St. Vincent turns back Herculaneum in overtime

~ The Indians tied the game late in regulation and beat Herculaneum 20-14

The St. Vincent football team tied its game with Herculaneum with about three minutes left in regulation Friday night when sophomore quarterback Joe Whistler completed an 8-yard pass to senior tight end Kevin Mattingly and Jordan Buchheit kicked the extra point.

"And then the drama," St. Vincent coach Paul Sauer said, foreshadowing his team's play before eventually claiming a 20-14 win on the road in overtime.

The Indians' defense came up with a stop at their own 30-yard line on the Black Cats' next possession, but three incomplete passes and a shanked punt led to Herculaneum getting the ball back at the 20-yard line.

"Our defense played really good all night long," Sauer said. "[Running back Dustin] Johnson had went out of the game and he was dinged up. The [Nico] Brown kid really took over and he was, towards the end of the fourth quarter, starting to get where he was getting four and five yards a carry, and our defense -- they stepped it up a notch. They stuffed him on the run three plays in a row and made a great defensive stand."

Herculaneum (1-3) got the ball first in overtime, and St. Vincent (2-2) again stopped the run.

"Even in overtime it carried over," Sauer said. "[Brown] had, I think, an 8 or 9-yard run and then about a 3-yard run by another kid and they got the first down. Then the defense really stepped it up again. I think on first down they stopped them at the line of scrimmage, second down they got a couple and third down they got a couple. On fourth down back to the line of scrimmage was all they could muster."

That paved the way for senior running back Alex Winkler to be the game's hero. He broke free for a 22-yard run to advance to the 3-yard line and scored two plays later to earn his team the victory.

"He's a workhorse," Sauer said of Winkler. "I probably should've started throwing the football earlier in the game and got Kevin Mattingly and a few of the other receivers involved a little more. Alex was getting pretty good yardage running the football. Levi Gotto -- I probably should've gotten him some more carries. I probably didn't call a very good game looking back on it. Fortunately we were able to overcome."

Winkler finished with 166 yards on 32 carries.

Gotto opened the scoring with a first-quarter touchdown and Buchheit's extra point gave St. Vincent a 7-0 lead. Johnson's second quarter touchdown lead to an 8-7 lead for Herculaneum at halftime.

Neither team scored in the third before Brown scored on a 23-yard run early in the fourth quarter.

"It was really big to be able to play a pretty good Herculaneum team, face another really good running back in the Johnson kid and to hold him pretty well in check on the night," Sauer said.

Sauer wasn't pleased with his team's three fumbles in the game.

"If we can clean up some of that stuff I think we'll be a pretty good football team," he said.