GOLIATH CATCHES DAVID'S ROCKS; ST. VINCENT ROLLS OVER CHAFFEE

CHAFFEE -- Chaffee showed up with some stones Friday night, hoping to bring down Goliath.

But before it could pull out a sling shot, the Red Devils dropped their rocks and then threw three for interceptions -- and then quietly succumbed to Class 1A giant St. Vincent.

The Red Devils self-destructed Friday night as St. Vincent, the No. 2 team in the state kicked Chaffee 41-7.

Chaffee's offense managed to move the ball effectively in the first half, but turnovers and poor field position proved disastrous.

St. Vincent dominated the game not with big offensive yards, but by maintaining excellent field position -- via the turnover rout and also with excellent kicking.

The Indians started drives inside Chaffee's 30 six times Friday night. And with kicker Derek Kutz booming every kickoff through the end zone, Chaffee faced numerous uphill battles against a gritty defense.

"That's a big plus for us," said St. Vincent coach Paul Sauer of his kicking game. "They had to drive the ball 80 yards about every time they had the ball if they were going to score. A lot of high school football teams can't do that very often."

On the first offensive play of the game, Chaffee running back Tommy Stidham fumbled the ball on his own 13-yard line.

The very next play, St. Vincent tailback Mark Gotto scored.

Chaffee responded well on its next possession, however, marching down the field. A fourth-down catch in the end zone, though, was ruled incomplete.

Chaffee tied the game early in the second quarter when Red Devils quarterback Travis Hanback hit Ben Boitnott on a deep post pattern for a 46-yard touchdown strike.

From there, Chaffee's passing game -- which to that point had completed six of its first seven passes for 97 yards -- disappeared.

"After we started passing the ball well, they started sending their backers," Chaffee coach Allan Horrell said. "We just couldn't handle it. We were keeping tight ends in and doing every thing we could. But Hanback was hurried every time."

After St. Vincent took a 14-7 lead on a 4-yard run by Gotto, the Indians picked off a Hanback pass -- the first of three interceptions on the night -- and immediately turned that into another score when St. Vincent quarterback Jonathan Paulus ran it in from 2 yards out to push St. Vincent's lead to 21-7.

The turning point of the game came on the last play of the first half when Kutz nailed a 42-yard field goal to put St. Vincent up 24-7.

Chaffee came out lifeless in the second half and St. Vincent put the game away by winning the battle at the line of scrimmage.

"We lost our composure pretty quick," Horrell said. "But they're just a good football team. Their offensive and defensive lines just took over the game."

Gotto, who finished with a game-high 120 yards on 20 carries, scored on a 1-yard run to make the score 31-7.

Kutz nailed a 41-yarder shortly thereafter to push the score to 34-7 and a 12-yard Paulus pass to Nick Emmendorfer capped the scoring.