St. Edward makes it 4 straight

It's four and counting for the St. Edward football team.

For the first time under sixth-year coach Mike Rolando, the Green Wave made it a 4-0 start to a season Friday night when they downed Chicago Christian 28-6 in a Suburban Christian Gold game in Palos Heights.

The Wave, ranked No. 10 in Class 4A, was 3-0 last year when Chicago Christian beat them in Elgin.

After outscoring their opponents 112-13 in the first three games of the season, St. Edward struggled out of the gate.

"We needed to put our record out of our mind," said St. Edward quarterback Ben Lehman. "We got here and you could see that guys weren't up for the game and it showed."

Rolando acknowledged his team came out flat but considers it a wake-up call.

"It's nice to get a wake-up call and get a win," Rolando said.

The first half of football for the Green Wave (4-0, 2-0) was sloppy and filled with penalties, turnovers and missed tackles.

"That was our worst half of football of the season," said Rolando. "I told them lets start fresh in the second half."

And that's exactly what St. Edward did.

Of the 5 possessions Chicago Christian (1-3, 0-2) had offensively, the Green Wave defense forced 3 punts and a turnover on downs.

"The defense as a whole played well," Rolando said. "The defensive line got to the fullback and took away their pass game. We didn't tackle well at times but we only gave up one big play."

Offensively in the second half, St. Edward scored three times in the fourth quarter on runs by Jon Keokanlaya (7-yard TD run), Lehman (19-yard TD run) and Devonte Elam (3-yard TD run.)

"(Our focus) kicked in during the second half, specifically at the end of the third quarter," said Lehman. "We played as a team."

Defensive linemen Evan Finnane and Derek Porto each had 2 sacks for the Green Wave, and Sam Pozezinski had an 18-yard touchdown run in the first quarter before leaving the game with a knee injury.