Top-ranked Maplewood routs St. Vincent

ST. LOUIS -- Maplewood entered Friday night's game against St. Vincent as the top-ranked team in Class 2 in Missouri.

The Blue Devils likely will remain atop the state poll after a convincing 42-0 victory over the Indians at Maplewood.

Blue Devils quarterback Les Williams threw for three touchdown passes in the first quarter alone, and St. Vincent never was able to challenge the rest of the way.

"Maplewood is a very good team," St. Vincent coach Keith Winkler said. "They have a lot of quickness and are well coached. But we need to be more consistent on both sides of the ball. We had five motion penalties tonight, and for the second straight week, we had trouble with tackling. If you miss a tackle or two against a team like this, they are going to make you pay."

Maplewood actually scored its three first-quarter touchdowns in a span of just over four minutes. Williams hit three different receivers, connecting with Erick Robertston for a 10-yard score, Bryant Allen for a 77-yarder and Charles Brooks for a 41-yard touchdown.

Three of his first four completions resulted in touchdowns. The touchdown to Allen was about a 5-yard pass and 72-yard run by the talented speedster after the catch. The Indians missed a couple of tackles on that play, and it was off to the races for Allen.

The Indians defense kept Maplewood off the scoreboard in the second quarter, but the Blue Devils defense was able to score. Adam Bingham sacked St. Vincent quarterback Darin Yamnitz. The ball came loose and was scooped up by Devin Lindsey, who ran in 10 yards for the score and Maplewood had a 27-0 halftime advantage.

St. Vincent had a couple of scoring opportunities in the opening half. The Indians were helped by a pair of Blue Devils personal fouls that resulted in the first two first downs of the game for St. Vincent, but the Indians turned the ball over on downs.

Allen fumbled a punt on his own 30 with 1:25 to play, but Williams came up with the big defensive play, intercepting a Yamnitz pass inside the Blue Devils' 10-yard line with 13 seconds left in the half.

The Indians were able to keep Maplewood out of the end zone with the help of a Blue Devils penalty that negated a long touchdown run by Allen then a dropped pass in the end zone on the first drive of the second half.

St. Vincent had its best drive of the game as it was able to accumulate three first downs. But the drive started on its 3, and the Indians never got out of their territory.

Maplewood got the ball back and needed just two plays to score, with Allen running the final 40 yards for his ninth touchdown of the year.

Williams would tack on his fourth touchdown pass of the game in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter.

"I think we played hard tonight, but we did not play with discipline," Winkler said. "We made too many mistakes against a good team. We just have to keep our heads up and keep fighting. Success does not come to those who wait."

St. Vincent, which will host St. Pius for its homecoming game Friday at 7:30 p.m., fell to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in the Mississippi Area Blue Conference.

Maplewood improved to 4-0.

St. Vincent 0 0 0 0 -- 0

Maplewood 21 6 8 7 -- 42

@z_agate_no tab_no indnt_bld ld:First quarter

M -- Erick Robertson 10 pass from Les Williams (kick failed), 5:19

M -- Bryant Allen 77 pass from Williams (Timatheus Hicks pass from Williams), 2:48

M -- Charles Brooks 41 pass from Williams (Scott Criscione kick), 1:10

Second quarter

M -- Devin Lindsey 10 fumble recovery (kick failed), 4:37

Third quarter

M -- Allen 40 run (Lindsey pass from Williams), :17

Fourth quarter

M -- Bryton Hobbs 8 pass from Williams (Criscione kick), 10:17