Semoball

St. Vincent football team shocks Perryville with second-half comeback

St. Vincent's Riley Riehn takes the handoff from quarterback Tyler Monier against Perryville during the first quarter Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 in Perryville, Missouri.
Fred Lynch

PERRYVILLE, Mo. — The St. Vincent Indians had a prayer after all.

Before coach Nathan Rowland dismissed his players, who had gathered under a goal post in an end zone at Perryville High School to celebrate a stunning 28-18 comeback victory over crosstown rival Perryville, he had them recite a Hail Mary.

At halftime, saying the rosary might have been a good alternative to any inspirational halftime speech. The Indians found themselves trailing 18-0 after the opening 24 minutes in which they mounted just 17 yards of total offense and yielded 170 yards to the host Pirates.

Perryville quarterback Brandon Renaud throws a pass against St. Vincent during the first quarter Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 in Perryville, Missouri.
Fred Lynch

Perryville senior quarterback Brandon Renaud, who had broken an ankle in an accident in June, had made a triumphant, inspiring season debut with touchdown passes to Logan Thaxton and Bryce Flaherty and a third with his feet amid the domination.

St. Vincent (3-2), which brought a two-game win streak into the first meeting of the schools on a football field since 1950, was caught up in the sloppiness of a first half that started amid a heavy downpour.

Two interceptions thrown by senior quarterback Tyler Monier and 40 yards of penalties, which more than negated the Indians’ few positive yards, was St. Vincent’s contribution to the slop.

Perryville’s contribution was nine penalties for 75 yards.

“We went into halftime, us captains, we stood up and we wanted to know what the hell was going on,” St. Vincent senior running back/free safety Riley Riehn. “We looked at everybody and wanted them to come out of that half fired up and ready to play.”

Rowland acknowledged the fiery halftime words.

“It was a very emotional locker room,” the coach said. “We were in there and a bunch of the guys were upset with how they were playing in the first half and said ‘We need to pick it up and be more emotional and play more physical.’ So the captains challenged everybody, and watching that game, to a man, they stepped up to that challenge, and then some.”

Despite the reprimand for better play, the Indian offense took the opening kickoff of the second half and posted a three-and-out.

That’s when their defense, which yielded TDs on three of the Pirates’ six first-half possessions, made its presence known.

On Perryville’s first series, Riehn stepped in front of a Pirate receiver on a short pass to the right side and sailed down the sideline for the Indians’ first points. Austin Dauster tacked on the PAT kick, as he did on all four of the Indians’ second-half TDs, to make the score 18-7 just three minutes into the half.

“We tell him, if you’re going to open your mouth and tell other people to play on your level, you need to make a play then,” Rowland said. “And he did that. He challenged everyone to play on his level, then went and made the play.”

On the Pirates’ next possession, Renaud lost the handle on the ball when he was hit trying to pass on a first-down play, and the Indians recovered at the Perryville 32. St. Vincent looked like it might not capitalize on its field position, but on fourth-and 10 Monier rolled to his left, pump faked, and found senior Darren Ernst behind two Pirate defenders on the left side for a TD at the 5:04 mark of the third quarter.

“We call it a Sluggo,” Rowland said. “It’s a slant-and-go play. We want to pump and get them to bite a little bit and then go over the top. We were able to make a play. [Monier] was able to put the ball up there and Darren Ernst made a heck of a play for us.”

St. Vincent's Tyler Wibbenmeyer (15) scores the third touchdown of the game against Perryville on a 45-yard interception return during the third quarter Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 in Perryville, Missouri.
Fred Lynch

Flaherty nearly got the points back on the ensuing kickoff when he evaded St. Vincent would-be tacklers all the way inside the Indian 10. However, one of 14 penalties on the Pirates brought the play back to the St. Vincent 40. A three-and-out ultimately ended with a snap over punter Derek Kirn’s head, and he scrambled to bring it back to the 37 before fumbling on a play that was short of the first down anyway.

Perryville’s next possession was even more disastrous.

On a third-and-7 from his own 29, Renaud found himself unloading a pass while being hit by Indians senior defensive lineman Blake Hennemann. The pass was intercepted by sophomore strong safety Tyler Wibbenmeyer along the right sideline at the 45, and he returned it for a TD with 11 seconds left in the quarter.

It was the fourth turnover in four possessions for the Pirates.

