICS:
statistics source: http://www.gonzalescannon.com/node/6832Team Statistics Brazos Chr St. Paul First downs 14 14 Rushes-yds 50-436 30-77 Passing yds 0 248 Passes 0-1-0 13-30-1 Punts-yds 2-41 2-96 Penalties-yds 6-50 10-85 Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-2 SCORING SUMMARY: 1 2 3 4 -- Final Brazos Christian 6 6 8 22 -- 42 St. Paul 0 6 7 6 -- 19 SCORING DETAILS: First Quarter BC - Brad Brown 96 run (kick failed), 1:28 Second Quarter SP - Justin Natal 50 pass from Dakota Kresta (kick failed), 11:50 BC - Jaxton McNair 60 run (run failed), 10:16 Third Quarter BC - McNair 36 run (McNair run), 8:54 SP - Hollenbach 2 run (Cole Hybner kick), 4:28 Fourth Quarter BC - McNair 2 run (McNair run), 11:18 BC - McNair 53 run (Brown kick), 9:08 BC - Brown 30 run (Brown kick), 6:14 SP - Natal 29 pass from Kresta (pass failed), 5:16 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS: Rushing St. Paul: Adam Hollenbach 14-29, Martin Kennedy 7-27, Dakota Kresta 8-12, Brett Hodges 1-9. Passing St. Paul: Dakota Kresta 14-30-248-1 Receiving St. Paul: Justin Natal 4-99, Martin Kennedy 4-87, Adam Hollenbach 4-25, Cole Hybner 1-8, Mitchell McElroy 1-7.
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