St. Vincent dominates tuneup

~ The Indians enter district play with the same record as last year.

PERRYVILLE -- This time, when St. Vincent coach Keith Winkler looked around for players to plug into the lineup, it was a good thing.

"I need a right guard!" he yelled as he assembled a second-team lineup in formation near the sideline early in the second half.

He eventually was able to get even a third-string unit on the field in the Indians' 49-12 homecoming rout of winless Grandview on Saturday afternoon.

The Indians, who have battled injuries and made position changes during a three-game losing streak, hope they got back on track in their final prep before Class 1 district play begins. St. Vincent is at Chaffee on Friday night and will carry a 3-4 record that is identical to the one it had last year when it won the district and reached the state quarterfinal round.

St. Vincent runningback C.J. Pavlovsky jumps over Grandview's Zach Holschen as Donnie Clark attempts to pull him down during the fourth quarter of their homecoming game on Saturday, October 13, 2007. (Aaron Eisenhauer)

"We've struggled a little bit with our consistency offensively and defensively," Winkler said. "We'll be consistent for four or five plays in a row and then we'll give up a big play or fumble the ball. Today, we took a step in the right direction."

The Indians did give up a big play -- a screen pass that turned into an 81-yard run and cut the score to 14-6 in the first period. But St. Vincent's starting defense did not yield much else.

And the offense, with running back Eli Hoeckele back after he suffered an ankle injury in the first half of the Week 4 loss, racked up 389 yards.

Hoeckele rushed for 162 yards on 19 carries and scored four touchdowns. He did reaggravate the ankle on a carry early in the second half and left the game. But St. Vincent led by 36 at that point.

Winkler expected Hoeckele and quarterback-turned-receiver Justin L'Hote, who has been hampered at times by a shoulder injury, to be in the lineup next week.

Darin Yamnitz, who made his first start at quarterback last week and threw three touchdowns against Crystal City, was 6-of-10 for 95 yards and two touchdowns Saturday.

"We were fired up today," Yamnitz said. "This is awesome [today] with the way things have been going, especially going into districts. We had been playing to everyone else's level, and we've just got to play hard all the way through."

Yamnitz passed 28 yards to L'Hote for the first touchdown of the day, as the Indians took advantage of a 5-yard punt to set up a short field.

After St. Vincent recovered a fumble at Grandview's 16 later in the period, Hoeckele covered the distance in two plays, scoring on a 3-yard run.

St. Vincent answered Grandview's TD with a 58-yard scoring drive. Hoeckele ran 21 yards for the score. He added 3- and 19-yard TD runs on the next two drives for a 35-6 lead.

After Grandview fumbled a direct snap with less than a minute left in the half, Yamnitz passed 16 yards to Josh Rollet for St. Vincent's sixth touchdown.

Sophomore Derek Triller scored on an 8-yard run in the second half.

Grandview scored a late TD when Gary Britton hooked up with Dillion Barnes for their second screen pass scoring play, this one covering 41 yards.