“That was crazy, it just changed everything around,” Hennemann said about the first of the turnovers. “The momentum completely shifted. That’s the most I ever seen it change in a game I played in. That was crazy because it was all them in the first half. Everybody in our locker room was mad, and we just came out and made it happen.”

Perryville had a 215-130 edge in total yards in the game, but St. Vincent held a 113-45 edge in the second half.

Perryville coach Mike Wojtczuk said his team, which fell to 1-4, allowed the Riehn interception to snowball.

“It was just a bad thing that happened, but we’ve got to be able to shake that off and we’ve got to be able to move forward,” Wojtczuk said. “Sometimes I think we dwell on some of those things way too much. At that point of the game, you’ve still got a decent lead, and you’ve got to play like you’ve got the lead. You don’t play like you’re trying to play catchup, like you’re playing from behind. You keep controlling the line of scrimmage and keep doing the things you need to do.”

Perryville quarterback Brandon Renaud stretches out on a keeper for a first down against St. Vincent during the third quarter Friday, Sept. 16, 2016 in Perryville, Missouri.
Fred Lynch

St. Vincent’s clinching TD in the fourth quarter also came with assistance from Perryville. The Pirates were flagged for pass interference on a third-and-28 play, and the Indians connected for a 16-yard pass play on the ensuing third-and 13 to move to the Perryville 40. On the next set of downs, the Pirates jumped offsides on a third-and 1. Three plays later Riehn scored on a 24-yard run with 5:42 remaining.

In all, the Pirates finished with 120 yards of penalty yardage.

“We’ve got to stop beating ourselves,” Wojtczuk said. “We’ve been in situation after situation this season. We’ve put ourselves in bad spots, and we’ve got to stop doing that. Tonight magnified that.

“We had them in certain situations where we had them stopped in the second half, and we’d make some silly penalty to give them first down. We’d pick up enough yards for a first down, and we’d have a silly holding penalty. ... We’ve got to get past that. We’ve got to get better and we’ve got to be more disciplined.”

Riehn finished with 69 yards rushing on 23 carries. Monier completed 5 of 12 passes for 70 yards.

“Our defense got us out of the hole and won the game for us,” Riehn said.

Kyle Creason paced Perryville with 49 yards rushing on 15 carries. Garrett Dix led the receivers with three catches for 60 yards.

“This is the best win of our coaches’ tenure,” said Rowland, in his third year as head coach. “To a man, this is the best win that we’ve had. To a man, we fought through adversity and we came back and were able to come back and do exactly what we needed to do to get this win. I could not be any prouder of any of any of the coaches on my staff or any of the players on my team.”

St. Vincent will try to extend its winning streak to four games when it hosts Crystal City on Friday.

Perryville will try to end its three-game losing streak when it hosts state-ranked Central (Park Hills).

St. Vincent00217--28
Perryville61200--18

First quarter

P -- Logan Thaxton 28 pass from Brandon Renaud (pass failed), 2:15

Second quarter

P -- Bryce Flaherty 3 pass from Renaud (pass failed), 6:35

P -- Renaud 4 run (kick failed), :33

Third quarter

SV -- Riley Riehn 43 INT return (Austin Dauster kick), 9:00

SV -- Darren Ernst 32 pass from Tyler Monier (Dauster kick), 5:04

SV -- Tyler Wibbenmeyer 45 INT return (Dauster kick), :11

Fourth quarter

SV -- Riehn 24 run (Dauster kick), 5:42

TEAM STATISTICS

SVP
First downs1212
Rushes-yards32-6026-73
Passing yards70142
Passes5-12-28-24-2
Punts-average5-32.24-33.0
Fumbles-lost 1-03-2
Penalties-yards7-6014-120

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- St. Vincent, Riehn 23-69, Gabe Naeger 1-5, Tyler Unterreiner 4-11, Tyler Wibbenmeyer 1-0, Derek Kirn 1-(-1), Monier 5-(-9), Team 1-(-15); Perryville, Kyle Creason 15-49, Renaud 9-21, Derek Kirn 1-5, Team 1-(-2).

PASSING -- St. Vincent, Monier 5-12-2-70; Perryville, Renaud 8-24-2-142

RECEIVING -- St. Vincent, Naeger 2-24, Tyler Unterreiner 1-6, Ernst 2-40; Perryville, Thaxton 1-28, Garrett Richardet 1-31, Kirn 2-21, Garrett Dix 3-60, Flaherty 1-3

Related links

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: