St. Vincent routs St. Pius X on homecoming

A dominating effort led the St. Vincent Indians to a 42-6 win over the St. Pius X Lancers on Friday at St. Vincent High School.

The Indians came into Friday’s contest with heavy hearts following the passing of 2021 graduate Jesse Robinson in a vehicle accident.

“I’ve never had to go through anything like that with losing a player,” Indians coach Tim Schumer said. “Three years ago he was playing in this game. We went to the funeral as a team and celebrated him and made sure his family knew how much he meant to us.”

After a quick defensive stop to open the game, Clayton Gremaud capped off a solid drive giving the Indians a 7-0 lead.

“It shows that our guys are bought in game plan wise,” Schumer said. “It was good to see them buy in and then come out and produce on the field.”

With both defenses posting stops on their next appearances, the Indians found the end zone early in the second quarter as Christian Schaaf channeled his inner Patrick Mahomes with a 4-yard shovel pass to Gremaud for a touchdown.

“Patrick Mahomes or even Brett Favre back in the day,” Schumer joked. “I’ve said before he should have the no. 4 on with a play like that. He’s got a background in basketball, so I’ve seen him do that where the play breaks down, and he’s able to make plays like that.”

Schaaf’s impressive evening continued on the ensuing possession, hooking up with Jacob Schremp for a 15-yard touchdown to push the lead to 21-0.

With things looking bleak for the Lancers, they were able to muster up a late first half score to enter the locker room at halftime 21-6.

“On that drive we gave them two penalties,” Schumer said. “We just had to keep doing what we were doing.”

If there was any window of opportunity for the Indians it was quickly closed as the Indians opened the second half with a kickoff return for a touchdown by Max Wheeler.

“That eased some tensions and gave us some breathing room,” Schumer said. “It was some cushion because it’s just big to get points on the board like that.”

The kickoff return was all the Indians needed to get going as just 4 minutes later, Cruz Reitzel found the end zone from 11-yards out to make it 35-6 Indians.

Schaaf connected with Simon Barber from 25-yards out for one final touchdown to expand the Indians lead to 42-6.

All evening long the Indians defense had their way, stifling the Lancers’ run game.

“We played our assignments sound,” Schumer said. “You have to stay focused to make sure you’re doing your job.”

Not only did the defense have their way, the St. Vincent offense took control in all facets in the win.

“I just thought up front we did a tremendous job of taking care of the different looks they were giving us,” Schumer said. “We had a little bit of room to run, so we had to take care of that, and then we were able to open some things up.”

Friday’s win also served as a big conference win for the Indians, a motivating factor heading into Friday’s contest.

“It always is (motivating),” Schumer said. “It was one game, but it’s a big game.”

St. Vincent (4-3) hits the road at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 13, to take on Grandview.

“We just need to stay focused,” Schumer said. “Can’t come off too high on a win. You just have to go back to work during the week and make sure you’re prepared for another big conference game.”