URBANA — Of course it would be St. Anne’s-Belfield coming to Urbana that stood in the way of Christchurch’s quest for an unbeaten regular season. The Saints have been a true nemesis for the Seahorses, winning previous 18 games coming into this contest, including a pair of wins last year in the regular season and state semifinals. After a sloppy start in ugly conditions, Christchurch finally got its wish — the Seahorses didn’t just beat St. Anne’s, they handled them, beating the visitors 56-6 to secure the top seed in the VISAA Division 2 playoffs and a perfect regular season campaign.
“We were undefeated coming in, but we’re going up against STAB and coach John Blake has been there 17 years and the last time we beat them was 18 years ago,” said Christchurch coach Ed Homer. “Our guys had a monkey on their back that they had to get off. They’ve worked so hard, and some of these kids have played since they were eighth graders. They’ve come a long ways to get to this point.”
The start of the game was about as miserable as the conditions. The first possessions of the first quarter between St. Anne’s-Belfield and top ranked Christchurch had both teams moving in the opposite directions with the Saints getting swamped by the Seahorse defense, and CCS shooting itself in the foot ever other play because of penalties. But when Pat Young got hot, Christchurch took off. Young broke free for a 50-yard touchdown run with 2:52 to go in first quarter, and once the Seahorses started scoring, they never stopped.
“Pat’s an All-American lacrosse player and a great leader – he’s one of those guys that will say ‘jump on my back and we’ll get going,’” Homer said. “He was very animated and excited before the game and very sure we’d do well today.”
Just a little over a minute into the second quarter, Jordan Wallace ran into the endzone on a 20-yard run to make it 12-0 for Christchurch. After a muffed punt, the Seahorses scored on a 3-play 24-yard drive capped by a short run from Cade Larabee, and a 2-point convert later, it was 20-0.
St. Anne’s found some fight on the following drive. With quarterback Jake Allen out because of an injury early in the first quarter, the Saints leaned exclusively on its ground game with Branford Rogers, Shane Palmateer and Charles Sipe. Palmateer was able to break off a 30-yard run to put St. Anne’s in its best field position of the game. A penalty followed by a 6-yard scoring run from Palmateer put STAB on the board and cut the deficit to 14 with 2:31 until halftime.
“It got to the point where with Jake banged up, we couldn’t do what we wanted to and they’re such a good football team to begin with,” said STAB coach John Blake. “If we had done something on that first drive of the second half, I thought maybe we could have made a game out of this, but no, they just took it to us.”
What momentum the Saints built up, was wiped away for good early in the third quarter when a wide receiver pass play was broken up with Young intercepting a pass meant to go out of bounds and the senior took it 46-yards for a touchdown thanks to some impressive downfield blocking from Larabee. Another 2-point coversion made it 28-6 and the Seahorses had little trouble doubling their score thanks to fumbles, interceptions and more solid running from Young and Wallace.
In the end the Seahorses piled up 322 yards on the ground with Young finishing with 153 yards on 14 carries. Three of those carries sent him into the endzone. Wallace added 94 yards on six attempts. Christchurch’s defense, led by the pressure applied up front from Win Homer, Ryan Ransom and Will Smith, forced three fumbles and three interceptions.
Christchurch finishes its regular season and awaits its playoff opponent for November 11th.
With playoff hopes diminished, but still a realistic possibility, St. Anne’s now faces a must win scenario on the road at Blue Ridge, a school in a similar position, setting up the biggest game of the year for the two rivals on Friday.
“We’ve got to shake this off,” Blake said. “There’s still that chance that we could make it to the playoffs. So we’ve got to go up there and get a win — and no matter what, if we can beat them, that might knock them out. We’d play for that too. There’s always that. That’s the rivalry game every year, it’s not against anyone else.”
