Football 2018 Week #5 at St. Lawrence

On the way to St. Lawrence University, 12 hours north of our campus by bus, we passed a lot of towns I’ve never heard of…Clifton Springs, Cheerful Valley, Sodus Bay, Port Byron.

It was a beautiful early fall day for football, even a tree or two that started to turn. Enjoyed looking out the window as I listened to some old Jerry Jeff Walker album. It was our first leave Thursday trip and it was hard on everyone. Missed classes, two nights in strange beds, too much road food.

We had to hit the breaks hard when there was a sudden accident in front of us. I’ll write later about the time when we were coaching at CWRU and our driver actually dozed off and one of our coaches had to scream to wake him up. Pretty scary sometimes. Look what happended a few year ago to the Bluffton baseball team.

We took I71 north to 271 over to I90 east , then to I81 north towards Canada. We spent Thursday in a Windham near Erie, practiced at Mercyhurst College, then back on the road. Lunch was at a Pondarosa, how any of them are left?

Friday night we stayed at a fishing/boating resort right on the St. Lawrence seaway. A combination of a motel, lodges, and free standing houses, it had a real old style feel to it. Knotted pne paneling in the rooms, a musty smell in the closets. Real nice people, the only negative is some of the rooms had no hot water, like mine!

On the road when you order pizza for a 90 it is always mediocre. No one can make that many pizzas and have them tste good. However, the pizza on Friday was pretty decent, it was a New York style with large thin crusted slices.

Besides the game, the part of the trip most of the kids and coaches will remember was stopping and seeing Niagra Falls. If you have never been there it is quite the sight, and most on the trip had never been there. We spent on hour there walking through the park on the American side, taking pictures, and enjoying a sunny mid day.

We won the game 48-12.They had a chance. They scored to make it 17-12 us. They went for two, we stuffed them. But on the kickoff we were called for a penalty, so they had us stating our drive inside our own ten. A fumble or interception could give the lead, a three and out would force us to punt and give them great field position. But we once again answered the call, driving 90 yards for a touchdown and we never looked back and they were never back in the game.

The official game report care of ThomasMoreSaints.com:

 The Thomas More football team had 334 yards of rushing today (Saturday, September 29, 2018) as it defeated St. Lawrence University, 48-12, at Leckonby Stadium in Canton, New York.

• Thomas More took a 7-0 lead with 6:49 to play in the quarter when senior running back Luke Zajac (Edgewood, Ky./Dixie Heights) scored on a five-yard touchdown runs and junior kicker Cole Mathias (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) added the point-after-attempt.

• Mathias extended the lead to 10-0 when he made a 35-yard field goal with 10:48 to play in the quarter.
• Thomas More made the score 17-0 with 6:39 to play in the first half when senior running back Hjavier Pitts (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mt. Healthy) scored on a one-yard run and Mathias added the PAT.
• St. Lawrence cut the lead to 17-6 at halftime when Aaron Ruthman connected on a 26-yard touchdown pass to Travis Marnell and Austin Pinard's PAT failed with 4:05 to play in the quarter.

• St. Lawrence made the score 17-12 with 11:10 to play in the third quarter when Jamie Battaglia scored on a nine-yard run and the two-point try failed.
• Thomas More increased the lead to 24-12 when junior wide receiver Da'marco Canty (Bogart, Ga./North Oconee) scored on a 43-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Justin Post (Macedonia, Ohio/Nordonia) and Mathias added the PAT with 7:19 to play in the quarter.
• Sophomore running back Dillon Powell (Independence, Ky./Simon Kenton) scored on a three-yard run and Mathias added the PAT to extend the lead to 31-12 with 1:25 to play in the quarter.

• Thomas More made the score 38-12 with 14:53 to play in the game when Post connected on a 13-yard touchdown pass to Pitts and Mathias added the PAT.
• Zajac scored on a 10-yard run and Mathias added the PAT to make the score 45-12 with 7:00 to play in the game.
• Thomas More closed out the scoring with 1:44 to play in the game when Mathias connected on a 32-yard field goal for the final score of 48-12.

• Thomas More improve to 4-1 and St. Lawrence falls to 1-4.
• This is Thomas More's fifth game of the season and the fifth different state it has played a game this season.
• Thomas More had 600 yards of offense (334 rushing/266 passing) to St. Lawrence's 243 (42 rushing/201 passing).
• Post was 16-of-27 passing for 266 yards and two touchdowns and had four rushes for 12 yards.
• Pitts had 26 rushes for 142 yards and a touchdown, while also pulling in three catches for 33 yards and a touchdown.
• Zajac had 18 carries for 117 yards and two touchdown, while also having one catche for 48 yards.
• Canty finished the game with three catches for 86 yards and a touchdown.
• Senior wide receiver Logan Winkler (Independence, Ky./Simon Kenton) had four catches for 69 yards.
• Junior linebacker Cody Coffey (Anderson, Ohio/Anderson) had six tackles (five solo/one assisted).
• First-year defensive back Lashunn Townsend, Jr. (Erlanger, Ky./Lloyd) had five tackles (all solo) and one interception.
• Junior linebacker Adam Guard (Lawrence, Ind./Pinecrest Academy (Ga.)) finished game with five tackles (three solo/two assisted), including two tackles for a loss.