The Shiner St. Paul Cardinals (4-3, 2-1) had their ups and downs but came away with a 12-8 win over Schertz John Paul II Friday night ( October 7, 2016 ) at Comanche Stadium.
"We actually needed to win a game like this where it was close," St. Paul head coach Jake Wachsmuth said. We did some things wrong. We needed to play and win a game where we had to battle, and it looked like at times things were not going our way and we needed to fight back."
The Cardinals dealt with adversity better as the game went on. "We went from not very intense to more intense," Wachsmuth said.
"Turnovers are still an issue and we are not executing on offense the way I would like."
The Cardinals struggled to move the football on the game's opening drive and John Paul II took over at the Cardinal 34 after St. Paul was unable to convert a fourth-and-short. On the third play, Sammy LaRue took a handoff on the jet sweep and got to the Cardinal 21. Several plays later, quarterback Hunter Albrecht had an 8-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Salazar. The two-point conversion was no good and the Guardians held a 6-0 lead.
The Cardinals managed to get inside the John Paul II 10 after some hard-nosed running by Tre'Zell Jenkins-Perry and a 40-yard completion from quarterback Austin Barton to Ryan Bell. However, St. Paul was unable to capitalize as John Paul II recovered a fumble inside its own end zone.
The teams traded punts until the Guardians had fourth down at their 13 and had to punt into a good wind. The kick was a net 10 yards and St. Paul had good fi eld position at the plus- 23. Barton had a 13-yard run to the 6 on a second-and-6 play. Two plays later, he followed behind the push of his offensive line and scored from 3 yards.
The extra point was blocked and John Paul II's Matthew Sullivan returned it for two points a slim 8-6 Guardians lead.
John Paul II drove the ball past the 50 on the next drive but it ended as a halfback pass by Quentin Rhoder was intercepted by River Haynes.
John Paul II then turned around and got a turnover by its defense but did not move the ball far as time in the first half expired.
After forcing the Guardians to punt from deep inside their own half to start the third quarter, St. Paul struck pay dirt with a four-play 49-yard drive that was concluded with a 5-yard touchdown rush by Joseph Natal. The two-point pass fell short, leaving the Cardinals ahead 12-8 with 7:30 left in the third.
The defenses took over as St. Paul got a turnover on the next series on the fumble recovery by Alex Hull but could not move the ball against the John Paul II defense.
St. Paul got another break later as John Paul II had another short punt, this one a 1-yard kick. The Cardinals were stopped on fourth down.
The Guardians had one last attempt to get the win as they had the ball at the Cardinal 49 with 4:46 left but a short 2-yard run was followed by three straight incomplete passes, allowing St. Paul to run out the remaining time and breath a sigh of relief.
GAME STATISTICSShiner St. Paul 12, Schertz John Paul II 8 October 7, 2016, 7:30 p.m. Comanche Stadium, Shiner SCORING SUMMARY 1 2 3 4 F John Paul II 6 2 0 0 -- 8 St. Paul 0 6 6 0 -- 12 SCORING DETAILS: First Quarter JPII - Antonio Salazar 8 pass from Hunter Albrecht (run failed), 5:43 1Q. Second Quarter SSP - Austin Barton 3 run (kick blocked), 4:34 2Q. JPII – Matthew Sullivan two-point blocked extra point return, 4:34 2Q Third Quarter SSP – Joseph Natal 5 run (pass failed), 7:30 3Q. Fourth Quarter no score TEAM STATISTICS: John Paul II St Paul First downs 9 8 Rushes-yards 31-53 43-160 Passing yards 42 40 Passes 6-17-1 1-5-1 Penalties-yards 5-40 4-35 Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-2 Punts-average 5-23.0 2-25.0 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS: Rushing JPII: Sammy LaRue 12-34, Ryan Grosso 10-21, Quentin Rhoder 6-0, Hunter Albrecht 3-(-2). SSP: Austin Barton 16-91, Tre'Zell Jenkins-Perry 16-40, Joseph Natal 9-27, Ryan Malinovsky 2-2. Passing JPII: Albrecht 6-15-42-0, LaRue 0-1-0-0, Rhoder 0-1-0-1. SSP: Barton 1-5-40-1. Receiving JPII: LaRue 2-23, Antonio Salazar 2-10, Rhoder 2-9. SSP: Ryan Bell 1-40.
Mark Lube is the sports editor for the Shiner Gazette. Contact him at 361-594-3346 or shinersports@sbcglobal.net |