Penalty on catch costs St. Vincent in 39-32 defeat

CRYSTAL CITY, Mo. -- Kyle Rollet and Tim Schumer found their groove during the fourth quarter Friday night.

Schumer, the floppy-haired sophomore quarterback, hit his 6-foot-4 receiver for a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter to rally St. Vincent against Crystal City.

"We called it from the sideline, and it was a fake lead and then Kyle was going to block and then go," Schumer said of his second scoring strike, which went for 94 yards. "We faked the lead and they told me just to get it up to Kyle and Kyle comes down with everything. He makes the job easy."

Schumer followed that bomb by connecting with Rollet for a 25-yard TD pass, and Derek Triller converted the 2-point try to even the score at 32-32.

Schumer said he threw with Rollet a few times a week over the summer to work on their timing. He knows defenses don't respect his ability to throw, and that doesn't bother him.

"We knew coming in that they weren't going to guard against our passing game because we're not really known for it," he said.

Schumer went to the Rollet well once more on third-and-13 from the Crystal City 15-yard line with the Hornets clinging to a seven-point lead and less than three minutes remaining in the contest. Schumer lofted a pass into the back of the end zone where Rollet snared the lob and stamped both feet inbounds for the game-tying touchdown.

"I just tried to toss it up again and he came down with it again," Schumer said.

But as Rollet went up for the pass with two defenders covering him, the one closer to him fell to the ground and the official closest to the play tossed his yellow hankie.

"He said I pushed off," Rollet said.

Did he?

"No," Rollet answered immediately.

And Rollet got another flag dropped on him before he cleared the end zone on his way back to the huddle, this one for unsportsmanlike conduct.

"Their cornerback kept saying you can't push off, you can't push off," Rollet said. "And I said, 'It's OK, I'll beat you the next time.' The exact words."

Rollet said that's what earned him the second flag.

The offensive pass interference call resulted in loss of a down in addition to getting backed up 15 yards. The personal foul flag tacked on another 15 yards for the Indians. So after thinking they'd tied the game, the Indians faced fourth-and-43 from the Hornets' 45-yard line.

"It's heartbreaking," Rollet said. "You think you've got the ballgame tied up."

Crystal City's defense didn't allow any miracles as Jacob Duncan intercepted Schumer's heave to end the threat and secure the 39-32 victory.

"We knew we were there," St. Vincent senior C.J. Pavlovsky said. "We had it and then an unlucky call on us. We couldn't finish it off there."

St. Vincent's offense jolted into gear about midway through the second quarter after Justin Eggers returned a kickoff 45 yards to the Crystal City 19-yard line. St. Vincent ended that drive with a 40-yard field goal from Rollet, which would have been good from at least another 10 yards.

"I've hit from 55 in warmups," he said.

After Crystal City (3-3) scored, Schumer attacked with his first of three TD passes, a 58-yarder to Brock French.

"We just ran the right routes and got open," French said. "We ran the plays coach [Dave] Schumer called for us, ran them to perfection, didn't stop running, ran under the pass and caught it."

But the offense went dormant again in the third quarter before awakening to make things interesting in the fourth quarter. The Indians jumped on Pavlovsky's back as he gained a hearty amount of yards on sweeps to the outside.

"C.J. opened up our running game and our line was blocking really well," Schumer said. "C.J. running the ball opens up everything for the passing game."

With the Crystal City defense closing in on the line of scrimmage, the Indians (1-5) took to the air as Rollet caught his 94-yard TD. Triller recovered a fumble two plays later and the Indians were in business again. Schumer wasted little time, capping the four-play drive with a 25-yarder to Rollet to even the score.

"The run started getting there," Rollet said. "The line started firing off the ball and it all started coming together. As the run came in, they started coming up and the pass was there."

Pavlovsky got the Indians into the red zone on their final drive, carrying the ball six times for 50 yards. He finished the game with 34 carries for 184 yards.

"We want to try to be balanced," St. Vincent coach Paul Sauer said. "We're going to have to get better in our passing game as the season goes along. As districts roll around, we want to be able to run and throw the ball a lot more than we have been."

Stopping Crystal City's potent offense proved the problem for the Indians. Crystal City quarterback Neal Slabby threw for 240 yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone. The Indians limited him to 126 yards passing after the intermission.

"We finally got some of our folks lined up where they were supposed to be," Sauer said. "We had a couple breakdowns in that first half."

After Crystal City went ahead 7-0 after one quarter, the two team combined for 42 points and 339 yards -- 219 for Crystal City and 120 for St. Vincent -- in the second quarter.

Neither team scored in the third quarter as they combined for 106 yards.

St. Vincent did come up with a pair of stops deep in its own territory in the second half to give the offense a chance. The first one came late in the third quarter when Slabby threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-goal from the 3. The other came on the Hornets' next drive when Stacey Thorton was stopped after a 1-yard gain on fourth-and-goal from the 7.

"Everyone stepped up our game on defense," Pavlovsky said. "We wrapped up and we covered the receivers better."

St. Vincent 0 17 0 15 -- 32

Crystal City 7 25 0 7 -- 39

First Quarter

CC -- Neal Slabby 26 run (Slabby kick), 9:49

Second Quarter

CC -- Ryan Jurkowski 10 run (Slabby kick), 11:21

ST. V -- Derek Triller 2 run (Kyle Rollet kick), 8:29

CC -- Austin Helwig 44 pass from Slabby (kick blocked), 5:51

ST. V -- Rollet 40 FG, 4:52

CC -- Todd Werne 42 pass from Slabby (pass failed), 3:49

ST. V -- Brock French 58 pass from Tim Schumer (Rollet kick), 2:14

CC -- Stacey Thorton 29 pass from Slabby (pass failed), 1:40

Fourth Quarter

ST. V -- Rollet 94 pass from Schumer (Rollet kick), 11:33

ST. V -- Rollet 25 pass from Schumer (Triller run), 9:19

CC -- Thorton 15 pass from Slabby (Slabby kick), 6:03

ST. V CC

First downs 13 25

Rushes-yards 43-183 29-138

Passing yards 200 366

Passes 6-14-2 26-35-0

Punts 2-63 1-36

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-2

Penalties-Yards 8-96 4-42

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- St. Vincent, C.J. Pavlovsky 34-184, Alex Hunt 2-6, Tim Schumer 4-(minus 10), Derek Triller 3-3. Crystal City, Ryan Jurkowski 13-43, Neal Slabby 12-81, Todd Werne 3-13, Stacey Thorton 1-1.

PASSING -- St. Vincent, Tim Schumer 6-14-200-2. Crystal City, Neal Slabby 26-35-366-0.

RECEIVING -- St. Vincent, Kyle Rollet 5-142, Brock French 1-58. Crystal City, Stacey Thorton 8-122, Daniel Rothweiler 4-15, Jacob Duncan 5-58, Austin Helwig 4-92, Todd Werne 1-42, Ryan Jurkowski 4-37.