St. Vincent gets routed in Catholic showdown

STE. GENEVIEVE — Whatever plans St. Vincent had for Friday night's showdown with rival Valle Catholic, the first 5 minutes resembled nothing close to them.

It was more like coach Keith Winkler's worst nightmare.

Valle took advantage of two St. Vincent fumbles and a surprise onside kick to build a four-touchdown lead during the first 5 minutes, 16 seconds en route to a 46-7 victory.

The Warriors, who last week beat state-ranked Class 3 team Ste. Genevieve in the city rivalry game, improved to 2-1, while St. Vincent fell to 1-2. The game was the Mississippi Area Football Conference Blue Division opener for both teams, one-time Class 1 district rivals who have been in separate pools since 2006.

"We had a bunch of errors to begin with," Winkler said. "Take nothing away from them, they played hard. When you make mistakes against a good team, they're going to make you pay, and we found out that tonight."

Valle jumped all over St. Vincent's mistakes with quick strikes from a spread offense installed this season. The Warriors had four touchdowns before St. Vincent took its second snap.

"That was crazy. I've never had anything like that happen before," Valle quarterback Michael Greminger said. "It helped us out and really helped us relax."

After the Warriors took a 7-0 lead with a 10-play, 70-yard opening drive capped by Greminger's 1-yard plunge, St. Vincent fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Valle's Nick Brown recovered at St. Vincent's 25-yard line. Two plays later, Greminger passed 28 yards to Jason Blum for a touchdown.

St. Vincent held on to the ensuing kickoff, but fumbled the handoff on the next play, and Blum recovered at the Indians' 30.

Five plays later, Valle had a 19-0 lead on Garrett Kertz's 1-yard run.

The disastrous stretch for St. Vincent continued when Aaron Basler's kickoff sliced off his foot and was recovered just inside the sideline at the St. Vincent 39 by Zach Weiler. A similar play last week was a turning point in Valle's win against Ste. Genevieve.

"The exact same thing happened last week, so maybe teams are going to have to start practicing it," Valle coach Judd Naeger said. "We're not going to practice it because we don't mean to do it."

One play later, Greminger delivered a well-placed pass to Kertz, who made his way through the secondary for a 39-yard scoring play.

St. Vincent in less than 5 minutes surrendered more points than it had in the first two games combined.

Adding insult to the rout, St. Vincent had what would have been a 68-yard touchdown pass from Darin Yamnitz to Aaron Dzik on the first play of the next possession wiped out by a holding call.

After that, St. Vincent picked up no yardage on three plays and punted. Valle responded with a 52-yard scoring drive, capped by Greminger's third TD pass, for a 32-0 lead.

Greminger finished the first half with four touchdown passes and added his second TD run in the third quarter on a 51-yard keeper. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound junior passed for 152 yards and rushed for 101, as Valle posted 371 yards of offense, including negative yardage with substitutes in for the last 21 minutes.

Sophomore running back Luke Uding added 113 yards on the ground.

St. Vincent scored its only touchdown in the first quarter, which lasted 45 minutes.

Justin Eggers set up the scoring drive with a kick return to Valle's 17-yard line. A pass interference call against the Warriors moved St. Vincent to the 6, and Yamnitz scored on a 1-yard keeper on third down.

St. Vincent finished with 94 yards of offense, including all 57 yards of passing offense in the second half.

Yamnitz was 3-for-14 passing for 43 yards and an interception. He left the game with an injury, but Winkler expected him to be available next week.

Backup quarterback Tim Schumer, a freshman, was 1-for-4 for 14 yards, and was able to get an extra snap when officials gave the Indians a series with five downs to end the third quarter.

Dylan Moll led St. Vincent on the ground with 15 yards on seven carries.

"We just weren't able to get where we wanted to go offensively and defensively, and a lot of that had to do with them," Winkler said. "Right now, we're going to watch the film and we've got to fix what we're doing. It doesn't matter what anyone else is doing. We have to fix what we're doing and get ready to play."

St. Vincent 7 0 0 0 — 7

Valle 32 7 7 0 — 46

@z_agate_no tab_no indnt_bld ld:First quarter

Valle — Michael Greminger 1 run (Zach Weiler kick), 9:00

Valle — Jason Blum 28 pass from Greminger (Weiler kick), 8:31

Valle — Garrett Kertz 1 run (kick failed), 6:54

Valle — Kertz 39 pass from Greminger (Weiler kick), 6:44

Valle — Nathan Geile 6 pass from Greminger (PAT failed), 3:09

St. Vincent — Darin Yamnitz 1 run (Aaron Dzik kick), :50

Second quarter

Valle — Blum 9 pass Greminger (Weiler kick), 1:12

Third quarter

Valle — Greminger 51 (Weiler kick), 9:17