St. Francis defense gets the job done

The St. Francis defense dominated De La Salle for a 33-14 win in Chicago Catholic Green football action on Friday in Chicago.

Defensive back Matthew Hanson had 2 interceptions for touchdowns and Will Purdom had 42 yards on 11 carries to lead the Spartans.

"That's a good football team. They're a lot better than their record," said Spartans coach Mike Fitzgerald. "Our defense has been doing an unbelievable job. Our guys bend a little but they never break. They've been lights out these last few weeks, and that's a credit to our defensive coaches getting them ready."

The Spartans (6-3, 2-1) defense held De La Salle to 33 yards rushing in the first half, forcing Meteors coach Mike Boehm to go to the passing attack for the remainder of the game. Quarterback Tom Duddleston threw 58 passes, completing 35 for 303 yards and had 3 interceptions. The Meteors offense coughed up 2 costly fumbles.

"Defensively, I thought we played a sound game," said St. Francis defensive lineman Quinn Calcagno. "The ground was wet from the rain all week. But collectively we played a good game. We changed up our defense a little bit."

Purdom scored on a 4-yard run to open the scoring and Hanson picked off his first pass and ran it back for 52 yards and a touchdown to give the Spartans a 13-0 lead going into the half.

The Spartans broke the game open in the third quarter scoring 20 points. Quarterback Clint Bobowski scored on a 6-yard run and Hanson grabbed his second interceptions and sprinted 60 yards for a touchdown.

"We started really slow on offense, but we knew defensively we'd shut them down," Hanson said. "I get that from my offensive skills as a receiver. I just started playing defensive back this year. I'm really happy with this team. We're a family and we're playing hard and that's all that matters."

Dom Cosentino finished St. Francis' scoring with a 14-yard run to give the Spartans a 33-0 lead after three quarters.

"It was a great team win," Purdom said. "The screens were out there and the run game just opened it."

The Meteors (1-7, 0-4) came back with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

"We battled the entire game," Boehm said. "We turned the ball over a bunch and you can't do that against good teams, especially (St. Francis), who is on a roll right now. We're a young team and we make young mistakes. This is definitely a learning process for us."