St. Vincent defeats Perryville by highest margin since rivalry restart

St. Vincent entered the season with high expectations but after an 0-2 start, the Indians found themselves facing their cross-town rivals with their backs against the wall.

“We lost two games by five points," St. Vincent senior Simon Barber said. "We had to bounce back.”

It turns out that's exactly what the Indians needed.

“It’s one of the biggest games of the year," St. Vincent senior Jacob Schremp said. "It’s one of the most hyped-up games other than your district games. It means a lot to our team and hometown.”

Senior quarterback Christian Schaaf scored four touchdowns (two passing and two rushing) and led the Indians to a 49-7 win over the Perryville Pirates on Friday, Sept. 8, at St. Vincent High School in Perryville, Mo.

“It’s a good feeling coming off an 0-2 beginning of the season,” St. Vincent senior linebacker Drake Robinson said.

“The team was doing exactly what they needed to do," Schaaf said. "The line was opening up holes for us to hit and the receivers just got open like they always do.”

The rivalry restarted in 2016 and since then, the Indians have not only won seven of eight matchups, but this year is the second time they scored 40 points or more against the Pirates, and is the largest margin of victory (42 points) of the modern series.

“It’s a big crosstown rivalry," Schaaf said, "and just to put that many points on the board and keep them to only one touchdown, it feels great.”

The Indians set the tone of the game early with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Schaaf to Barber in the first drive of the game.

“It really got us all going," Barber said.

The Indians took advantage of a botched snap that went over the Perryville punter's head and close to the opposite goaline. St. Vincent running back Cruz Reitzel punched it in with a 13-yard touchdown run to make it a 14-0 game.

St. Vincent's third touchdown of the game came on a 17-yard pass from Schaaf to Clayton Gremaud, who is starting to emerge as another offensive weapon for the Indians.

“Last year, I didn’t play much offense, and I didn’t really get to show what I could do," Gremaud said. "After this game, I’m really happy with my performance and team performance and show that we can actually beat teams.”

Perryville finally got on the scoreboard in the second quarter with a 26-yard pass from Rilaynd Graham to Chase Richardet. It's Graham's third touchdown of the season but it was the only time in the game the Pirates saw the end zone.

The Indians' defense improved week by week after giving up 21 points to Thayer at the beginning of the season.

“What let us down is some people messing up their gap-fitting,” Schremp said. “This week, I feel like we met all of our gaps with the right spots.”

The Indians scored four more touchdowns in the ground game. Schaaf scored two rushing touchdowns before passing it off to Eli Abernathy for a score. Gremaud then rounded out the scoring for the Indians in the fourth quarter with a 78-yard rushing touchdown.

“I just followed my blockers and busted outside, Gremaud said.”

The Indians scored more points against the Pirates than their previous two games combined (32). The players agree that this could be the beginning of a run for St. Vincent.

“It’s the start of something great," Schremp said. "I think we’re going to get better and better.”

“I think it’s going to snowball up for the next week,” Schaaf said.

“After this, we’ll have a lot more confidence in what we can do on the offensive side of the ball,” Gremaud said.

St. Vincent (1-2) will put its newfound momentum to the test when the Indians travel north to Herculaneum next week.

The Pirates (1-2), having suffered their second lopsided loss of the season, will need to bounce back at home against Bayless next week.