St. Patrick overpowers St. Viator
St. Viator’s football team was hoping for a bounce-back win after last week’s opening loss to Marian Catholic.
The Lions had beaten visting St. Patrick the last two years, but it was not meant to be Friday night.
St. Patrick senior quarterback Ryan Tentler proved to be too much for St. Viator (0-2, 0-2) as the Shamrocks (2-0, 1-0) knocked off the Lions 63-21 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference game at Forest View in Arlington Heights.
“We need to get back to the fundamentals,” said Lions coach Chris Kirkpatrick. “We’re not going to make any changes at this point. We have to go with what we got. They (St. Patrick) handled us pretty well.”
The culprit for the Shamrocks was Tentler, a two-year starter. He rushed 11 times for 242 yards and 4 touchdowns of 26, 63, 58, and 77 yards.
Tentler also completed 16-of-24 passes for 293 yards and touchdown passes to Anthony Ferraris and two to Steve Gallardo. The Shamrocks rolled up 682 yards of offense.
“He’s a leader,” said St. Patrick coach Dan Galante about Tentler. “He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve seen since I have been at St.Patrick. We have a lot of weapons.”
The Shamrocks scored on their first three possessions of the game.
“I was kind of glad to run tonight,” said Tentler. “Our offensive line gave me a lot of time and opened some nice holes for me. They’ve worked real hard to get where they are. I thought they would do a nice job against their defense.”
Jaylin Crokrom returned a interception 67 yards with 8:37 left in the first half for a 28-0 lead. Moments later, Tentler ran the ball 58 yards for a score and a 35-0 lead.
The Lions scored with 1:40 left in the half as Mickey Macius (23-for-42, 250 yards) threw a 3-yard pass to John Balas. Balas caught 9 passes for 127 yards.
A 25-yard pass from Tentler to Gallardo upped the score to 42-7 at the half. St.Viator scored to start the second half on Macius’ 14-yard run.
The Lions recovered the onside kick, but then turned over the ball as Crokrom recovered a fumble. On first down, Tentler hit Gallardo with a 73-yard scoring pass for a 49-14 lead.
The Lions picked up 388 yards of offense and had their last score late in the third quarter on Macius’ 12-yard pass to Jack Kellner.
“We’re just going to have to line it up and start over again tomorrow,” said Kirkpatrick.