St. Louis chips away to victory
Published 1:00 pm Saturday, November 12, 2022
- St. Louis Catholic’s Trey Tate carries the ball against Northside during a bi-district playoff game Friday night at Matt Walker Stadium in Sulphur. (Kirk Meche / Special to the American Press)
SULPHUR — No. 9 St. Louis dominated the second half in a 23-0 Select Division II bi-district playoff win over No. 24 Northside Friday night.
The Saints (9-2) advanced to play at No. 8 Madison Prep (7-3), which had an opening-round bye.
St. Louis opened the scoring midway through the second quarter on a 44-yard pass down the left sideline to take a 7-0 lead.
It was the lone score in an otherwise wasteful first half. Each of the other four St. Louis drives reached Northside (3- 8) territory but produced no points.
The first three drives ended on a failed fourth-down run at the 42, a tipped pass interception at the 29 and a punt after reaching the Vikings 42.
After the touchdown drive, the Saints drove from their 2 to the Vikings 47 before the Vikings picked off another deflected pass.
Northside drove to the St. Louis 8 before the drive stalled thanks to a holding penalty and consecutive sacks.
The Saints finished drives in the third quarter. Their first score of the came on a safety when Grant Evans blocked a punt that went out the back of the end zone.
Graham Montet finished the ensuing drive with an 18-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 16-0.
Later in the quarter, Hank Milligan capped the scoring with a 7-yard run.
St. Louis ran for 230 yards. Quarterback James Reina had 139.
“We were an inch away on all those plays that’s stopped us,” said Saints head coach Brock Matherne. “Kudos to our defense for sticking with it through the whole game. We were running to the ball.
“Effort is the key for us. Every time they were close to breaking a big play we were there for the tackle.”
Matherne said the blocked punt spurred the second-half surge.
“We’ve been hungry to get a block and worked on it all week,” he said. “We ran the ball better in the second half. We took care of the ball and didn’t have any tipped passes. I’m proud of the way the kids stuck with the game plan and stayed consistent.”
The game was Northside’s first trip to the postseason since 2014. St. Louis won a playoff game for the first time in three years.
