Game of the Week: Recap

Roeland Park — The lightning struck, but the Thunder did not roll for the reigning Class 4A state champion.

In a game interrupted twice by the weather, St. Thomas Aquinas and its dominant ground attack proved too much for St. James Academy in a 28-7 win for the Saints Friday night at Bishop Miege High School.

A lightning delay midway through the first quarter gave the game an early restart after each team stalled out with turnovers on downs during their opening drives. The teams also had to head to the locker room for another delay with four minutes left before halftime.
Aquinas head coach Randy Dreiling was not too bothered by the breaks in the action. In fact, he thought his team really took advantage of the extra time to prepare.

“It was different in that you got to fix everything,” Dreiling said of the multiple weather delays in the first half. “You had 30 minutes to fix everything you’d done, so that was kind of handy.”

Both teams did score touchdowns on the first possessions after retaking the field, but only the Saints were able to keep the momentum going as they pushed their advantage to 21-7 by halftime.

Aquinas outgained St. James 391-157 despite completing zero passes in the game. The team's junior rushing trio of running back Carroll, quarterback Maxwell Ford and running back Jeremiah Penney took turns reaching the end zone. Carroll racked up 214 yards himself, breaking countless tackles throughout his 26 carries.

“In my head I just thought, ‘Keep running,’” Carroll said. “Nothing really special to it, I just didn’t want to go down.”

Carroll shed multiple tackles as he reeled off consecutive runs of 9, 8, 7 and 6 yards on the team’s second drive to reach the red zone. Penney ended up getting Aquinas on the board with a 15-yard rushing touchdown on that possession.

St. James Academy responded immediately with a score of its own. Junior quarterback Jackson House, a first-year starter, found junior wide receiver John Niesen down the left sideline for a 73-yard touchdown pass.

Except for another lightning delay, the game was all Saints and no Thunder the rest of the way.

Carroll picked up 49 yards on the opening drive of the second quarter, including a 32-yard burst to get his team in the red zone before getting them all the way to them to the 1-yard line. This time, Ford capped the scoring drive, slithering his way into the endzone behind his offensive line on quarterback sneak.

Ford credited his offensive line with giving him the space he needed to pick up 73 yards and two rushing scores in the game.

“Our O-line dominated for us,” Ford said. “This guy (Carroll) broke tackles left and right, but I just hit the hole and go.”

Based on how many tackles Carroll had to break, Dreiling was less glowing in his review of the offensive line play.

“There were a lot of missed blocks and sometimes (Carroll) ran over people,” Dreiling said. “We’re not going to be able to do that all year long.”

The Thunder looked like they might be able to even things up on the following possession. St. James running back Tiave Watts finally found room to pick up 10 yards, a majority of his yardage in a 6-carry, 13-yard performance.

But St. James quickly found itself in a third-and long situation near midfield. House tried to force a pass to get the first down, but Saints junior linebacker Conor Ellis slid in front of the ball to intercept it and give his team the ball on their own 40-yard line.

Aquinas quickly moved into scoring position when Penney got loose for a 29-yard run. Finally, Carroll got to do a little vulturing of his own as stepped in to score a rushing touchdown from 7 yards out.

Radke said the coaching staff emphasized rallying to the ball in this game, trying to get as many players in position to pull down strong runners like Carroll, but his team was not able to do that in the first half.

“We didn’t rally to the ball,” Radke said. “We were supposed to rally to the ball and we did not do that in the first half. They broke a bunch of tackles and they got up on us.”
St. James tried to get the offense going by taking shots down the field, but the Thunder receivers had a tough time reeling in receptions while being smothered by a tough Saints secondary.

Radke said his team still had its chances, but they failed to execute during those moments.

“We dropped probably six total balls tonight,” Radke said. “We were counting on our playmakers to make some plays and we didn’t get it done.”

Aquinas nearly put the game away early in the fourth when Carroll put them into scoring position with a 33-yard run, but Ford fumbled the ball away near the 30-yard line a few plays later.

Ford made up for it on the next possession though, gaining 19 yards on a run to get into Thunder territory. Carroll added to runs of 11 and 16 yards to put Ford in position for another 1-yard touchdown on a QB sneak.

“I just kept stealing them,” Ford said.

Carroll is fine with sharing, which includes the carries as well as the touchdowns. He said having two other big-play threats in the running game keeps the defense off balance and hopefully will allow him to avoid having too many games with as many carries as he had in this one.

“I know that even if I don’t get a lot of yards, I’m bringing everyone in to set up their runs and that’s when we get big plays,” Carroll said.

Dreiling hopes that getting the passing game going will help on those fronts as well.

“We didn’t have many passing opportunities, but we’ve gotta get that part of our game going,” Dreiling said.

Dreiling said there was one particular play where a fumbled snap probably cost them a touchdown as well as a completion. Ford took responsibility for those issues.

“I think that’s on me,” Ford said after going 0-of-4 passing in the game. “I need to work with my guys, get the timing down. I’ll be better next week, I promise you that.”

Instead, Ford did all his damage in the running game as he picked up 73 rushing yards. Penney added another 55 yards on just four carries.

On the other side, House went 13 of 28 for 150 passing yards with a touchdown and an interception for the Thunder. Junior wide receiver Tyler Claiborne was held in check for most of the game, getting one big play in the third quarter when he picked up a 23-yard reception to get his team on the Saints side of the field early in the third quarter.

“We didn’t execute the things that we had done over and over and over again all summer long, all camp long,” Radke said. “Again, kudos to Aquinas for getting in our face, making it tough for us to do what we wanted to do. But we flat out just didn’t execute.”

The Saints will look to keep rolling next Friday at home against a Lutheran North team visiting from St. Louis.. The Thunder will look to get into the win column when they head to Blue Valley next Friday.


ST. THOMAS AQUINAS 28, ST. JAMES ACADEMY 7
St. Thomas Aquinas (1-0) … 7 … 14 … 0 … 7 … -- … 28
St. James Academy (0-1) … 7 … 0 … 0 … 0 … -- … 7
St. Thomas Aquinas — Penney 15 run (Seibolt kick)
St. James Academy — Niesen 11 pass from House (Russell kick)
St. Thomas Aquinas — Ford 1 run (Seibolt kick)
St. Thomas Aquinas — Carroll 7 run (Seibolt kick)
St. Thomas Aquinas — Ford 1 run (Seibolt kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing — St. Thomas Aquinas: Carroll 26-214, Ford 19-73, Penney 4-55, Kelley 3-19, Rizzi 4-12, Forge 2-9, Turner 1-7, Sollars 1-3. St. James Academy: Watts 6-13, House 7-minus-5.
Passing — St. Thomas Aquinas: Ford 0-4-0. St. James Academy: House 13-26-1, 149 yards.
Receiving — St. Thomas Aquinas: N/A. St. James Academy: Niesen 4-93, Claiborne 5-39, Huston 2-12, Burritt 1-4, Watts 1-1.