St. Vincent football prevails over cross-town rival PHS, 40-21

St. Vincent coach Tim Schumer gives instructions to quarterback Garrett Dobbelare during Friday's game against Perryville High School in Perryville, Missouri.

TOM DAVIS ~ tdavis@semoball.com

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- It's difficult to determine where to start in analyzing the impressive 40-21 football pounding St. Vincent laid on its rival, Perryville, Friday at St. Vincent High School.

The Indian offensive line was incredibly impressive, as it allowed senior quarterback Garrett Dobbelare to have the luxury of time in the backfield as he continually picked apart the Pirate defense.

"They are just starting to gel," second-year St. Vincent coach Tim Schumer said of his big guys up front. "Week by week, you are starting to see them get even better. They are more and more physical, understanding the schemes, working the fundamentals, the small things (like) staying low, and then really knowing their blocking assignments.

"They did a heckuva job tonight."

Despite throwing three interceptions, Dobbelare was spectacular, as he completed 28 of 38 passes for 358 yards and five touchdowns, while also running for a score.

It wouldn't be inexplicable to dwell on the fireworks show that the St. Vincent offense has become this season but lost amidst the tremendous throws and catches is an Indian defense that made the Pirates (3-2) extremely uncomfortable all evening.

Perryville came into the game wanting to run and had averaged nearly 230 yards per game on the ground this season, so Schumer knew what his game plan had to be.

"Anytime that you get a team that likes to run the ball," Schumer said, "you are trying to take away what they do best as much as you can."

Mission accomplished.

St. Vincent (3-2) continually stymied the Perryville offense and limited the Pirates to a meager 116 yards on the ground.

The Indians forced Perryville to throw the ball, which it did successfully on occasion, but that isn't what Perryville wanted to do much of the night.

"We had a lot of success tonight," Schumer said. "We knew if we got them into passing situations, where they weren't comfortable, we knew that we were doing something good."

Not only was St. Vincent effective in stopping the run, it played with a lead all night, which forced the Pirates to HAVE to throw in order to score at a quicker pace than normal.

Pirate quarterback Evan Daugherty led Perryville offensively. The junior rushed for 84 yards, while also throwing for three scores for over 100 yards.

St. Vincent scored the first three touchdowns, as Dobbelare hooked up with junior wide receiver Blake Schnurbusch twice and later junior John Wibbenmeyer to put his team up 20-0 midway through the second quarter. However, the Pirates took to the air themselves and completed a pair of passes for a combined 68 yards, including a 32-yard strike from Daugherty to Dawson Camden to cut the margin to 20-7 with 3:17 left in the first half.

At that point, Perryville used its defense to its advantage.

Camden picked off a Dobbelare toss and returned it 44 yards to the Indian 26-yard line and on the ensuing play, Daugherty found Caleb Gremaud, who bullied his way through tackles to make the score 20-14 at the break.

Dobbelare hit junior receiver Jesse Robinson for a gain to the Perryville 1-yard line midway through the third quarter, before carrying the ball in himself for a 27-14 lead. But the Pirates again fought right back.

Daugherty had a 45-yard run before hitting senior Carter Dix for a short score to trim the Perryville deficit to 27-21.

At that point, the Indians began to really hum in all facets, particularly defensively.

Dobbelare hit Schnurbusch again for a 33-21 score early in the fourth quarter and closed out the night by connecting with Kaleb Whistler for the final score. All the while, the St. Vincent defense was shutting down Perryville's rally attempts.

Twice on the night, the Pirates got the ball in the red zone (at the 12-yard line and later at the 4), but came away with no points, as the Indians held.

"When you get in those tough situations," Schumer said, "you've just got to bend, but don't break."

It's been awhile since the Indians have broken in their play. St. Vincent has averaged 38 points per game over the last four games and managed a shutout against Herculaneum and now travels to winless Crystal City (0-5) Friday at 7 p.m.

"We'll keep taking a play at a time," Schumer said of his team's defensive philosophy. "Win that play and it will take care of itself."

The Pirates will travel to Ste. Genevieve (2-3) Friday at 7 p.m.