ST. VINCENT CLAIMS DISTRICT SHOWDOWN

PERRYVILLE -- The St. Vincent Indians football team didn't have time to go trick-or-treating Friday night.

But keeping in the Halloween spirit, the Indians used a little trickery to treat the home fans to a 14-3 Class 1A, District 1 victory over the state-ranked Valle Warriors.

St. Vincent used its leading receiver, Dustin Moll, at quarterback for most of the first half and intercepted Valle's quarterbacks four times to put the Indians in position for their second consecutive district title.

St. Vincent improved to 7-2 overall and 2-0 in the district. Valle, ranked third in 1A, fell to 6-3 and 1-1. If Hayti beats Chaffee today in the other District 1 matchup, the Indians will claim their second consecutive district championship. If Chaffee wins, St. Vincent will have to beat the Red Devils (1-6) this Friday on the road.

Third-year St. Vincent coach Paul Sauer, confident entering the contest, said the Indians added some new wrinkles for the Warriors.

"Anytime you play a team the caliber of Valle you have to change a few things to try to mess them up a little bit," Sauer said. "We put in a couple of different things that we've kind of had in our hip pocket the whole year."

Moll, St. Vincent's top receiver entering the game, sparked the Indians' victory with an interception on the opening play from scrimmage and ran the offense at quarterback most of the first half.

Moll returned his interception 36 yards to the Valle 2-yard-line where senior Chad Winkler scored on the next play to put the Indians ahead 6-0. Moll's kick made the score 7-0 with just 25 seconds elapsed in the contest.

"That got us going," Sauer said. "That gets the adrenaline flowing and the momentum on our side. We never looked back."

St. Vincent's defense made that quick score hold up, limiting the Warriors to just 125 total yards and seven first downs.

"St. Vincent just outplayed us," said first-year Valle coach Joel Sumner. "They played really tough defense and hit hard."

"Since I've been here these guys have played great defense and tonight was no exception," said Sauer. "They stepped it up and made some great plays when we really needed them."

Senior tri-captain Corey Robinson, the Indians' only returning starter from last year's district champ to play in every game this season, led the stingy defense.

"Defense at St. Vincent always comes natural," said Robinson. "Any of the kids we've got just love to come out and hit. It doesn't bother us.

"Defense just comes easy to us."

Valle quarterback Joe Rozier, playing with a broken finger on his non-throwing hand, threw three passes and all three were intercepted.

Rozier had better luck kicking the ball, putting the Warriors on the board with a 40-yard field goal at the 11:49 mark of the second quarter to make the score 7-3.

It stayed that way until the fourth quarter when Chad Winkler intercepted Rozier's final pass with 3:20 left in the game. Bryan Meyer, who didn't carry the ball in the first half, scored two plays later to make the score 13-3. Moll's kick made it 14-3 with 2:55 left.

Meyer finished with 74 yards on 20 carries, all in the second half. Winkler did most of the running in the first half, leading the Indians with 86 yards on 19 carries.

Nick Janet had an interception and Ben Favier had the final interception and also blocked a punt.