Saints snag ODFC title

ST. GEORGE — For Aaron Clark and the rest of the seniors for St. Anne’s-Belfield, the atmosphere before their season finale against rival Blue Ridge was bittersweet. Sure, the Saints had the chance to win the Old Dominion Football Championship with a victory, but coach John Blake knew in advance that his school would fail to make the playoffs for the first time in 12 years.

With a rivalry game on the road against the Barons and a conference championship on the line, though, Clark and the seniors didn’t need any more reason to play inspired football. For Clark, 154 rushing yards on 34 carries surely speaks for itself, as he led the Saints to a 30-7 victory.

“This is weird for us,” Blake said. “It’s the first time in 12 years we haven’t made the playoffs. But I’m proud of them. That’s a tough feeling for kids that age, to realize that this was it.”

According to VISAA rules, a school must have fewer than 181 enrolled students to be eligible for a Division II classification. Blake said that, this year, STAB had eight students too many.

Thus placed in the Division I classification, Blake and the Saints are not among the top eight qualifying teams for the Division I playoffs. The Saints now must watch as Blue Ridge heads to the Division II playoffs as the top seed, but it was St. Anne’s who walked off the field yesterday as ODFC champions, and they left with their heads held high.

STAB relied on Clark and fellow running back Will McGhee on offense and limited the opposing team’s playmakers on defense. Those two methods played hand-in-hand against the Barons, as the Saints’ relentless ground attack gave them a sizeable advantage in time of possession.

“Keep the ball from them, run the ball at them all day — that was our major plan,” Blake said. “If you can keep it from them, and you can score points, then they get a little rattled, and see if they’ll try and change their game plan a little bit. I think they did that.”

STAB’s successful rushing attack came in spite of significant size advantages across the line of scrimmage. Blue Ridge coach Del Smith noted that the Barons were without their week-one starters at both tackle positions, and an undersized St. Anne’s line managed to get the push they needed.

“We’re faster than them — we wanted it more,” STAB offensive lineman Brandon Spitzer said. “You only have to block for about half a second [for Clark] and he’s gone. He breaks about six tackles every play.”

The Saints’ first drive was a microcosm of what they did all game. Driving from their own 37-yard line, Clark took five carries for 46 yards, while McGhee carried three times for 17 yards, including a seven-yard scurry to the end zone to put STAB on the board.

St. Anne’s was also helped on both sides of the football by a whopping eight Blue Ridge fumbles on the day, three of which resulted in turnovers.

“We’ve done a great job not turning the football over all year,” Smith said. “We just seemed to shoot ourselves in the foot in all of our drives.”

The Barons’ offense and Speedy McCauley, meanwhile, struggled to find any rhythm. McCauley — who came in with 1,305 yards and 17 touchdowns in the air on the season — completed 8 of 16 passes for 102 yards and threw three interceptions. And the running game was nearly helpless — fullback Michael Casey broke one run for 20 yards, leading to his team-high 23 yards rushing on two carries.

“We were going and doubling kids at certain times, and we blitzed at certain times,” Blake said, “and our kids made some plays.”

Contributing to a tough day for McCauley, Smith said, was a rolled ankle that occurred in the second quarter. That forced Smith to play Andre Roberts at quarterback for perhaps more snaps than he would have liked, and also made planting and throwing a bit more cumbersome for McCauley.

“He tried to plant on one, and that’s when he threw one of those picks,” Smith said. “He just didn’t have much velocity on the ball, and not many guys do on a tender ankle.”

The Saints’ offense, meanwhile, continued to pile on rushing yards in the second half. McGhee rolled his ankle early in the third quarter, and was not used the rest of the game, but St. Anne’s didn’t miss a beat. Clark took the extra carries, and tirelessly picked up tough yards and ate up clock.

STAB quarterback Jacob Rainey, meanwhile, was outstanding when called upon. He threw just nine passes, but completed seven, including the touchdown to McGhee and a 38-yard toss to his favorite target, wide receiver Joseph Stuart, to put the Saints up 21-0 at the 10:09 mark of the third quarter.

Clark spearheaded another scoring drive that ended in a one-yard sneak from Rainey early in the fourth quarter before the Barons finally found an offensive rhythm. Roberts completed back-to-back passes, the latter a 30-yard touchdown to Khalif Dandy, finally putting Blue Ridge on the board with eight minutes remaining in the contest.

With McCauley under center on the next drive, though, the Barons fumbled for the eighth time on fourth down, and STAB promptly drove 36 yards and kicked a field goal.

Shortly thereafter, in sub-50 degree weather, Blake was doused with a cooler full of ice-cold water. The Saints weren’t going to the playoffs, but they had plenty of reasons to celebrate.

“This has been a great rivalry,” Blake said. “These two schools have been playing football since STAB started football. It’s been one of those games where it’s intense, but it’s so fun.

“We had a little extra incentive this week, because we weren’t going to go to the playoffs, and everything was riding on this game. I’m just so proud of them.”