ST. VINCENT SEEKS RETURN TO CLASS 1A TITLE GAME

PERRYVILLE -- It may seem a bit out of the way, but the road from St. Vincent High School to the TransWorld Dome in St. Louis goes clear to the Kansas border.

One game away from making its second straight trip to the Class 1A state championship game, No. 2 St. Vincent will play at No. 1 Rich Hill today at 1:30 p.m.

The Indians can almost feel the burn of the artificial turf."You talk about it and that's what you're working toward," said St. Vincent coach Paul Sauer, the Class 1A regional coach of the year. "I think their kids know what's at stake as well as ours do. Our kids have a desire to get back there once they've had a taste of it."But St. Vincent, which barely escaped Greenfield 11-8 last week thanks to a late interception in the end zone by Cory Strattman, has one last hill to climb.

Rich Hill, a town of 1,300 just north of Nevada, Mo. is in unfamiliar territory.

The Tigers (12-0) have never been this deep in the playoffs, usually thwarted by area nemesis Adrian.

Rich Hill made it past Adrian 7-6 in its district championship game and is the only Class 1A team in the state with an undefeated record.

St. Vincent would like to change that.

But it won't be easy.

Rich Hill, like St. Vincent, has a balanced offensive attack. It has a quarterback, Ryan Rapp, who has thrown for more than 1,200 yards this season and a running back, William Wetter, who has run more than 1,200 yards.

St. Vincent quarterback Jonathan Paulus has completed 82 of 145 passes for 1,214 yards. And though Mark Gotto leads the Indians with a less-than-amazing 863 yards this season, the team has run for a cool 1,978 yards.

Like St. Vincent, Rich Hill has a good kicking game. And both teams have good defenses.

On paper, the two teams look evenly matched except in two categories size and depth.

Freshmen included, the Tigers have just 24 members on their roster, while St. Vincent lists 66. And St. Vincent, though not a huge team, will have a definite size advantage at the line of scrimmage.

But lack of size -- both on the roster and on the line -- hasn't prevented Rich Hill, which knocked off Crest Ridge 15-14 last week, from winning this year."I'd say 85 percent of our kids never get off the field," Rich Hill coach Jery Cornelius said. "It hasn't been a disadvantage so far, but it could be this week with them having 66.""For the most part, we've tried to (use our numbers advantage) all season long," said Sauer. "But it's supposed to be cool and those kids are in good shape. I don't know if we'll be able to wear them down. Greenfield was in the same boat last week and we didn't wear them down. At this time of the year, adrenaline will carry them."As for physical size, the biggest player on Rich Hill's team is 218 pounds and is only one of two players over 200. And Wetter is just 5-foot-10, 145 pounds.

But looks can be deceiving."Crest Ridge outweighed our line 85 pounds per person," Cornelius said. "We're used to being outnumbered and outweighed. We're in the Western Missouri Conference, which we consider one of the toughest 1A conferences in the state. Usually one team from our conference goes to state. And in our conference and in our area, we feel we're stronger than any team pound for pound. We spend a lot of time in the weight room."Rich Hill runs out of an "I" formation or a split backfield and usually goes with two tight ends.

Rapp has completed 75 of 130 passes this season (58 percent) for about 1,200 yards. He scatters the ball among four equal receivers, Cornelius said. Rapp had better be on top of his game if the Tigers are to have a chance. The Indians' defense has picked off 15 passes this year, while allowing just four touchdowns through the air.

Defensively, Rich Hill is led by senior linebackers Floyd Kennedy (6-1, 187) and and Andrew Diehl (5-10, 192)."Both of those guys are real good," Sauer said. "They really fly to the ball."Speaking of flying to the ball, St. Vincent has held its opponents to just 7.3 points per game.* St. Vincent left for Rich Hill on Friday. On the way, the Indians stopped at Westminster College in Fulton to practice.

Westminster, a Division III College, is where Scott Pingel, a St. Vincent graduate, shattered every major NCAA receiving record."We thought we'd break up the trip so we're not riding on the bus so long," Sauer said.* Though Rich Hill is ranked No. 1 by the Missouri press, Cornelius doesn't put much stock into the polls. In fact, he thinks St. Vincent should be ranked No. 1."We have alway regarded the ranking as meaning absolutely nothing," he said. "We're the only undefeated team, but we don't play St. Vincent's schedule so I think they should be ranked ahead of us. That one loss St. Vincent's got (to Class 3A) doesn't mean much."* Speaking of schedule strength, Rich Hill plays an all-1A docket with the exception of one 2A opponent. St. Vincent played four Class 3A schools and a Class 2A district champ this year.