Defense picks up St. Francis
If the St. Francis offense needed a good example to follow, the St. Francis defense offered it.
The Spartans got their first two touchdowns from interception returns and cruised to a 56-12 victory against Wheaton Academy on Friday night in Glen Ellyn.
“Our offense came out a little flat,” Spartans senior lineman J.R. Dittrich said, “but the defense actually picked us up. I felt like we played a decent game on defense.”
Like they did last week, the Warriors got a good drive going on their first possession, but this time instead of turning the football over on downs, the drive ended with the ball in the hands of Spartans junior linebacker Jack Petrando, who returned his interception 69 yards for a 7-0 St. Francis lead.
“It was good defense all around,” Petrando said, “and then I saw that the guy was trying to slant and I just jumped it, got the interception and returned it.”
“That was a great play by Petrando,” Dittrich said. “He’s a great player and really helps out the team a lot.”
After a Wheaton Academy punt, St. Francis turned the ball over on downs. Then Dittrich followed Petrando’s example, stepping in front of a screen pass and carrying the football 19 yards the other way for a 14-0 lead.
“I just read it was a screen and just tried to bat it down and somehow came up with it,” Dittrich said. “I was really shocked there for a couple of seconds thinking, What is this that I just caught? I was astonished that I actually caught it.”
“We started out well again driving the ball,” said Warriors coach Ben Wilson, whose team lists just six seniors on the roster. “The defense stopped them on fourth down, just like last week, and we just can’t string together consistency. Our guys are learning, they’re just growing and we’ve just got to learn while playing some really good teams.”
The Spartans got their offense moving in the second quarter, with Petrando again the catalyst. At running back he scored on runs of 1 and 41 yards, then saw Nate Baratta score on a 24-yard pass play from Nick Donati. The Spartans led 35-0 at halftime.
“We played better tonight than we have in the past,” Petrando said of the Spartans offense. “We’ve been sluggish recently, especially last week.”
A Donati 19-yard touchdown run gave St. Francis a 42-0 third-quarter lead and a running clock. Baratta added touchdown runs of 20 and 44 yards.
Wheaton Academy ended the shutout late in the third quarter on junior Joel Swick’s 69-yard touchdown run around right end. In the fourth backup quarterback Drew Decker tossed a 38-yard TD pass to junior receiver Matt Lindsay.
“It was nice getting on the board,” Wilson said. “It was nice not to have that goose egg again.”