PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- St. Vincent coach Nathan Rowland could breathed a little easier Friday night after watching the Indians biggest offensive outburst of the season.
St. Vincent (2-6) recorded a season-high 237 total yards, had four takeaways and committed just six penalties for 50 yards, the fewest number of penalties it has had in a single game all season.
St. Vincent sophomore running back Riley Riehn led the Indians on offense with three touchdowns and 102 all-purpose yards in a 28-7 win over Grandview (2-6) on Friday night at St. Vincent Stadium.
"Like I've been saying this whole year, a young team like we have with a lot of starting sophomores has to improve in everything that they do week to week if we want to win," Rowland said. "But it doesn't just start with them, as a coaching staff the way we coach improves every week. We've been waiting for everyone to do their part, and I think having a great week in practice really helped us transition that onto the field tonight."
Grandview committed 12 penalties for 95 yards in the loss. The Eagles built many promising drives throughout the game, but those were often stalled often by penalties.
"I'm not going to say what I really want to say because I really just feel like screaming at this point, so I'll leave at this -- a lot of penalties, way too many of them," Grandview coach Mike Henge said. "... We didn't do some things that we needed to do to take care of business, and it's kind of hard when everything you do gets called back."
Grandview and St. Vincent converted just one first down each in the first quarter, but Tyler Monier provided a spark of momentum for the Indians in the second quarter.
With 7 minutes, 31 seconds to play in the first half, the sophomore intercepted Grandview quarterback Sam Huskey on the Eagles' 30-yard line. Monier got a couple blocks from his teammates and raced into the end zone to give St. Vincent the lead. Cole Steinbecker tacked on the extra point for a 7-0 advantage.
"They faked a jet and ran verticals, we picked up on that and the ball just kind of fell into my hands," Monier said with a laugh about his first career interception return for a touchdown. "Our noseguard (Alex Lappe) came in and chopped a guy, who was probably going to get me, so that was a big block to clear the lane for me."
St. Vincent had a chance to extend its lead before halftime when sophomore quarterback Joe Whistler found a wide-open Trevor Lieble running down the left side of the field with 7 seconds remaining in the half.
Lieble had a clear path to the end zone, but the ball slipped between his hands and fell to the wet field for an incomplete pass. The Indians converted a frst down on the next play and crossed midfield two plays later, but failed to score and carried their 7-0 lead into halftime.
St. Vincent got the ball to start the second half and wasted little time in extending its lead with a seven-play scoring drive.
Whistler completed two passes during the drive, including a 15-yard pass to Kaleb Schnurbusch on fourth-and-11 on the Grandview 35-yard line. Schnurbusch ran a perfect route 10 yards past the line of scrimmage and picked up five yards after the catch.
Riehn capped the drive one play later with a 20-yard pass completion from Whistler on a bubble screen. Riehn cut past two defenders and scored with 5:07 left in the third.
"We realized that we needed to get outside more because they were blitzing right up the middle on every play," Riehn said. "We chacnged that up a bit a halftime, and it really worked for me and my team."
Grandview took possession from its own 25 after the kickoff, but two plays later the Eagles coughed up a fumble, which was recovered by St. Vincent sophomore Luke Wibbenmeyer on the Grandview 16-yard line.
On the second play of the drive, less than a minute after their previous touchdown, the Indians ran the exact same bubble screen pass to Riehn, who scored from 14 yards out to extend the lead to 21-0.
"That was a good adjustment by coach Rowland to expose us a little bit, and we couldn't adjust to it," Henge said. "I'll take the blame on that one because I coach the defense, and I didn't do a good enough job on that tonight."
Riehn scored his third touchdown of the game on a 31-yard run with nine minutes to play.
Grandview answered with a 10-play drive capped by a 1-yard touchdown run from Cody Douglas.
With under four minutes remaining the Eagles advanced to the St. Vincent 32, but Indians' senior Andrew Naeger intercepted Sam Huskey's pass ending the Eagles last promising drive of the game.
"We're going in the right direction, the challenge will be to stay on course in the coming week," Rowland said. "We didn't overthink things today, we executed the way we should have been all season in the second half. We did some nice things on offense, made some blocks, got through gaps, but it all comes down to our defense and them making big plays and setting our offense up for succes."
Grandview 0 0 0 7 -- 7
St. Vincent 0 7 14 7 -- 28
Second Quarter
SV -- Tyler Monier 30 interception return (Cole Steinbecker kick) 7:31
Third Quarter
SV -- Riley Riehn 20 pass from Joe Whistler (Steinbecker kick) 5:07
SV -- Riehn 14 pass from Whistler (Steinbeck kick) 4:06
Fourth Quarter
SV -- Riehn 31 run (Steinbeck kick) 9:00
G -- Cody Douglas 1 run (Dakota Villmer kick) 5:43
G SV
First downs 7 9
Rushes-yards 34-174 36-132
Passing yards 72 105
Passes 6-17-2 8-16-1
Punts 6-35.3 5-32
Fumbles-Lost 2-2 0-0
Penalties-Yards 12-95 6-50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING -- Grandview, Sam Huskey 16-63, Cody Douglas 10-53, Tyler Billingsley 4-18, Dylan Mitchem 2-4, Cody Ramsey 1-(-4); St. Vincent, Whistler 15-76, Riehn 15-63, Tyler Monier 1-3, Gabe Naeger 6-(-18)
PASSING -- Grandview, Huskey 6-17-72-2; St. Vincent, Whistler 7-15-91-1, Monier 1-1-14-0
RECEIVING -- Grandview, Ramsey 3-29, Douglas 2-19, Josh Clarke 1-24; St. Vincent, Trevor Leible 3-46, Riehn 3-39, Kaleb Schnurbusch 2-20.
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