Boyle, Benet drive past St. Viator
Benet quarterback Matt Boyle is not afraid to call his own number as he's running the Redwings offense.
Boyle scored the go-ahead touchdown with :20 left, capping a 12-play, 75-yard drive in defeating St. Viator in Arlington Heights 30-27 on Friday. Benet improved to 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference with the clutch victory.
"I do what I can to help our team win," said Boyle. "I give a lot of credit to our defense. When you get 5 turnovers, you need to do something to win the game.
"When we got the ball back with 2:42 to play we knew we had to use some good clock management - get out of bounds, and use our timeouts wisely. This was just a good one to win."
Benet was helped on the drive by a pass interference call on St. Viator (2-2, 1-1) with :58 left in the game. With the ball placed on the 10, Boyle (22 carries, 63 yards, 2 TDs) carried the ball three times before scoring from the 2.
"It was just a great comeback by our players," said Benet coach Pat New. "We didn't panic when we were down 11-0 in the first quarter. We just kept battling. We beat a real good team in St. Viator."
The Lions started out quickly, with quarterback Bryce Hellgeth booting a 27-yard field on their first drive.
Joe Hare stripped the ball from Benet's Nicholas Keyes on the ensuing kickoff to give the Lions the ball on the Red Wings 38.
Elijah Black (8 carries, 82 yards) raced 23 yards on first down to set up Jack Scislowski's 15-yard touchdown run for an 11-0 lead following Hellgeth's 2-point conversion run.
Boyle helped cut the gap with a 4-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter, cutting the lead to 11-7.
Benet converted 2 field goals in the quarter by Victor Karam, on kicks of 31 and 25 yards, to give Benet a 13-11 lead at halftime.
Karam notched his third field goal on a 32-yarder with 4:02 left in the third quarter for a 16-11 Benet lead.
Connor Reid's interception set up Bennett Hickey's 8-yard with 1:31 left in the third quarter for a 23-11 Redwings advantage.
"We really studied the film on their quarterback," said Reid. "We just worked on playing deeper in our zone. We were able to get some points from the turnovers."
Scislowski, who finished with 171 yards on 19 carries, wove his way through traffic to score on a 53-yard carry on the first play of the fourth quarter, cutting Benet's lead to 23-18.
The Lions' Joe Cleary recovered a fumble moments later and Hellgeth turned it into a 28-yard field goal to shave the lead to 23-21 with 10:06 left.
Scislowski came up big again, this time on a 47-yard run for a 27-23 St. Viator lead.
Reid stopped Kyle Pearce on a 2-point conversion pass attempt on the PAT.
Billy Lawler was among the many defensive standouts, with 2 interceptions and a fumble recovery for Benet.
"We came up with some big defensive plays," said Lawler. "It was a real tough game for us but our defense stood up when it had to."
St. Viator finished with 341 yards of offense thanks to 277 rushing yards. Boyle completed 14 of 41 passes for 198 yards. Hickey led the ground game with 67 yards on 19 attempts.
"I'm very proud of our team," said Lions coach Dave Archibald. "We made a nice comeback in the four quarter. Even with our turnovers, we held them to field goals instead of touchdowns. Scislowski is an electric player for us. He had a great game."