Squaring off against the defending VISAA Division 2 champion in Blue Ridge and on the road, St. Anne’s Belfield had to win to get in. Of course the same was true for the Barons. But with the Saints riding a 4-game winning streak after a 14-game losing skid, one of the best storylines of the regular season came to fruition in the regular season finale between these two rivals as STAB was able get on the board early in the first and then explode after a defensive touchdown to lead the way to a 42-7 win.
“This touches me because I’m so proud of them,” said St. Anne’s coach John Blake. “To see what the kids went through last year and then see them go through it again for half a season — they somehow maintained the understanding that they’re not bad. When you see the light switch go on like it did, you always remember those things as a coach between different teams, different kids. This is special.”
The Saints could have easily packed it in after the 0-4 start, but five weeks ago they ended their losing streak and found a way to claw through some close games before finally getting a truly comfortable win as the passing attack flourished against a Blue Ridge team that had it’s best play maker on the sideline because of a knee injury in P.J. White and then had to play the last three quarters without its top defender in Ryan Etheridge.
“Collectively as a group we just didn’t give it our all,” said Barons coach Orlando Patterson. “We had great individual showings but we just never really rallied together like we did last year and I think that’s what hurt us.”
After a little back-and-forth defense, St. Anne’s got on the board first with a 45-yard bomb from Lee Parkhill to Campbell Miller midway through the first. And after the Barons defense came up with a goalline stand to keep the Saints from getting a two possession lead in the second quarter, STAB got the spark that propelled it the rest of the way through.
“Whenever you get a defensive touchdown it always ignites everyone, but that was really big,” Blake said. “And plus, we shot ourselves in the foot the two previous drives. Kareem’s play got us rolling again.”
With Blue Ridge backed up at its own endzone, Kareem Johnson made the first of three big play on the day, a 17-yard interception return for a touchdown to make it 14-0.
“On the pick-6, I actually missed one early in the game, but saw this one coming,” Johnson said. “I had a bunch of blockers in front of me so I had to score. And because of last week when we played a little sloppy on defense, I really wanted us to score defensively in this game.”
From there it was off to the races for St. Anne’s. With less than four minutes until the break, Johnson hauled in a 21-yard TD pass from Parkhill. The Saints struck again nearly two minutes later, another 45-yard TD pass from Parkhill to Miller.
While the Barons had to account for Jalen Harrison on one side of the field, Johnson made them pay dearly on the side when he had the right matchups. Johnson grabbed his third touchdown of the day out of the break, this time a 65-yarder from Parkhill to make it 35-0 and give the Saints a running clock.
“There wasn’t safety help there so that’s what we do,” Johnson said. “When I get one-on-one they let me try and make a play so that’s what happened.”
Between White missing and Etheridge forced to leave late in the first quarter, the Barons tough odds only increased. Behind senior Torian Pregram, the Barons tried to lean on their running game, but the Saints defense was able to keep it at bay. Midway through the fourth quarter, Blue Ridge broke up the shutout with a touchdown pass from Tristan Allen to Eric Davis for 31 yards.
STAB rounded up the scoring shortly there after with a 23-yard touchdown run from Brodie Phillips.
On the day, Parkhill had a huge game with 315 yards on 13 of 16 passing and four touchdowns. Johnson had five catched for 148 yards. Miller had three receptions for 107 yards. Phillips finished with 22 rushing attempts for 96 yards.
For Blue Ridge, Pegram accounted for 53 yards on 18 attempts on a day where the Barons had 142 yards on offense.
The loss ends Blue Ridge (3-6) season.
“We’ve got a lot work to do because we’re graduating 14 seniors,” Patterson said. “So it’s back to work.”
The Saints (5-4) travel to face Bishop Sullivan in the first round of the Division 2 playoffs on Friday at 7 p.m. STAB fell to Bishop Sullivan in week two on the road, 49-22. But a lot has changed since that September 13th gameday.
“Wow. I mean, just wow, This is amazing,” Blake said.. “When we lost (our fourth game) to Nansemond Suffolk, at halftime I told the team I thought we might lose these first four games, but that we’d have a shot in the next five. They took it heart. They didn’t have to show up to practice the next Monday. They did and have worked hard since.”
