Saints march on to state title game

Quincey September’s knuckles and fingernails were bleeding, he was exhausted and he’d fought through leg cramps the entire game.
Alex Asher thought he might have broken his left wrist, his jersey was stained with blood and he’d suffered through a flu bug the entire week.
And those two ended up with a win.
St. Anne’s gutted out a 27-20 victory over an equally resilient Covenant squad Saturday afternoon in the VISAA state semifinals.
“We had so many guys step up, when one guy went down the next guy came up,” said STAB lineman John Chambers. “Both those guys [September and Asher] you can ask them to do anything for the team and they’ll do it. They’re so fast and talented you never know what they’re going to do.”
St. Anne’s took control of the game with an 80-yard, 8 minute and 59 second drive that Howie Long capped with a 4-yard run with 6:47 to play. With a Daniel Chester extra point, STAB took the 27-0 lead — and then they held on tight.
Etosha Lankatilleke, a junior defender for the Saints intercepted Covenant’s Lee Coppock with 4:31 to play. The Eagles rallied though and forced a three and out. A Logan Spangler punt pinned Covenant on its own 19, and four straight incompletions gave St. Anne’s the ball back.
But the game wasn’t in hand until September plunged forward on 3rd and 2, allowing quarterback Howie Long to kneel twice and officially advance the Saints to the Division 2 state title game against Atlantic Shores.
“It was just kids toughening up, never taking plays off,” said STAB head coach John Blake. “I’m just so proud of all them, our family held together this week.”
Both teams were missing several critical members due to internal team issues, which forced even more players than usual into heavy double duty. September, a defensive standout, started at tailback for the first time, carrying the ball 14 times for 192 yards. The
senior ripped off a 92-yard touchdown early in the second quarter with St. Anne’s pinned on its own 8-yard line. September also made a number of critical defensive stops.
“I cramped up quite a bit even though I replenished myself, but I guess playing both sides of the ball really got to me,” September said. “The line did the job for me and I just capitalized.”
Asher stepped in at linebacker, a spot where he won Central Virginia honorable mention honors — as a freshman at Western Albemarle. Asher also spelled September for long stretches at running back, rushing for 82 yards on 16 carries. The senior tight end hauled in a 38-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter.
“We never even played Alex at linebacker last year,” Blake said. “He did well and we just gutted it out.”
September and Asher’s performance impressed Covenant coach Mark Sanford.
“It’s nice when you can have September and Asher to put back in there — they go from the penthouse to the palace,” Sanford said. “They were getting 10, 12, eight every time they ran the ball and when they’re running the ball like that and you can’t stop it, it makes for a long day.”
Sanford and the Eagles must have been experiencing some déjà vu during the nearly nine minute second half drive by the Saints. St. Anne’s put together a similar march against Covenant in the first half of the schools’ regular season meeting that the Saints won 27-14.
The Eagles evened the score in the third quarter on a 95-yard fumble return by Alex Kuehler when the ball popped out of September’s hands with the Saints just five yards from taking a big lead.
But the Saints responded with the long drive, giving an exhausted defense some fresh legs and a 7-point lead in the process. No play went for more than nine yards on the drive, with Alex Asher carrying the load, rushing nine times for 42 yards.
The Saints will now get less than a week to recover before traveling to Tallwood High at 7 p.m., taking on Atlantic Shores, who beat Virginia Episcopal 35-7 Friday night.