advertisement

Wright, St. Charles East dismantle Elgin

If St. Charles East's Aiden Wright was at all nervous about getting his first varsity start at quarterback on Friday night he sure didn't show it.

The junior signalcaller completed 12-of-21 passes for 171 yards, including 2 touchdowns in his debut to lead the Saints (1-2, 1-0) to their first victory of the season, a 40-0 route over Elgin at Memorial Field in Upstate Eight Conference River Division action.

Aiden completed his first 5 attempts, including a 10-yard touchdown pass to Nick Candre on the Saints' first possession of the game, following a fumble recovery at the Elgin 31. He also had a 17-yard pass on East's next possession to set up a 43-yard Candre field goal to make it 10-0 late in the first quarter.

"I was excited to get the start," Wright said. " I have been working hard all summer. I was a little nervous. I just couldn't wait to get into it. That first series I was able to find a good rhythm."

Wright had passes of 22, 19, and 15 yards on a drive just before the half to set up another Candre field goal from 33 yards out to make it 13-0 Saints.

Wright added a 15-yard touchdown toss on the first possession of the second half to his favorite receiver on the night, Jake Asquini, who had 5 receptions for 87 yards.

"We felt real comfortable going with Aiden tonight," East coach Bryce Farquhar said. "He makes smart reads. It was a tough night to make his first start with the weather the way it was, but he handled himself real well. He did a nice job of checking down to his second and third receiver on some plays."

The defense attributed to the Saints' final three scores. Tommy Fink intercepted a pass deep in Maroons' territory and returned it to the Elgin 6-yard line. Ramon Lopez scored on the very next play to make it 27-0.

Blake Saltsman returned an interception 11 yards for the Saints' next score. A fumble recovery by Anthony Bisogni at the Elgin 4-yard line set up the Saints' final score. Backup quarterback Chad Bowen scored on a 6-yard run.

After surrendering 49 points in their first 2 games the Saints' defense held the Maroons to just 51 yards of offense.

"The defense played much better tonight," Farquhar said. "We went with a different scheme with two high safeties and I thought the kids made a nice adjustment to that."

Elgin (0-3, 0-1) struggled offensively and turned the ball over 4 times and had 6 other snaps fumbled.

"We just didn't take care of the ball," Elgin coach Kyle Rohde said. "It's as simple as that. I thought we would be able to run it and it looked like we had some opportunities, but we just couldn't get it going."

Elgin quarterback Desmond Douglas threw for 89 yards. Jordan Smith had an interception for the Maroons.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.