ST. VINCENT TOPS EAGLES

FAIR GROVE -- St. Vincent's Indians, who had never won a playoff game until last week, moved into Saturday's Class 1A semifinals with a 21-7 victory over Fair Grove in Monday night's 1A quarterfinals.

St. Vincent, ranked No. 3 in the state, improved to 12-0 with the win and ended the season for Fair Grove at 9-3.

St. Vincent will play host to Adrian on Saturday. Adrian defeated Cass Midway 45-7 in Monday's other quarterfinal action.

Bryan Meyer had three touchdown runs as St. Vincent controlled the action throughout.

The Indians had to drive four hours for the game, but showed little `bus lag'. Upon arriving the Indians promptly began another drive.

On St. Vincent's first possession of the game, Meyer scored on a 6-yard run to cap an eight-play, 80-yard drive. The extra point attempt failed but St. Vincent led 6-0 at the 6:12 mark of the first quarter.

"We couldn't script the opening any better than that," said St. Vincent coach Paul Sauer. "We would have liked to make the point after, but to go down and get a score on the first possession was a big boost to the kids' confidence."

Meyer added a 57-yard scoring burst just 36 seconds before halftime and Pat Brown's conversion run made it 14-0.

St. Vincent piled up over 200 yards rushing in the first half while holding Fair Grove to less than 50 yards.

"They were having a tough time moving the ball all night," said Sauer. "We played solid defense and drove the ball on several occasions but couldn't get into the endzone."

Fair Grove's lone score came at the 4:14 mark of the third quarter. The Eagles had recovered a mishandled punt at the St. Vincent 40 and Jason Johns later scored from 8 yards out. Ben McCains added the extra point to cut the deficit to 14-7.

St. Vincent ultimately iced the game when Meyer scored on an 8-yard run with 3:44 left in the game. Dusty Wengert added the extra point for a 21-7 lead.

"We controlled the football game but it was anybody's ballgame in the last part of the third quarter and well into the fourth," said Sauer.