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St. Francis falls to De La Salle

Two men enter. One man leaves.

Friday that man was Tom Duddleston.

In a battle between two teams fighting for their playoff lives, the De La Salle quarterback completed 24 of 35 passes for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead the Meteors to a 31-16 victory over St. Francis in the Chicago Catholic League Green in Wheaton.

Both teams entered the game with their playoffs lives at stake. Sitting on four wins, St. Francis needed to win this week and next because at 5-4 the Spartans' could lack enough points to qualify. At 3-4 entering the game, De La Salle needed to win out just to earn playoff consideration.

Duddleston made sure De La Salle stayed alive in the playoff chase, throwing touchdown passes of 24, 12 and 34 yards to 6-foot-3 junior Eric Rooks. Two touchdown passes came in the second quarter when the Meteors broke a 10-10 tie and took a 24-10 halftime lead.

"He's a great player," St. Francis coach Mike Fitzgerald said. "Last year I was really impressed with him. He's a great athlete. He can extend plays with his feet, he's got a great arm and he's got a couple of receives who do a great job for him, too."

St. Francis (4-4, 1-2) had a pretty good weapon of its own at quarterback. Peter Fassnacht completed 18 of 33 passes for 154 yards and scored on runs of 12 and 1 yards before being forced to exit the game with a head injury with 9:06 remaining.

"Peter is a senior captain, a leader for us," Fitzgerald said. "He's kind of the guy who the guys really rally around. Obviously, that hurt. But I know the guys had confidence in John (junior backup quarterback Brundage). I think our guys kept fighting and kept believing we were going to find a way to get it one."

St. Francis had two late chances to score, taking possession at the De La Salle 35-yard line with 8:13 remaining and at the Meteors' 14-yard line with less than three minutes left. But De La Salle's Anthony Woods ended both drives with interceptions.

"That's a tough situation when they know you're going to throw," Fitzgerald said. "That's a lot of pressure for anybody."

"I just got a bunch of hard-nosed city kids that get after it," De La Salle coach Michael Boehm said. "We have something at stake and we get after it. We played hard and have come a long way since week one. We're one win away from state playoffs, so we're really excited right now."

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